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I am so grateful for this excellent coverage.

ok Cairo 2005 March-- staying at the Sheraton Giza right on the Nile... across from my 12th floor room view i can see the Nile and across the street what a six floor building with construction on floors three and four and occupancy on floors one, two, five and six...laundry on the roof with the satellite TV dishes were ubiquitious. wait there is another residence like this one and another and another..all scattered right across the street steps from the Nile.. i read in the newspaper that residences were even throwing their garbage on the roof tops and that one or two bodies had been found here after heated family money arguments of late...the Giza portion of Cairo is in need of some serious repair...Cairo is a really old town that has been built on top of and over since 3000 B.C. The Sahel winds coat everything in a fine grit of sand... nothing escapes it. The palms are grey from it and the diesel exhaust...bad combination. but more important Cairo had been dead since two days after Mubarak ascend to the presidency after the death of El-Sadat [back to the nations Kemet origins] post the Nasser years. Egypt was perhaps most prosperous during the Nasser and el-Sadat years despite the 1967 war. Mubarak has all but stymied growth and development and renewal due to forcing the populace to exist hand to mouth under the assumption that tourist[s] income can add significant income levels --wrong. Especially given the state repression and police like state. Did you note the guard towers along the expressway to the airport at every 0.5km manned with an army officer? I thought the ones surrounding my hotel in Casablanca Morocco were a bit much...Egypt was worst. The current Arabs can not claim historical ties to the Kemet [Black African] pyramids nor any of its grandeur. That belongs to my African brothers of lower Nile Sudanese origins for it was their descendants who migrated to the lower Nile valleys building along the way and ironic as it can be.. the Egyptians-Arab performed a historical disgrace on themselves when the Mubarek government unleased violence against some Sudan refugees in a park back in December 2005... Basic residentials services have become non-existent since all of the military aid the government receives from the west to crack down and contain the islamic brotherhood goes to military and police armaments. Hence, infrastructure crumbles and the populace is left to crumble as well... Dubai, new and petro cash, Cairo, old a centre of one of the last seven wonders of the whole the black African pyramids there is no comparsion between the two cities except that a westerner can get alcohol in either with the calls to prayer. The populace of Cairo has moved from British colonial repression to freedom under Nasser/el-Sadat back to repression under Mubarek.. Dubai does not have this historical course. Also, the artifacts of old that got lifted from Egypt are mostly lodged in the British Museum at present. i wonder what really is the difference between a grave robber and archaeologist except maybe one is working on a PhD.

Most memorable experience in Cairo was not visiting the pyramids but wondering the back streets of Cairo and buying honey from a honey shop and meeting a woman selling pita beard in the gutter on a street corner on a wood pallet. And no, it was not a farmers market section, she was the only vendor on the street whilst foot traffic walked by and the men sat smoking in the front of doorways and shops. Her daily beard [EG pounds] was making pita pockets by hand and selling them for other commodities and goods that was Cairo at work.

PS How good were you at playing chicken crossing the streets with no traffic lights or cross walks in some portions of the city... the school kids had it down since the cars just don't slow nor stop...