Egypt is set to get two new world class hotels in sites that were among the most notorious Cairo slum districts: the Maspero Triangle and Sour Magral-Oyoun, but have been developed by the government into modern, spacious urban areas.
According to two partnership agreements signed on 5 July between Egypt’s City Edge Real Estate Development, on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, and the Hilton Group, the latter would manage and operate two hotels in the two previous Cairo slums.
Signing on behalf of Hilton Group was its Development Director for Middle East and Africa, Sam Diab; and on behalf of City Edge, its CEO Mohamed Eldahan. The signing ceremony, which took place at the government headquarters in the New Administrative Capital, was attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Housing Assem al-Gazzar.
The 260-room Maspero Triangle hotel is expected to open on 30 June 2028. It will be managed and operated by The Double Tree—a Hilton Group brand.
The Sour Magral-Oyoun hotel is expected to open by the end of 2026 with a capacity of 218 rooms and suites, in addition to other facilities including ballrooms, restaurants, a gym and a spa. It will be managed and operated by the Hilton Hotels.
The PM lauded the partnership with Hilton Group. He reminded that both districts that will host the new hotels were once crime infested slum areas but, through huge efforts by the government, have been transformed into modern areas “that give us great pride”.
Maspero Triangle sits on 75 feddans of land located in the triangular area between Cairo’s Nile bank and the city’s central squares of Tahrir and Ramses. For years on end it was a slum area until the government undertook a project to develop a big part of it. The development, which started in 2019, involved 40 feddans, and divided the area into three main regions: commercial, entertainment and residential. For the development project to be implemented, the area had to be evacuated of its residents. The government gave them the option of modern alternative housing, monetary compensation, or moving back to the area once the works were completed.
Magral-Oyoun is the district around the 14th-century acqueduct that was constructed to carry the Nile waters up from the river to the Saladin Citadel which was built in the 12th century on Muqattam Hill southeast Cairo. Before the aqueduct was built, the citadel’s water supply had come from the well known as Bir Youssef.
Today, much of the imposing aqueduct structure remains intact, including the water intake tower where water was lifted some 10 metres high through waterwheels operated by oxen. The aqueduct itself is an archway that was built highest at the water intake spot on the Nile bank, and increasingly lower until it reaches the citadel on top of the hill, running through a 3km-path.
Over the years and centuries, the area surrounding the aqueduct grew to be increasingly overcrowded. Having hosted Cairo’s old tanneries, the area ended up a slum which in the 20th – 21st centuries was home to some 2000 families who mostly worked in the tanneries.
In 2018, the government adopted a project to develop the area, restore the aqueduct to its previous historical glory, and place it on the tourist map.
To develop the area, the government built alternative modern tanneries in Robeiky—an area between the Cairo-Ismailiya Road and the Cairo-Suez Road—and provided housing for Magral-Oyoun families in Badr City not far from the new tanneries. The 95-feddan area of Magral-Oyoun was used to build 79 residential buildings with the capacity of 1924 apartments and 18 commercial units, as well as commercial, administrative and hotel complexes, an open-air theatre and a huge parking space.