The Canal: Maadi Album, pt. 5

August 6, 2006

The town of Maadi was laid in 1905.. a speculative real estate investment. Cutting through the town was a canal named the Khashab Canal. It was bordered with eucalyptus trees. In his book Maadi 1904-1962, Samir Rafaat gives the following portrait of the canal in the years following 1929:

By now, the eucalyptus trees had matured, and the canal remained in perpetual shade, with the occasional streak of sunlight piercing through... In summer, groups of young Maadiites practiced their Tarzan routine, swinging from one bank to the other with the help of long ropes dangling from the tall trees. Occasionally they would miss and end up in the canal. [82]

Rafaat briefly notes also that the canal was "disused" in the 1960's and then filled in. Today this canal looks to the pedestrian like a long park:

You can still make out the aging eucalyptus trees lining the two sides of the park.. and with your imagination you have to add a narrow canal running between these rows.

At times walking along the overgrown and ragged park, one comes across odd remains, such as the above bridge over nothing. It must have been a pedestrian bridge over the canal.. certainly it has no function now.