This exclusive club is beautifully situated in the lovely Zamalek area. It caters for just about every imaginable sporting interest with facilities for tennis, squash, judo, athletics, bridge, aerobics and croquet. There is also a super 18-hole golf course. It is quite expensive to join the club: Egyptians pay a large sum for lifetime membership wh...

This exclusive club is beautifully situated in the lovely Zamalek area. It caters for just about every imaginable sporting interest with facilities for tennis, squash, judo, athletics, bridge, aerobics and croquet. There is also a super 18-hole golf course. It is quite expensive to join the club: Egyptians pay a large sum for lifetime membership whilst internationals pay considerably more.

The palm-decked island of Boulak (now Gezira-Zamalek) was added to the vice-regal ciftlik (estate) of Giza during Khedive Ismail's reign. The island's landscaping and nurseries were the work of Delchevalerie, the one time landscaper of the City of Paris. For the Khedive's benefit, a koshk or kiosk was erected in the center of the island, near its eastern shore. It was a few years later, that a U-shaped baroque summer saray or palace (now the Marriott Hotel) was added nearby. The Gezira Palace, as it was originally called, was designed by Julius Franz Pasha and decorated both externally and internally (in part) by Karl von Diebitsch. Completed in 1869, it was used as a guest house for some of Ismail Pasha's illustrious guests who had come to Egypt to attend the opening of the Suez Canal. Among its most noble guests were Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria and Empress Eugenie of France.

While no one knows the exact date when Gezira Sporting Club first opened, 1883 is a good guess, for it is during that time that England consolidated its military hold over Egypt. This hypothesis is confirmed in several, often contradictory, notes from that period. One thing is however indisputable: the club was already a famous landmark by the close of last century as evidenced by guide books and other turn-of-the-century literature. By then it was called the Khedivial Sporting Club (KSC) in honor of Khedive Mohammed Tewfik (r.1879-92). It was during his time and due to his largess that the Club was created for the benefit of the British army and the army of British administrators.

Read full business description »

« Hide full business description