It may be the 21st Century but the City of Cairo has a long and rich history going back thousands of years. In more recent history this country of the pharaohs has been invaded by the ‘insufferable dwarf’ Napoleon Bonaparte and the Nazis in World War II. On the banks of the Nile is the Garden City region of Cairo and it is here in 1841 that the Hotel Shepheard opened its doors under the administration of Samuel Shepheard.

With visitors such as the Agha Khan, Winston Churchill, and the explorer Stanley amongst many other famous names and faces, the Shepheard Hotel has become an international institution. The hotel is now home to the Al Gadeed Casino, under the direction of Michel Claeys of International Group of Gaming & Resorts, and designed a couple of years previously by the architect Willy Gomez. Michel Claeys, a Belgian, has administered casinos in the Middle East for nearly twenty years, including in the Lebanon from where he had to leave with only the clothes he stood up in when the war there became insupportable.

On the banks of the Red Sea and the foot of Mount Sinai, along the Road of Peace from the Sharm El Sheikh airport, is another of Peruvian Willy Gomez’s casino designs. This time the architecture has drawn from its Arab heredity both inside and out, but the lighting and fountains with eye-catching guardian canine statues is pure Gomez whose casino-designing career started at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas.

The casino is directed by Brian Beetham who started in gaming at Crockfords in London, and its clients come from all over Europe and the Gulf. The casino design is on a par with the best on offer in Las Vegas and each night there is a live entertainment show. Sharm El Sheikh is a safe and almost crime-free paradise for the modern tourist, and today will host the high-level summit attended by the leaders of Palestine and Israel in a further pursuit of peace. (E-02.08.05)

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