Egypt Travel & Tourism - 1940's

[newcastle]

The strangest things pop up on my FB newsfeed.

Here is a short film extolling the delights of Egypt in the 1940's (I noticed the date MCMLI = 1951)

Cairo...with trams, horse racing and a casino. Shepheard's Hotel....and , of course, rather different fashions!

Some interesting footage of early work on the reconstruction of Karnak.

The narrator's over-excited Americanese grates...but you can't have everything! I much prefer the 'plummy' English tones accompanying the Nile cruise videos posted recently.

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[Horus]

Thanks for posting that Newcastle, as soon as I heard that initial soundtrack it took me back to the kind of film and documentary that first stirred my lifelong interest in ancient Egypt. It may just be my nostalgia, but it seemed to be a better place back then and more exotic, it is wonderful to see so many places in the film and to realise that eventually I was able to visit many of them. Seeing the Temple of Hathshepsut in the background scene of one shot and the reconstruction of Karnak recalled that long ago yearning to go there which eventually I did, I just wish I had seen those camel trains passing the Pyramids and the Nile bridge in Cairo.

[newcastle]

.... it seemed to be a better place back then....

I think many Egyptians would agree

They were poorer, subjected to intolerable colonial oversight etc. etc.... but maybe they were, on balance, happier?

[Winged Isis]

I've got to agree on the American accent, very irritating, as usual.

I don't know about that comment ..."the Egyptian quarter..." I would have thought 99% of Cairo was Egyptian! He made it sound like the minority that really was the foreign quarter.

Those camel trains and sheep herds! Fantastic.

It's a bit all over the place, but a wonderful look at the past.

[carrie]

Enjoyed watching that Newcastle thanks for posting, what a difference 60 years make. Can't help but think sometimes backwards rather than forwards. Must get back to Cairo again soon just to wander the streets, get lost and fulfill a dream a visit to the Museum of Islamic Art, somewhere I always intend to go on my visits but never seem to reach.

[Winged Isis]

It's well worth a visit.