Every year in autumn, enormous black clouds hover over Cairo. They are usually associated with rice farming and are directed towards Cairo by northeasterly winds. According to media reports, GPS systems have been installed this year to monitor waste (...)
Dozens if not hundreds of recipes for gluten-free foods can now be found on the Internet, designed to help sufferers deal with this growing problem. Gluten is found in wheat and other foods, and avoiding it can be quite a challenge. However, with (...)
Heliopolis was built in the early years of the 20th century by the Belgian entrepreneur and amateur Egyptologist Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain. He established the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company to develop the suburb (...)
Ataba, an area of Downtown Cairo on the edge of Al-Azhar and Khan Al-Khalili, is an important commercial area known for its heritage. The buildings and streets are wide, and people feel connected to the area. During the 25 January Revolution, the (...)
Located about 60 km from the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel on the Cairo-Suez Road on the Gulf of Suez, about 200 km from Cairo opposite Ain Sokhna, the city of Ras Sudr was becoming a popular holiday destination in the 1990s when it was known for its clean air (...)
Egyptians have traditionally enjoyed eating food like stuffed vine leaves and stuffed cabbage, both of which are cooked with ghee and butter. We heap our plates to the brim, and even then a guest risks being reprimanded if he has not eaten (...)
Back to the Future, the work of the Remal Foundation which was founded by a group of architects and urban planners in the wake of the 25 January Revolution, is a plan for building Egypt's future on a sound and ethical basis. To develop this vision a (...)
“You can get a metro ticket from here for an extra pound,” said the man on the seat behind me. He then loudly asked the driver on my behalf for a metro ticket, but the driver swore they had just finished. “I've never seen a metro ticket,” another (...)
January 2011 was not the first revolution in Egypt in the last 100 years. Unlike the July 1952 Revolution and the regime to which it gave birth, the January Revolution was not military. It was a civil revolution calling for civil rights and civil (...)
In two exceptional workshops on painting and photography held in Cairo recently, the visually impaired have been drawing on the world around them and on their own internal sense of colour and perspective to prove that the imagination can help to (...)
For a refreshing change, during the past year, 2,700 secondary students in Barageel, an underprivileged area in Giza, were offered a chance to change their mindset. For a long time now, Egyptians have been complaining about the educational system, (...)
Salasel, a three-year UNDP project, has worked on helping small landowners in Upper Egypt to become investors in the agricultural sector by adding value to harvests from very small plots of land. A series of marketing events and field trips to Upper (...)
There is far more to a historic villa than just its walls and floors, argues Abeya El-Bakry
Architects and engineers, students, professors and professionals took to the streets recently to protest against the threat hanging over the Villa Aghion, (...)
As Egypt goes through a period of political and social change, what do children need in order to achieve integrated cultural growth, asks Abeya El-Bakry
One of the questions many parents have to address is how to develop their children's (...)
If teenagers set out to bring change to their schools and the educational curriculum, what chances do they have of success, asks Abeya El-Bakry
Young people in Egypt are sometimes seen as being hard to please, or as not knowing what they want, or (...)
Carlos Valenzuela, chief technical advisor to the UNDP in Egypt, talks to Abeya El-Bakry about the management of elections and the Arab Spring
In an event designed to develop trust among stakeholders taking part in the country's elections, a UNDP (...)
Abeya El-Bakry conveys the views of Egyptian children on sociopolitical transformation
A three-year-old sat on her father's shoulder among the crowds, waving the Egyptian flag and enthusiastically crying Tahya Masr (Long live Egypt); many days (...)
Though reading venues for children exist throughout Egypt, there are still worries about how assiduously they use them, says Abeya El-Bakry
In our memories children reading books tend to be quiet and shy, sitting in secluded corners or in their own (...)
Abeya El-Bakry witnesses the famous Ramadan lanterns illuminating the streets and alleyways of Islamic Cairo
Every year, people wait for Ramadan as the beginning of a spiritual new year and a time to start a new quest for spiritual awakening. In (...)
Orthodox Christmas was celebrated under especially tight security at the Two Saints Church in Sidi Bishr this year, as demonstrators nearby pleaded for peace, writes Abeya El-Bakry
The Two Saints Church in Sidi Bishr, Alexandria, the scene of the (...)
Violence may have seemed to be everywhere in 2010, but the year also saw the development of some significant voices for peace, writes Abeya El-Bakry
Demonstrations against the killing of Khaled Said on the hands of the police
An overview of events (...)
Egypt and Russia's FTA in store
EGYPT and Russia will start negotiating a free trade agreement in 2011. The announcement was made this week by Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid during a press conference with his Russian (...)