Egypt Cairo Tower

The Al-Qahira (Cairo), a megacity which houses Africa’s only subway, is the continent’s largest city. The city is home to numerous monumental edifices. Aside from the great pyramids which had been built over 4,500 years ago, there are several modern architectural masterpieces in Cairo, Egypt.

The Cairo Tower, a famous city landmark, just recently underwent extensive repair and renovation after almost 60 years since it was first built. This posed an unusual and difficult challenge as the tower’s exterior is decorated with over 8 million porcelain mosaic tiles. Each tile needed to be replaced and several other repairs had to be made.

 The renovation contract which involved changing the mosaic, repairing the plaster, cleaning the granite, and checking the structure’s integrity was awarded to the Arabian Construction Company.

European standards had to be met for the monumental task of renovating the Cairo Tower. The Arabian Construction Company enlisted the services of the Eczacibasi Koramic Yapi Kimyasallari, a Turkish company, and Wacker, a German company, to help with all renovations required.

The Cairo Tower offers visitors the best view of the beautiful city of Cairo. Located just north of the Museum of Modern Art, the Cairo Tower offers a great view of the city’s modern and ancient sites.

Standing at 187 meters, the Cairo Tower takes up the appearance of a lotus plant and is fourth highest tower in the world.

Entirely made of granite, a favorite material of ancient Egyptians, it is approximately 45 meters taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The Cairo Tower was the late Egyptian president’s, Gamal Abdul Nasser’s, favorite place to dine. He would often bring his family to enjoy a meal at the tower’s restaurant. Rotating at an inconspicuous pace, the tower’s honoring book carries the signature of all notable persons and VIPs who have ever visited it. These signatures had also been engraved on the tower walls.

Katherine Hepburn, the famous Hollywood actress, was one of the Cairo Tower’s first visitors. This was during the time when American-Egyptian political relations were not so solid. The building of the tower was actually financed by the American government but was not exactly how they expected Nasser to use the funds given his government.