Cairo 1928

Call of Cthulhu XCOCX Boston 1920 XCOCX Egypt

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Introduction

Cairo and Egypt are very much a part of international life and gossip in the 1920’s. Few people are unaffected by the romance and glamor attached to the ancient pharaohs of Egypt.

The opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922, and the breathtaking beauty of the treasures within, sparks a wave of Egyptomania that washes over the entire world. Egyptian jewelry is worn by flappers and dowagers alike; men wear tarbouches to work on Wall Street and smoke hashish from nargeeleh water pipes. The animalistic motifs of ancient Egyptian art are blended with the clean lines of Art Nouveau to create whole new interior decorating styles.

Archaeologists flock to the Valley of the Kings to take part in excavations that can make or break a career. Many others gather there to share the excitement of the daily uncovering of more treasures of the past. Many artisans make fortunes from copies of tomb items sold as genuine artifacts. Others make a fortune fro mstealing and reselling artifacts to private collectors.

The interest in Egypt extends to secret societies, who incorporate ancient Egyptian rituals into their ceremonies and attract many of the gullible with promises of ancient magics and eternal life. Many send representatives to visit Cairo and Egypt in order to gain the secret knowledge of the ancients.

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, profits from the attention of the rest of the world. Tourists fill its hotels and its bazaars. However, the 1920’s are a time of turmoil, with frequent riots and political killings. Egypt is in the transition between British rule and self government. Members of rival political parties fight each other in the streets.

Travelers visiting Cairo in the 1920’s are thrown into the middle of a powder keg of political intrigue in a city of ancient romance. This is a time rich in high adventure, a time of anarchy gradually becoming order. It is a time when guns can be carried openly in the streets by Westerners, but are forbidden to locals.

Amid all the chaos is the allure of the city of Cairo itself. This is the city of the Arabian Nights, a city with a storyteller on every corner and and jugglers and snake charmers plying their trade. It has the largest bazaar district of any in the world. This is a city of danger in storybook style, where white slavers still kidnap young foreign women, and respectable Cairene women travel the streets veiled and swathed in secrets.

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"There is no shortage of variation and frightful noise in this ancient city. Swirling colors and riotous smells suffuse all corners. Excitement, intrigue and death wait for those who are not wary. Cairo is as dangerous as it is intriguing" --Forsyth Von Ruggen

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Climate

Egypt and Cairo are dry and hot, with typical desert conditions. It is only the presence of the Nile River that makes Egypt inhabitable. It almost never rains. Days are almost always sunny, clouds rarely appear, and nights are crisp and cool with the infinite stars blazing overhead.

In the desert the sun becomes the travelers’ worst enemy. They are scorched and desiccated by day, with temperatures commonly 110° (42° C). By night they are chilled to the bone, with temperatures drop ping to near freezing when skies are clear.

The high season for tourists in Cairo is late autumn to early spring: November to the end of April. Temperatures during this period are comfortable, and breezes flow in from the desert every evening. This is the season for archaeological digs, for Nile cruises, for dancing all night beneath the stars.

In summer the richest Egyptians move to Europe to escape the endless heat. Summer in Egypt is a time of long rests between midday and late afternoon. All shops close during these hours, and locals rest at home in tiled courtyards cooled by the spray of central fountains. This is the best time for painters and photographers to visit Egypt and Cairo. The light has an incredible clarity and shadows are crisp and sharp. In the cities, days are hot and often oppressively humid. Clothes become drenched in sweat; the slightest exercise is exhausting.There is an almost audible sigh of relief from the inhabitants of Cairo when the stifling heat of the day turns to the cool of the night.

Average Temperatures in Egypt (Day/Night) in Fahrenheit

---	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn
Alexandria	69/51	80/58	86/69	86/62
Cairo	69/51	90/51	96/68	89/57
Luxor	79/42	103/50	107/72	103/54
Aswan	79/49	103/57	108/77	103/51

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Geography

Cairo is located in northern Egypt, known as Lower Egypt, 165 km (100 mi) south of the Mediterranean Sea and 120 km (75 mi) west of the Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal.[154] The city lies along the Nile River, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region. Although the Cairo metropolis extends away from the Nile in all directions, the city of Cairo resides only on the east bank of the river and two islands within it on a total area of 453 km2 (175 sq mi). Geologically, Cairo lies on alluvium and sand dunes which date from the quaternary period.

