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Juergen Stryjak
Arkadia
The nineties have been the decade of
the shopping mall in Cairo. Almost in every corner of the
city, the Cairenes have witnessed grand openings of new
malls, many of them architectural nightmares in glaring
colors of baby clothes. Soon the Egyptians invented their
own word for these palaces of consumption: Shopping Mul,
the latter pronounced like the word "fool". I
have not found anyone, anywhere, who could explain to me
this strange kind of derivation.
Apparently, the new millennium won’t see the end
of this shopping mall blossoming. They are the »souqs« of a new
age. Souq is the genuine Arabic word for market, not bazaar, as
many think, and Egyptian malls and traditional souqs have a great
deal in common. First of all the »zahma«, the crush, the large
number of buyers and onlookers, which push each other through the
dense crowd of people. Egyptian malls are meeting points,
especially at days off and holidays, for whole families and
teenagers groups, noisy and vivid, surely entertaining fun for
tourists!
Just recently two new malls were inaugurated: the
Talaat Harb Center downtown, a shining oversized treasure chest in
excessive pharaonic kitsch, seven stories high, which seems to
have landed like an architectural UFO in this area, completely
alien to all other building styles around. And if you know Cairo,
you will know, there are plenty of styles.
 The
second one is the Arkadia Mall ashore the Nile, which clearly aims
at ringing in a new round in the shopping mall arms race. It is a
center of superlatives, managed by Hilton and by far the largest
one in Egypt. More than 500 shops await their customers, along
with an ice rink, which wasn’t working during my last visit
there, probably due to Ramadan, the month of fasting, where people
are used to shopping for some hours in the night. There is also a
huge video wall, which wasn’t working either, maybe because
showing Michael Jackson clips don’t fit the spirit of the holy
month of Ramadan very much either.
The interior is great: imitating Babylon’s
Hanging Gardens on a train station-like flower pot design level,
but it looks nice, walls and ceiling connected by a glassy heaven,
and elevators of glass, which float over the ice rink. You will
have much time to explore the interior design, since you won’t
be able to head straight to certain shops. Always you’ll arrive
at the wrong escalator or get lost in the catacombs between the
shopping windows.
Yes, the shops, what to say about 500 shops. The
visitor will find nearly everything, even a toyshop (Toys’R’Us),
which is surprising for Egyptian shopping malls. Many
international brands have outlets here, Timberland, Adidas, Nike,
Habitat (furniture), as well as their Egyptian imitating
counterparts, for example Armanio – notice the o at the end of
the word! Whilst strolling along the shop windows you will see,
that platform shoe soles have conquered the Egyptian market, after
they ruined the spinal columns of whole generations of Western
teenagers. You can make your inmost secret dreams becoming true
(»Realize your dreams: American Sofas«), or you take a rest in
the food court, worth mentioning, because it not only features the
inevitable international burger chains, you also find Indian and
Chinese snack bars, the famous Abou Shaqra (Egyptian food) and
Nathan’s.
At Cinderella’s, a music shop, I came across a
CD, which I certainly would have purchased, if CDs weren’t so
indecently expensive in Egypt: »Rahil – Egyptian New-Age
Music«. I would love to know what this is, but I’ll wait till I
see the same thing on tape, which will be significantly cheaper,
even if I need to by two of the same – to have, at the end, at
least one works properly.
Arkadia Shopping Mall. Corniche Al-Nil, Boulaq,
Cairo, 300 meters (1000 feet) north of the World Trade Center and
the Conrad International Hotel. Open daily from 10:00 am to 11:00
pm. Don’t expect all of the shops to open at ten on the dot! On
Sunday, some shops may be closed. ATM available (for getting
Egyptian cash by using international credit cards), but most of
the shops accept all major credit cards, too, even for little
expenses.
Talaat Harb Center. Talaat Harb Street, Downtown,
Cairo, near to the Cinema Odeon. Open daily from 10:00 am to at
least 10:00 pm.
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