The Cairo Tower (, ''Borg El-Qāhira'') is a free-standing concrete

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. At , it was the tallest structure in Egypt for 37 years until 1998, when it was surpassed by the Suez Canal overhead powerline crossing. It was the tallest structure in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

for 21 years until 1982, when it was surpassed by the Nador transmitter in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. It was the tallest structure in Africa for one year until 1962, when it was surpassed by Sentech Tower in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. One of Cairo's well-known modern monuments, sometimes considered Egypt's second most famous landmark after the

Pyramids of Giza The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during th ...

, it stands in the Gezira district on

Gezira Island Gezira is an island in the Nile, in central Cairo, Egypt. The southern portion of the island contains the Gezira district, and the northern third contains the Zamalek district. Gezira is west of downtown Cairo and Tahrir Square, connected acr ...

in the

River Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

, close to

downtown Cairo Downtown Cairo ( "middle of town") is the colloquial name given to the 19th-century western expansion of Egypt's capital Cairo, between the historic medieval Cairo, and the Nile, which became the commercial center of the city during the 20th c ...

History

Built from 1956 to 1961, the tower was designed by the Egyptian architect Naoum Shebib, inspired by the

Ancient Egyptian Architecture Spanning over three thousand years, ancient Egypt was not one stable civilization but in constant change and upheaval, commonly History of ancient Egypt, split into periods by historians. Likewise, ancient Egyptian architecture is not one style, ...

. Its partially open lattice-work design is intended to evoke a pharaonic lotus plant, an iconic symbol of

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

. The tower is crowned by a circular observation deck and a revolving restaurant that rotates around its axis occasionally with a view over

greater Cairo The Greater Cairo () is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate. Its def ...

. According to documents published by Major General Adel Shaheen, the funds for the construction of the tower were originated from the Government of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

through the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

that represented by

Kermit Roosevelt Kermit Roosevelt Sr. Military Cross, MC (October 10, 1889 – June 4, 1943) was an American businessman, soldier, explorer, and writer. A son of Theodore Roosevelt, the List of Presidents of the United States, 26th President of the United State ...

, which had provided around $US1-3 million to

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

as a personal gift to him with the intent of stopping his support for

Algerian Revolution The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) ...

and other

African independence movements The African independence movements took place in the 20th century, when a wave of struggles for independence in European-ruled African territories were witnessed. Notable independence movements took place: *Algeria (former French Algeria), see A ...

. Affronted by the attempt to bribe him, Nasser decided to publicly rebuke the U.S. government by transferring all of the funds to the Egyptian government for the use of the tower construction, which he stated would be "visible from the US Embassy just across the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

, as a taunting symbol of Egypt's, Africa and the Middle East's resistance, revolutions and pride". The book also stated that the General Intelligence Service took full responsibility for everything related to the design and planning work, including the selection of the architect who was assigned to design, the construction work, and even providing the necessary materials for the building with the aim of giving the heroic character of the president. However, its design was controversial as the

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

called it the "waqf Roosevelt" ("Roosevelt's endowment"), which was then mistakenly interpreted by the Embassy of Egypt in Washington, D.C. as the "waqef Roosevelt" ("Roosevelt's erection"). This prompted the Americans to react by calling it "Nasser's prick". Because of that, a local Islamic group issued a

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

to demolish the tower in the 1990s, stating that it "could excite Egyptian women", but this failed to be implemented due to its influence on national history and popularity among the nation and tourists.

Renovation

Between 2006 and 2009, the tower underwent an £E15 million restoration project by the Egyptian Arab Contractors Company. The restoration and repair process cost about 15 million pounds, which included treating and restoring the tower's concrete and adding 3 floors of metal structures at the bottom of the

inlaid with the body, and another floor above the entrance. It also added an

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

staircase and an elevator for visitors, and installation of new LED lighting to improve efficiency. In 2023, during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, a photo of the tower with the Palestinian flag circulated on social media. However, the photo was actually a modified version of a photo taken in 2010. Cairo Tower in 2025

Gallery

File:Cairo Tower Entrance.jpg, Cairo Tower Entrance File:Cairo Tower from below.jpg, Cairo Tower from below File:Egypt-2A-010 - Cairo (2217349050).jpg, Cairo Tower File:Late evening in Cairo.jpg, Cairo Tower at sunset

References

Citations

Books

* *

External links

cairotower.net
tower's official website (requires

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

; in English) {{Authority control Gezira Island Buildings and structures in Cairo Towers in Egypt Lattice shell structures Towers with revolving restaurants Towers completed in 1961 20th century in Egypt Tourist attractions in Cairo 20th-century architecture in Egypt