ON A TIME MACHINE THROUGH CAIRO

Modern Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is a city that lives in multiple timelines; it is a city of many pasts, and it is a city where the past is never past. The very first day of traversing through its history-steeped streets got me jet-lagged!

- Ananya Ghosh

The chauffeur of the limousine sent by my host for this trip, Four Seasons Hotels, announced that we were crossing the Tahrir Square, jolting me off my much-needed powernap. The urban public space had become synonymous with Arab Spring across the globe after a facebook event turned into 18 days of continuous and unprecedented demonstrations that eventually ended the then-President Hosni Mubarak's autocratic regime in 2011. Social media was flooded with images of the revolution, in fact, it was a revolution that was live-tweeted. Yet, strangely enough, while thinking of Egypt, all that comes to mind are pyramids jutting out from a sprawling desert.

As the car kept moving, from the window I discerned Belle Epoque and Art Deco buildings, many of which house embassies I was told by my chauffer (whose name I couldn't catch and wasn't sure if it would be rude to ask a second time). The name of this area is Garden City and it is one of the poshest and safest neighbourhoods of Cairo, he added.

Although its streets are dimly lit, it had a distinct European vibe. A while later, I spotted a few silhouettes of swanky skyscrapers resembling the skyline of ultra-modern cities like Dubai, albeit less flashy. Soon, the car rolled into the entrance of the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza, my abode for the next three days.

As I entered the 30-story plush building, everything oozed luxury and every member of the staff exuded warmth. It was love at first sight.

Upon entering my sprawling room at the 11th floor, I found an elaborate welcome table which included apart from a warm handwritten welcome note signed by Yves Giacometti, the hotel's Regional Vice President and General Manager, a customised hand-painted papyrus-the ancient ancestor of modern paper-with my name in hieroglyphics! It felt absurd to be holding something invented by the ancient Egyptians in 3000 BC.