The new Opera house in Cairo and the Nipon connection

One of my favourite places in Cairo is the new Opera House of the Egyptian National Cultural Center. It is a complex inaugurated in 1988, seventeen years after the Royal Opera House was completely destroyed by fire. The complex is a series of nicely designed and constructed buildings comprising halls, amphitheaters, theaters, galleries and the music library. It is a reduct of peace in the middle of the jungle where to relax, have a coffee and attend some of the many events (we found by chance a Nubian concert):

Beautiful metal sculptures are scattered around; the violinist:

The stone totem:

The metal worker:

And my favourite, the human brain being driven by an angel and a devil that have gone to the head from the lower part of the body walking upstairs :

And here is me sitting with the sculpture of the great Mohammed Al Wahhab:

This whole complex was built in cooperation with the JICA, the Japan International Co-operation Agency. I did not know that the friendship between Japan and Masr was so deeply rooted...i found this Japanese garden close to the orphanage with a lake surrounded by fifty something massive pink sculptures of Buda...

...with a classic high rise building in the background. In the middle of Helwan, being so far away from the city center, is odd that there is this garden where a pagoda with the minaret of the mosque in the background makes an unexpected sign of communion between such two distant cultures:


Furthermore, just opposite to this last photo (around 171º rotation angle for the picky ones) this classic looking building is found:


what to say? wiriwiked! wiked! Helwan is massive...around 2 million people to be exact ;)


zayy el amar awi...