Cairo: Until very recently, many pedestrians and motorists passing through the bustling Opera Square in central Cairo were not aware that the area boasts a 19th century architectural gem.
Built in the 1860s, the Continental Hotel overlooks three main streets in the Opera Square, once named after the Cairo Opera House that was gutted in a major fire in 1971.
The hotel stands opposite the famed Azbakiya Botanical Garden set up in 1872 on a stretch of 18 acres.
The area is also known as the Kedival Cairo, referring to the part of the city that was transformed under Khedive Esmail, who wanted the Egyptian capital to look like Europe. Esmail ruled Egypt for 16 years beginning in 1863.
The Continental was built as part of Egypt’s celebrations marking the 1869 inauguration of the Suez Canal, according to historians.
The building has since stood as a witness to Egypt’s dramatic changes.
It was the venue of the declaration of Egypt’s independence from Britain in 1922. King Farouk, Egypt’s last monarch, used to come to the hotel and enjoy the panoramic view of the area from the terrace.
After falling in decline and going out of business since the early 1990s, the hotel drew public attention only this month after Cairo authorities unveiled a plan to pull it down it in order to make room for a new hotel and a glitzy shopping mall.
The demolition order came in response to a request from its owner, the state-run Egyptian General Company for Tourism and Hotels that cited the current decrepit condition of the hotel for the controversial move.
“The building is dilapidated, threatening a humanitarian disaster until we demolish it,” Mamduh Rutab, the company’s deputy chairman, said.
Parts of the Continental were destroyed and rebuilt after a massive fire ripped through central Cairo in January 1952. The renovated hotel was later reopened for business by a member of the Free Officers, a group of young military who toppled the monarchy in Egypt.
The building suffered again in 1992 in a big earthquake that struck Egypt. The ceiling of the hotel’s ground floor collapsed last year.
The envisaged demolition is part of a 1 billion-pound (Dh208 million) scheme to construct a 250-room hotel that will still keep the façade of the old one. The process is scheduled to take three years. It is not clear yet when demolition will start.
The old hotel is listed among Cairo’s architectural landmarks, but not a heritage site due to the numerous changes the building has undergone over the years.
“This hotel is listed under the category C of Law No 144 for the year 2009 that designates buildings of distinct architecture, but allows their demolition and reconstruction of inner parts on condition the facades are kept in order to preserve architectural harmony of the surrounding area,” said Mohammad Abu Seda, who heads a governmental urban landscaping agency.
“The decision to demolish the Continental was taken because the hotel includes rickety parts and ceilings that pose a serious threat,” he added.
The demolition plan has triggered a big controversy.
Egypt’s leading archaeologist Zahi Hawass is among the outspoken critics.
“The Continental is part of the heart of historic Cairo and must be preserved,” Hawass told private television station Al A’sama. ”Such hotels all over the world are not demolished, whatever their status.” He called on authorities to scrap the planned demolition and instead restore the hotel.
Online activists have meanwhile slammed the envisaged reconstruction of the hotel, calling it a “crime against history”
“Officials should stop distorting our history and learn a lesson from the Opera Garage,” wrote a critic named Sameh on Facebook. He was referring to an eyesore multi-storey garage that replaced the burnt-down Opera House, a few metres from the Continental.
“How can we destroy an invaluable part of our history in the name of renewal?” posted another critic named Marwa.
“Any other country would have not waited for so long and left such a historic hotel, visited by famous personalities, to fall victim to neglect,” she added.
Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British military officer known as Lawrence of Arabia, is known to have stayed at the Continental in 1914.
Another celebrity was Lord Carnarvon, who funded the excavation of King Tut’s tomb in Luxor.
In 1925, Egypt’s then King Fouad I arbitrarily dissolved the parliament hours after its inauguration session. In defiance, the lawmakers met and announced that the dissolution decree was invalid. Their meeting place? Where else, but the Continental.