Until the mid-19th century, when the river was tamed by dams, levees, and other controls, the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo was highly susceptible to changes in course and surface level. Over the years, the Nile gradually shifted westward, providing the site between the eastern edge of the river and the Mokattam highlands on which the city now stands. The land on which Cairo was established in 969 (present-day Islamic Cairo) was located underwater just over three hundred years earlier, when Fustat was first built.

Low periods of the Nile during the 11th century continued to add to the landscape of Cairo; a new island, known as Geziret al-Fil, first appeared in 1174, but eventually became connected to the mainland. Today, the site of Geziret al-Fil is occupied by the Shubra district. The low periods created another island at the turn of the 14th century that now composes Zamalek and Gezira. Land reclamation efforts by the Mamluks and Ottomans further contributed to expansion on the east bank of the river.

Because of the Nile's movement, the newer parts of the city—Garden City, Downtown Cairo, and Zamalek—are located closest to the riverbank. The areas, which are home to most of Cairo's embassies, are surrounded on the north, east, and south by the older parts of the city. Old Cairo, located south of the centre, holds the remnants of Fustat and the heart of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, Coptic Cairo. The Boulaq district, which lies in the northern part of the city, was born out of a major 16th-century port and is now a major industrial centre. The Citadel is located east of the city centre around Islamic Cairo, which dates back to the Fatimid era and the foundation of Cairo. While western Cairo is dominated by wide boulevards, open spaces, and modern architecture of European influence, the eastern half, having grown haphazardly over the centuries, is dominated by small lanes, crowded tenements, and Islamic architecture.

Northern and extreme eastern parts of Cairo, which include satellite towns, are among the most recent additions to the city, as they developed in the late-20th and early-21st centuries to accommodate the city's rapid growth.

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History

Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo under Isma'il Pasha (r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernisation processes started by his grandfather. Drawing inspiration from Paris, Isma'il envisioned a city of maidans and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo, came to fruition. Isma'il also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighbouring settlements, by establishing a public works ministry, bringing gas and lighting to the city, and opening a theatre and opera house.

The immense debt resulting from Isma'il's projects provided a pretext for increasing European control, which culminated with the British invasion in 1882. The city's economic centre quickly moved west toward the Nile, away from the historic Islamic Cairo section and toward the contemporary, European-style areas built by Isma'il. Europeans accounted for five percent of Cairo's population at the end of the 19th century, by which point they held most top governmental positions.

In 1906 the Heliopolis Oasis Company headed by the Belgian industrialist Édouard Empain and his Egyptian counterpart Boghos Nubar, built a suburb called Heliopolis (city of the sun in Greek) ten kilometers from the center of Cairo. It represented the first large-scale attempt to promote its own architecture, known now as the Heliopolis style. In 1905–1907 the northern part of the Gezira island was developed by the Baehler Company into Zamalek, which would later become Cairo's upscale "chic" neighbourhood. In 1906 construction began on Garden City, a neighborhood of urban villas with gardens and curved streets.

The British occupation was intended to be temporary, but it lasted well into the 20th century. Nationalists staged large-scale demonstrations in Cairo in 1919,[81] five years after Egypt had been declared a British protectorate. Nevertheless, this led to Egypt's independence in 1922.

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Population

• -- City (0) - Dated census
• -- Urban (0) - Dated census
• -- Metro Area (0) - Dated census

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Government

• -- Fuad al-Awwal, King of Egypt
  • -- Mohamed Mahmoud Pasha -- Prime Minister of Egypt
    • -- Egyptian Parliament -- Suspended on 19 July 1928 for the term of 3 years

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Crime

• Thomas Wentworth Russell, AKA Sir Pasha Chief of Police

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Citizens of the City

• Abd al-Kader Hilal --

• Ayyub Junayd Muhammad: Flat boat captain on the Nile.

• Arif Jabr: Corporal of the Guard at the Warf.

• Howard Carter: -- Archeologist and explorer in Egypt from the age of 16. Starting in 1915 he has sole exploration rights in the Valley of the Kings. He resides at a house just off the road between Thebes and the Valley of the Kings when he is in Egypt, but can occasionally be found at Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. He is usually very shy of publicity, especially after Tutankhamen's treasure is discovered

• Robert Graves (1895-1985) -- Noted British author, historian and mythologist (author of the The White Goddess and I, Claudius). He has a passionate interest in the gods and myths of ancient Egypt, and will frequently be found tracking down the same cults as investigators, not necessarily for the same reasons.

• Jays Bey, Lt. Col. "Kaimakam" -- High up in the Alexandria police force, he has an excellent knowledge of the ancient Greek language, and has conducted a long study of the Greek ruins in and around Alexandria.

