Cairo Zoo through the eyes of a tourist
What is associated with Cairo?
First of all, of course, the pyramids and the National Egyptian Museum. It is to them that hundreds of buses go, bringing crowds of tourists from all countries. There are several other attractions (Citadel, Coptic quarter, etc. ) that are also regularly visited by tourists. A lot has been written and told about this, so the story will be about a completely different remarkable place in Cairo, namely the Cairo National Zoo.
The zoo is larger than Moscow or Kyiv. It is called the Giza Zoo and, as you might guess from the name, is located in the Giza area. You can get to it from Medan Tahrir Square (where almost all regular buses come from Hurghada or Sharm) in 10-15 minutes and 8-10 pounds. If you are not a fan of extreme driving in local buses (jump in almost on the go, get out the same way), then you have one option - a taxi.
After the taxi dropped you off at the entrance with the inscription "Giza Zoo" you need to buy a ticket. This year there was an unpleasant innovation - the price of the entrance ticket was changed. Last year, 2009, the pleasure of seeing animals cost us 1 pound, this year the prices are: children - 1 pound, adults - 2 pounds and for non-residents of Egypt - 20 (!!! ) pounds. The large plaque on the wall left no room for ambiguity. No words... It's not even about the money, but just a shame for such an approach. For about five minutes he beat himself with his heels in the chest and proved that Egypt was my home for me, but the adamant Arab woman at the box office did not deign to lower the price. In principle, there are several other entrances, and I'm sure that I would have agreed there cheaper, but there was no desire to do this.
Then you can move in any direction - it's interesting everywhere. The zoo has a large collection of lions and other large cats. They are fed in the morning, so they are sleepy and phlegmatic until lunch, becoming active only in the evening. Activity is expressed in the fact that they begin to roar and "sort things out. " The sounds are indescribable! Ringing in my ears! By the way, it was a revelation for me that a huge lion hisses at a zookeeper who is disturbing him like an ordinary cat. A huge number of photographers wander around the lions, offering a photo session with any animal, while demonstrating colorful photos. This pleasure costs from 15 pounds to infinity (depending on your appearance). Our view didn't seem to be very good 8-), so they offered to take pictures for 20 pounds. You can agree with them, or you can send them away (because they are just intermediaries) and approach any employee of the lion coop and he will arrange a photo shoot for you for 5 pounds per person. The photo shoot consists in the fact that you can take a picture next to a large lion (which, of course, is in a cage), a panther and a leopard. It’s just that if you simply take pictures from the outside, then behind the two rows of bars you can hardly see the animals, and just half a meter away from you is the king of beasts. He is sleepy and non-aggressive, but still turning his back is not very pleasant. Then lion cubs weighing 15-20 kg are driven out to you and you can pick them up and take a picture. After that, you need to fight off the plaintive lamentations of the servant with a request to add money and you can go for a walk further.
For Arabs, a zoo is not just a place where animals are collected, it is a place for business meetings (I myself have seen Arabs in business suits arguing with documents in their hands), family vacations (many families come there for the whole day) and school excursions. Children are allowed EVERYTHING! Crowds of kids have just not turned out their pockets, but they ran around us and looked at us with interest. My wife and I were photographed on less than animals, and several especially brave girls were photographed with their wife on their mobile phones. I don’t know why (most likely due to the high cost of photographic equipment), but the Egyptians take pictures of everything on their phones. Seeing a camera in an Egyptian's hands is a whole event. What was even more amazing was that very often the people they met smiled and greeted: “Welcome to Izhipt! Verse Yor Country? I feel bad for us. . .
We bought cabbage and carrots in advance to feed the artiodactyls, but the zoo employees did not allow us to feed them. Why it was forbidden, I realized later - the animals were hungry and for a pound it was offered to feed them with a piece of carrot. And here we are, with our food on an industrial scale ; -). We still fed them, sometimes secretly, sometimes ignoring the disapproving exclamations of the ministers. When I need to, I immediately forget English, and I just don’t understand what they say to me. I said to one particularly zealous one: “Mohammed allowed it! ”. Given that this is the most common name in Egypt, I was not mistaken - the Egyptian immediately left...
A HUGE number of cats live in the flamingo enclosure. Offhand, I counted about fifteen. All of them (birds and cats) carefully caught something in the water. Which I haven't considered. In general, there are a lot of cats in the zoo, they climb in all enclosures, with the exception of lions and monkeys.
Artists work throughout the territory, painting the faces and bodies of children with all kinds of drawings. If you want to be a vampire - no problem, a cat, a horse, a batman - five minutes and ten pounds and you're done! A couple of times they twitched when something terrible, in bright colors, ran out from under their feet.
There are many animals, it makes no sense to describe them all - it must be seen. The great apes disappeared somewhere - gorillas and orangutans (there were last year). But there was plenty of monkey fry - ten species for sure.
Beautiful and extraordinary trees grow throughout the area. It turns out a kind of hybrid of a zoo and a botanical garden. Some trees seem to have been transferred here from the Avatar movie.
Numerous tents with all sorts of food will not let you die of hunger, the prices are quite democratic 1-5 pounds for a briquette of something sweet.
In general, four hours is the minimum program to visit this place. And you will get positive emotions for a much longer time...
