We Visit the New Capital

Egypt's New Capital is a big deal.  Announced four years ago, and with the first new residents supposed to move in this year, it will be home to 6.5 million residents taking some of the load off Cairo's overburdened city of some 20 million.  New developments are already promoting their homes on signs along the bridges into downtown.


This is the artist's conception of this grand new city.  Let's just say it doesn't look anything like downtown Cairo, much less like our neighborhood in Giza near the Ring Road.

We have heard a lot of criticism.  Many residents of the present capital think the money could be better spent improving their neighborhoods.  Others say that since it is 30 miles out in the desert east of Cairo, it is just too far away from where workers now live.  There is merit to that argument - but many of the government elite already live in desert towns like New Cairo, fifteen miles east of Cairo.  It would be the same distance for them to commute.

I won't be surprised to see the new city filled with people.  But this article promises,"Egypt is planning to make the New Administrative Capital the first cashless city in the country."  Really?  In a country where enterprising folks sell the parking places along street curbs for cash?

In January, The Economist published an article about the New Capital, noting that "Egypt’s still-nameless new capital is grandiose, empty and tightly controlled."

We decided that we should go take a look.

I put the the new Coptic Cathedral into the GPS of my phone as a destination and we headed east.  Magda, the knowledgeable lady in the phone, soon had us making the turn toward the New Capital.


The roads are wide open and traffic is light.


Along the way we noted that New Cairo is heavily promoting their future houses.



There are plenty of new villas and apartments being built judging from the building materials we saw on the move.



In case you are not familiar with the development of a new "subdivision" in Egypt, the first building to go in will be a mosque.  In the case of the New Capital, it is a grand mosque.  We soon saw it looming up ahead of us.



I thought I had taken a pretty good picture until Linda pointed out that I had placed one of the minarets dead square in the line of the dome.  I am sorry about that, dear readers.


They are still applying the finishing touches but we were able to go inside and take a look.


The caretaker of this fine building showed us around.  He said there was room for 6000 worshipers to pray - but this article suggests quite a few more can be accommodated.


It turns out that the upstairs women's prayer area is already too small and will have to be enlarged.


The mosque sees use on a regular basis and on Friday all of the construction companies bus their workers over for the noon prayers.

The woodwork on the doors, the windows, and the holiest areas are all done to perfection and left us impressed with the skill of the craftspeople who put this together.






After touring the mosque we continued along our route to the Christmas Nativity Cathedral.  It is not quite as complete, even though President el-Sisi was already here for the dedication of the cathedral as well as the mosque.  We were not allowed inside the building area so did not get as good a picture as was published here.


We didn't see any signs of skyscrapers or the promised central park, but this residence and club is nearing completion. There are lots of apartments being built and there is probably enough temporary housing to accommodate a North Dakota oil boom town.


As we headed back home - on a six-lane (in each direction) expressway, I thought about what we had seen.  Maybe this is what many cities need - a new replacement with adequate infrastructure from the start.  We will have to see how this one turns out.