The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

We’re all storytellers by nature. We make a narrative out of life, nature, and ourselves. And, of course, we’re naturally inclined towards places with their own stories. It’s why we’re so fascinated by places and buildings that gain value and interest in our eyes most when they come with a narrative. 

This is why Cairo Marriott Hotel is more than just a hotel. It’s a place ingrained within Egypt’s history and has Egypt’s history ingrained within it. Their story started in 1869, a remarkable year in Egypt’s history; the year the Suez Canal was finished and inaugurated. To mark the importance of such an event, Khedive Ismail, then ruler of Egypt, ordered the construction of a magnificent royal palace to house the celebrations and host Empress Eugenie. 

The Khedive made sure the palace had many elements that resembled those she had at her own palace! At a cost of three-quarters a million Egyptian pounds, a royal palace and a garden terrace were built to house European monarchs. The wife of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, was one of them. 

The hotel’s history isn’t just interconnected with the history of arguably one of the most important political and economic constructions of Egypt, nor only a remnant of Egypt’s monarchy era, but is also deeply connected with our history of art. For example, Cairo Marriott Hotel was the first building to hold the performance of Egypt’s first and oldest opera: Verdi’s Aida. 

Opera, however, isn’t the only thing we mean by ‘art’. Architecture, one of the finest forms of art, and a creation that is as tangible as poetry can’t be denied here. Cairo Marriott Hotel is a remnant of a time when Egypt was deeply influenced by neoclassicism in architecture, or at least, when its ruler was. In love with the new and influential European movement back then, Khedive Ismail hired the Austrian architect Franz Bey and designer De Curel Del Rosso (of the Abdeen Palace fame) to design the palace. For interior design, he hired the German Carl von Diebitsch, all to turn his passion into touchable truth. 

Khedive Ismail’s passion wasn’t short-lived either. He loved the place so much that it was chosen to hold the 40-days wedding of his children. The splendour of the palace had the attention of the society’s elites long after him as well. In the 1930s, it held the wedding of prime minister Nahaas Pasha’s daughter, and as part of the wedding celebrations of King Farouk and Queen Nariman’s wedding, a boat party was held in front of the palace. 

Only the Gezira palace remains in its original state today. Many of its rooms and furniture have been preserved and restored to serve as reception rooms, ballrooms, and lounges. It’s difficult to not be in the presence of history wherever you are in Egypt, but in Cairo Marriott Hotel, the case is even more apparent. It peers out at you from the furniture and the decorations that still hold the fingerprints of Diebitsch, who designed them 153 years ago.

You’re probably wondering how it went from there to becoming Cairo’s Marriott Hotel, one of the grandest hotels in the Middle East. Only ten years after its construction, it nearly tumbled into dust and stone under the overwhelming weight of its debts, which led to its confiscation by the state. The Egyptian Hotels Company was the first of many that held the hotel.

Habib Lotfallah, a Syrian landlord who made his home in Cairo, bought it in 1919 for 140,000 Egyptian pounds. Nearly four decades later, as a part of his big nationalisation movement, President Gamal Abd-El Nassar nationalised the palace, and it was then that it transformed from The Gezira Palace to Omar Khayam Hotel. 

It wasn’t even ten years later when the palace changed ownership again and landed with Marriott International. The management restored the original palace and equipped it with all the amenities of a five-star hotel. Nestled between the twin towers, which were built to host accommodation rooms, the hotel stands today with 1,064 rooms. 

This year, Cairo Marriott Hotel is celebrating its 40th anniversary of being part of Marriott International.