• Garth Weder Assistant Museum Director
• Graeme Snyder An employee at the Egyptian Museum.

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Districts of Cairo

City of the Dead

The City of the Dead, or Cairo Necropolis, also referred to as the Qarafa (Arabic: القرافة, romanized: al-Qarafa; locally pronounced as al-'arafa), is a series of vast Islamic-era necropolises and cemeteries in Cairo, Egypt. They extend to the north and to the south of the Cairo Citadel, below the Mokattam Hills and outside the historic city walls, covering an area roughly 4 miles long. They are included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of "Historic Cairo".

The necropolis is separated roughly into two regions: the Northern Cemetery to the north of the Citadel (also called the Eastern Cemetery or Qarafat ash-sharq in Arabic because it is east of the old city walls), and the older Southern Cemetery to the south of the Citadel. There is also another smaller cemetery north of Bab al-Nasr.

The necropolis that makes up "the City of the Dead" has been developed over many centuries and contains both the graves of Cairo's common population as well as the elaborate mausoleums of many of its historical rulers and elites. It started with the early city of Fustat (founded in 642 CE) and arguably reached its apogee, in terms of prestige and monumentality, during the Mamluk era (13th-15th centuries). Throughout their history, the necropolises were home to various types of living inhabitants as well. These included the workers whose professions were tied to the cemeteries (e.g. gravediggers, tomb custodians), the Sufis and religious scholars studying in the religious complexes built by sultans and other wealthy patrons, and the regular inhabitants of small urban settlements and villages in the area. This population grew and shrank according to circumstances in different eras. However, starting in the late 19th century and increasing in the 20th century, the pressure of Cairo's intensive urbanization and its ensuing housing shortage led to a large increase in the number of people living in the necropolis zones. Some people resorted to squatting within the mausoleums and tomb enclosures and turning them into improvised housing; however, these "tomb-dwellers" remained a small fraction of the overall population in the area. This phenomenon led to much media commentary and popular imagination about the condition of those living in the necropolises, linking them symbolically to Cairo's much-discussed overpopulation problems and sometimes leading to exaggerated estimates of the number of people squatting in the mausoleums.

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Coptic Cairo

Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed in Christian tradition that the Holy Family visited this area and stayed at the site of Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga). Coptic Cairo was a stronghold for Christianity in Egypt both before and during the Islamic era, as most of its churches were built after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century.

There is evidence of settlement in the area as early as the 6th century BC, when Persians built a fort on the Nile, north of Memphis. The Persians also built a canal from the Nile (at Fustat) to the Red Sea. The Persian settlement was called Babylon, reminiscent of the ancient city along the Euphrates, and it gained importance while the nearby city of Memphis declined, as did Heliopolis.[2] During the Ptolemaic period, Babylon and its people were mostly forgotten.[3]

It is traditionally held that the Holy Family visited the area during the Flight into Egypt, seeking refuge from Herod.[4] Further it is held that Christianity began to spread in Egypt when St. Mark arrived in Alexandria, becoming the first Patriarch, though the religion remained underground during the rule of the Romans.[5] As the local population began to organize towards a revolt, the Romans, recognising the strategic importance of the region, took over the fort and relocated it nearby as the Babylon Fortress.[6] Trajan reopened the canal to the Red Sea, bringing increased trade, though Egypt remained a backwater as far as the Romans were concerned.[5]

Under the Romans, St. Mark and his successors were able to convert a substantial portion of the population, from pagan beliefs to Christianity. As the Christian communities in Egypt grew, they were subjected to persecution by the Romans, under Emperor Diocletian around 300 AD, and the persecution continued following the Edict of Milan that declared religious toleration. The Coptic Church later separated from the church of the Romans and the Byzantines. Under the rule of Arcadius (395-408), a number of churches were built in Old Cairo.[7] In the early years of Arab rule, the Copts were allowed to build several churches within the old fortress area of Old Cairo.[8]

The Ben Ezra Synagogue was established in Coptic Cairo in 1115, in what was previously a Coptic church that was built in the 8th century. The Copts needed to sell it, in order to raise funds to pay taxes to Ibn Tulun.

In the 11th century AD, Coptic Cairo hosted the Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, which is historically based in Alexandria. As the ruling powers moved from Alexandria to Cairo after the Arab invasion of Egypt during Pope Christodolos's tenure, Cairo became the fixed and official residence of the Coptic Pope at the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo in 1047.

The Coptic Museum was established in 1910, and it houses the world's most important examples of Coptic art.

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Downtown Cairo

Downtown Cairo (Wasat El Balad, "middle of town"), has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt, since the late 19th century.

