Egypt's iconic Mogamma el-Tahrir building to be transformed into luxury hotel
Work is underway to convert Cairo's Tahrir complex, an iconic government building, into an ultra-luxurious international hotel, according to local reports, in a joint venture between UAE and US companies.
The five-star Cairo House hotel will feature 500 rooms and a swimming pool on its roof, and situated in the heart of the Egyptian capital.
Tahrir - known colloquially by Egyptians as the Mogamma (the 'Complex') - was once the home of much of Egypt's government offices and made famous in the Arab world by the Adel Emam comedy 'The Terrorist and the Kebab', where a hapless Egyptian man confronts the country's notorious bureaucracy.
The building became synonymous with Egypt's vast and often incompetent bureaucracy until the government vacated the building in 2021 and at its height, the 14-storey complex housed some 30,000 government employees in 1,350 rooms. It was allegedly capable of hosting up to 100,000 people.
The new development is headed by an American-Emirati alliance involving Global Ventures, Oxford Capital Group and Al-Otaiba Investment Company, in association with Marriott International and Egypt's Tourism Investment Company, who have invested around $200 million (EGP 6 billion) into the project.