The Mena House Treasury – Cairo, Egypt (English)

Mornings at the Mena House are tennis or golf; mornings are swimming; mornings are a cup of fresh peppermint tea at the lobby bar. A brisk walk up the ramp to the Great Pyramid is a wonderful morning exercise.

Producing a book like the Mena House Treasury is a matter of years of research, comparable to an archaeological dig. In this case we were chal- lenged to verify an age-old legend: the story that the Mena House was built on the spot where once stood an old Khedival hunting lodge.

The project started right here in Gizah, where we combed the premises for clues to the past. We discovered an ancient door still functioning today, which can be traced back to the year 1885, when today’s hotel was built. We knew that we were closing in on the former hunting lodge, but we were still not quite there. We spent weeks in the archives of The Egyptian Gazette, unearthing dusty old newspaper articles about the early days of the hotel. We travelled to Paris to search the Archives Diplomatiques at the Quai d’Orsay. In London, the Imperial War Museum, usually a great source, came up with nothing. Vienna and Austria’s long-lasting relations with Egypt produced valuable archival material. But still the elusive hunting lodge described in countless books and articles remained a mystery.

One day, the door to the past suddenly creaked open. In an attic in the North of Scotland, in the house of a great-granddaughter of the first manager of the hotel, our torch beams shone upon fading photographs hidden away for over one hundred years. For the first time, we came across an image of the ‘mud hut’. It showed a fine two-storey building, fitting exactly the description of the fabled hunting lodge after various extension. 

The building (right) stood to the North of the first Mena House, about one hundred metres from the famous mosque-shaped restaurant Al Rubayyat. It remained the private quarters of the hotel’s owners and its first manager, Ernst Rodakowski. During the extensions built between 1950 and 1978, the structure was demolished and replaced by one of the Garden Wings of the hotel. The hunting lodge accommodated guests of the Khedive ever since 1869, the year the Suez Canal opened. Mission accomplished; back to the Mena House.

The Mena House always was a destination in its own right. Some used to spend the entire winter here. Most comfortably located, right outside of Cairo and it’s treasures, next to the Great Pyramid, with the fresh and clean air of the desert. At lunch Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Antiques Council of Egypt, confesses that it was at the Mena House that he was nursed back to life after a heart attack.

Evenings are for cocktails. Evenings are for the best Indian food west of Mumbai. Evenings are for barbecues at Oasis beside the pool. Later I sit on my little balcony and gaze at the Pyramid. I actually stare. Every day, every night, I stare at the Great Pyramid, waiting for something to happen.

Every time, I think to discover new shades, new facets in this giant pile of stones. Every time I sit and wait for something to happen, and in the end I realise that eternity is like the proverbial water kettle: nothing happens while you watch. 

The Most Famous Hotels in the World: The Mena House, Egypt

Some of the greatest and most legendary hotels stand in Egypt. The greatest of them all, the Mena House, commissioned us to research and write its history. We were confronted with many legends, interesting stories, a 50 years old history book and the great question: When did our hotel really open? In the shadow of the Great Pyramid we started digging, like Howard Carter in 1922. We didn't find Tutankhamun, but we found the truth.

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 The Mena House Legend
by Andreas Augustin

Andreas Augustin
presents
The Mena House Treasury
the Reader’s digest’ of MENA HOUSE in the series
THE MOST FAMOUS HOTELS IN THE WORLD®

Photographs and sources: The Most Famous Hotels archives, American University Beirut, Claude Stemmelin, the private collections of Eloui Farid and Mahmoud Abdel Kader, the Rodakowski estate, Nina Nelson, Tom Shipley, Xandra Hurlingham, Mohamed Khattab, Francis Amin, L’Orientale; Lehnert & Landrock; The Egyptian Gazette Archives; Al-Ahram.

Special thanks to Sanjiv Malhotra and Rajiv Kaul for making this project possible, Nabil Sobhy, Ann Moukhtar Kortam, Veneeta Rikhy, Kamal Zayton, Atef Goubran, Nagla Sakr, Noha Ihab and last but not least to Ashraf Gabry.

Tarek Lotfy deserves mentioning for keeping track of historical archives

Carola and Florian Augustin for days of researching in dusty archives in Cairo.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the copyright owner.

A history project conducted by
The Most Famous Hotels in the World™
Famous Hotels Main Archives
www.famoushotels.org

ISBN: 3-900692-14-9
© Andreas Augustin

Editorial control: Thomas Cane Carola Augustin

Design Ramazotti Michelangelo