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El Matareya

This is a district in the northern region of Greater Cairo, east of the Nile, in Egypt.

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Garden City

one of the wealthy residential districts in Greater Cairo. Garden City was developed differently from most of the other neighborhoods and districts

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Gezira

Gezira is an island in the Nile River, in central Cairo, Egypt. The southern portion of the island contains the Gezira district, and the northern third contains the Zamalek district.

Gezira is west of downtown Cairo and Tahrir Square, connected across the Nile by four bridges each on the east and west sides, the Qasr El Nil Bridge, 15 May Bridge, Al-Gala'a Bridge and 6th October Bridge. Under 19th century ruler Khedive Ismail the island was first called "Jardin des Plantes" (French for "Garden of Plants"), because of its great collection of exotic plants shipped from all over the world.

• Gezira Sporting Club (1882), the oldest club in Egypt.
• Al Ahly SC main branch, founded in 1907 by Omar Lotfi as a gathering place for student unions against the British Occupation.

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Heliopolis

suburb outside Cairo, Egypt, which has since merged with Cairo as a district of the city and is one of the more affluent areas of Cairo. Named for the

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Islamic Cairo

Islamic Cairo (Arabic: قاهرة المعز, lit. 'Al-Mu'izz's Cairo'), also called Historic Cairo or Medieval Cairo, refers generically to the historic areas of Cairo

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Old Cairo

Cairo (Arabic: مصر القديمة , Misr al-qadīma, Egyptian pronunciation: Masr El-Adeema) is a historic area in Cairo, Egypt, which includes the site of a

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Education

• Al-Azhar University
• American University in Cairo
• Cairo University

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Hospitals

• Anglo-American Hospital: Gezireh (Doctors Garry, Brown, Pochin, Dolbey, Dobbin and Muirhead): English run and staff
• Victoria Hospital: Between Reine Nali and Wabur el-Mira on Sharia Deir el-Banet (Doctors Hegi, Luchs and Fletcher Barren): German run and staffed, Protestant

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Hotels & Hostels

• Shepheard's Hotel
• Semiramis Hotel

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Landmarks

• Khan el-Khalili

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Money

Egypt uses a decimal currency system. The standard units of currency are the Egyptian pound (£E), the piastre (P.T. 100 to the £E) and the millieme (mill., 10 to the P.T., 1000 to the £E). The £E is a gold coin, the P.T. is a silver or nickel coin (the nickel is more commonly found in circulation), and the mill. is a nickel or bronze coin (bronze is common). Individual coins are also used for the half £E, the double P.T. (2 P.T.), the half P.T. (1/2 P.T., 5 mill.), 2 mill., and 1/2 mill.

Standard rates of exchange during the 1920s vary constantly. Travelers will usually get more for their foreign currency with money changers in the market place than at banks, but they may later find the coins they have been given by street money changers are worthless.

Average Exchange Rates

---	British shillings / pence	American Dollars ($)	French francs / centimes
Egyptian Pounds (£)	20/6	$5.00	25,92
Piastre	0/2-1/2	$0.05	0,26
Millieme	0/ 1/4	$0.005	0,025

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Ruins

• Giza Pyramid Necropolis
• Pyramid of Djoser
• The Temple of Tsaugtuatha

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Secret Groups

• Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah
• Children of the Sphinx
• Brethren of Seth

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Time

Zones

• Noon 12:00 (midday) in Cairo is:
• 2:00 a.m. in San Francisco
• 5:00 a.m. in New York
• 10:00 a.m. in London and Paris
• 11:00 a.m. in Rome
• 8:00 p.m. in Sydney and Melbourne

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Transportation

Traveling to Cairo

Visitors arriving in Cairo will most commonly have reached Egypt by sea, through the Nile Delta ports of Alexandria or Port Said. From both of the ports steam driven passenger and freight trains run frequently to Cairo, the trip taking approximately half a day and costing 13 Egyptian piastres for first class, and 77 P.T. for second class. Many of these trains are run and owned by the steamship companies they meet. Arrival to Egypt by land commonly involves a train journey through Palestine, possibly on the extension of the Simplon-Orient Express.

Travel to Egypt by car is highly unusual, as roads through Palestine to the east and Libya to the west are nonexistent. These areas are more commonly traveled by camel caravans.

Air travel is rare but possible in the early 1920’s, only being commonplace by 1929, with an airstrip being built at Dikheila south of Alexandria in that year. There are infrequent Imperial Airways flights from the Heliopolis Aerodrome to India and London from 1925 on.

