The Old and New Mix at an Ancient Crossroads

Cosmopolitan is the word to describe this city that has been crossroads for the African, Arabic, European and Asian worlds since more than 2,500 years before Christ.

Cairo with its 12 million people is a great metropolis that overpowers you with the beauty and majesty of its pyramids, Sphinx, Nile and museums. Then it brings you down to earth with grubby buildings, chaotic traffic, dirt-laden cars abandoned everywhere and sidewalk potholes one would expect only in some undeveloped country’s shabbiest village.

Cairo mixes all the color and vitality of a North African bazaar with the mind-boggling tumult one always encounters there. Half souk, half city is as good a description as any.

Walk the streets and pass stalls selling huge mounds of red dates, vendors in caftans offering leis of jasmine, craftsmen tapping away as they fashion filigreed jewelry and trays of silver, gold, copper and brass.

Take a break by sipping an aromatic coffee or tea in one of the innumerable cafes, preferably one with a view of the minarets and domes of a mosque, or the ethereal grace of a felucca gliding along the Nile.

Here to there: Fly TWA with a change in New York, European and Middle Eastern carriers with home-country stops. Planes land at nearby Heliopolis, buses running every half hour to major hotels, a 15-minute run with no traffic, or an hour during rush hours.

How long/how much? It can be done in three days with a lot of pressure, four being much better. Lodging and dining are very reasonable.

A few fast facts: The Egyptian pound was recently valued at 70 cents, making your dollar worth about $1.43. December through May is best time for a visit, other months the temperature can border on 100, but life is kept bearable with practically zero humidity.

You’ll be tipping constantly, so keep your pocket full of piasters, 100 to the pound, for the expected baksheesh. Most cabs don’t have meters, so establish the price for your destination before getting in.

Friday is Egypt’s holiday, with many businesses and offices closed. And you’ll need a visa to enter the country.

Getting settled in: Shepheard’s Hotel (Cornish El Nil; $45 B&B; double) is the town doyenne, long associated with just about everything going on here from 1841 until 1952 when it burned. The new one, to those of us who didn’t know the old, seems to have an air of old Cairo about it: gorgeous checked marble floors in spacious lobby with antique urns, plants, handsome bar overlooking Nile. Large rooms in muted colors, many with balconies over river, palatial baths.

El Borg (El Gezira; $25 double B&B;) is a huge place a step off Nile, a bit worn but neat. Most bedrooms with balconies, new baths, crisp linens. Restaurant, coffee shop and terrace on 10th floor, management and help most friendly.

Mena House (by Giza Pyramids; $61 to $72) goes back almost as far as Shepheard’s, having been built in 1869 as a hunting lodge for Napoleon III’s Empress Eugenie. The place is palatial from marble walls to intricately carved and gold-painted wood everywhere. Three marvelous restaurants for continental, Egyptian and Indian dining, ultra-plush bar with Pyramids staring at you through its windows, 40 acres of rolling lawns and gardens.

Regional food and drink: Fool, or foul, is a fava-bean dish that seems to rank first in Egypt, fool midammis is a chili-like version often served piping hot at breakfast. Cooked-vegetable salads almost always start a meal--various combinations of peas, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, zucchini and garlic, all spiced in an interesting way.

Kebabs or braised pigeon stuffed with crushed wheat are popular main courses, as are seafood and bamia, okra between layers of lamb or beef baked with onions, garlic and tomatoes. Omar Khayyam is a good red wine, beer not too bad, but otherwise stick to bottled water at all times.

Moderate-cost dining: Felfela (15 Hoda Sharawi) is a rustic and typical place serving every Egyptian specialty. Reed roof over a long dining room, 13 kinds of fool, five of taamia (falafel fried bean balls), 11 grills from quail to kebabs. We both found the taamia marvelous, dawoud pasha (meat balls in a rich sauce) and baba ghanoung (baked eggplant with sesame sauce) equally toothsome. Our bill with beers was $5.50

Kababgy el Gezirah (beside Sheraton Gezirah Hotel) is a pleasant terrace restaurant right by the Nile that grills almost everything: pigeon, kebabs, kofta and various meats. Homemade pita bread from an outdoor oven, brisk service, altogether satisfying.

Arabesque (6 Kasr El Nil), a deluxe Egyptian restaurant with Moorish decor, is considered one of Cairo’s finest. Elaborate lamps hanging above tables, heavy dark furniture, a thousand-and-one-nights feeling that mirrors its name. A broad menu of international dishes, service wildly attentive.

Going first-class: Sheraton has two excellent hotels in town and one at the airport, Hilton a monumental edifice right on the Nile, Marriott a beautifully restored palace with acres of grounds, all in the $80 to $100 range, as luxurious as you could want.

On your own: Given the city’s transportation woes, your best bet is a city tour or tours. Be sure that they take in the most famous mosques, Islamic Cairo, the Egyptian Museum, Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, Pyramids and Sphinx, the last two with spectacular evening sound and light shows. Then go back by cab to those places you particularly enjoyed. A dinner cruise down the Nile, complete with a shipboard belly dancer or two, is a pleasant and scenic diversion for $14.

For more information: Call the Egyptian Tourism Authority at (415) 781-7676, or write (323 Geary St., San Francisco 94102) for a brochure on Cairo, another on travel around Egypt. Ask for the Cairo Package.