Travel from London or New York by sea is via the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, with most vessels stopping at Marseilles and one or two other Mediterranean ports before arriving at Alexandria or Port Said. Most stopovers are of three to five hours’ duration, but breaks in the journey can be made at any of the ports visited, with the voyage continued on the next ship of the same line to visit (this may be three weeks in some cases). Small tramp steamers can be chartered at any port in the Mediterranean at a cost per passenger half that of a liner. The surroundings, however, are far from salubrious and the ship owners are not always above offloading foreign passengers at gunpoint and departing with their belongings.

• Safinat Al-Khitab

To Cairo on the Orient Express

The most common route used for land travel from Europe is the extension of the Simplon-Orient Express, from London to Calais, Paris, Lausanne, Simplon, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Belgrade, Sofia, and ending in Constantinople. From Constantinople a ferry boat carries passengers across the Bosphorus; they then travel by railway to Polis (Syria), where they are carried by automobiles of the International Sleeping Car Company to either Haifa or Jaffa in Palestine. Next is a trip by railway to Qantara East, where they cross the Suez Canal by ferry and board the final train to Cairo.

The trip from Calais to Cairo takes one week in total, with average costs from London of first class 44£/15s/7d, and mixed class (first class London to Paris and to Qantara, second class the rest of the way) 35£/5s/9d. Fares from Calais are two to three pounds cheaper. All of these prices include the sleeping car supplement.

The extension service runs twice weekly from Constantinople, on Mondays and Fridays. The service delivers, as always, the utmost in luxury, with sleeping berths provided even on the automobile section of the journey.

There are silver service meals and fine entertainment; your assigned conductor stays with the group until it reaches the final destination and ensures that you are not bothered by the riffraff in the stations.

Traveling by sea can vary from extremely luxurious (first class on the P&O, White Star, or Orient Lines) to squalid (tramp steamers chartered at any Mediterranean port). The first class traveler is wined and dined and can dance the night away or gamble in casinos among the rich and famous bedecked in evening gowns and dripping with diamonds. The steerage passenger is lucky if he sees daylight from his cabins, and is restricted to the lower dining areas, where the food is adequate but never glamorous. A charter passenger may share the hold with salted fish and rats.

Travel Times

Average sea travel times to Alexandria or Port Said from

• London: 12 days to port plus half a day train trip to Cairo
• New York (also Boston or Providence): 3 weeks
• Mediterranean ports:
• Marseilles: 5 days
• Genoa: 6 days
• Constantinople: 4 to 12 days (direct or mail run)

Average sea passage fares from

• London (UK £): 1st class 38, 2nd Class 24, 3rd Class 16
• New York (US $): 300, —, 160 (2nd class not available)
• Mediterranean ports: (UK £)
• Marseille: 24, 16, 12
• Genoa: 29, 19, 11
• Constantinople: 20, 12, 9

Fares to Port Said are usually 2£UK more than to Alexandria when traveling east, and vice versa when traveling west. Discounted fares are provided by some carriers in the low season of April to August.

Companies providing sea travel services to Egypt (in descending order of luxury and cost)

from London to Port Said

Pacific and Orient Line (P&O) (each Friday)

Orient Line (every second Saturday)

Nippon Yusen Kaisha (fortnightly)

British India Steam Navigation Co. (3-4 times monthly)

Union Castle Line (monthly)

from London to Alexandria

Prince Line (every 3 weeks)

from New York to Alexandria and then to Port Said:White Star Line (monthly)

Ellerman & Bucknall Steamship Company (monthly)

Fabre Line (monthly, via Boston and Providence)

from Mediterranean ports to Alexandria

Sitmar Steamship Company (twice weekly, and SS Ausonia and SS Esperia, Genoa, Naples and Syracuse)

Prince Line (weekly, Constantinople to Alexandria direct)

Khedivial Mail Company (fortnightly; Constantinople to Port Said, stopping at all minor towns)

All of the London and New York carriers stop at Marseilles and Gibraltar; the Fabre Line also stops at Constantinople.

Custom inspections at Alexandria and Port Said are rigorous. and permits are required for firearms and explosives. After 1925 the import and export of drugs is prohibited, with death the usual penalty for traffickers. There is always a chance, however, that the inspector may be bribe-able.

The export of antiquities is usually prohibited, but licenses are available from the Egyptian Museum for genuine items deemed to be of little interest (there is a thriving underground trade in these licenses). On leaving the country a sanitary tax of 20 P.T.and passport duty of 2 P.T. are payable.

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