Photo: Seb_Belacqua

There is no such thing as quiet in Cairo. This is not a city relax in, the buzz, energy and boisterous culture demands all of your attention all the time. Noise is endemic to the metropolis. Turn signals are nonexistent, giving way to road communication in which each signal involves the blaring of a horn. As you walk down the streets of Downtown, men yell from stalls, demanding your attention, buy this, buy that. Bicycle bells ding as walking men with trays of pita balanced on their heads make kissing noises to warn others they are coming through

Noise Awareness Day should be mandatory in this city. To celebrate on my own, I escaped to my bastion of serenity: the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Downtown campus bookstore. In the heart of Downtown, right off Midan Tahrir, the noisiest part of the city, behind a grimy beige gate, the red and white arches of AUC provide relief from the sun and cacophony of Cairo’s myriad of sounds.



Walking into the campus, you have to leave an ID at the gate. The guards will ask where you are going, “bookstore” will get you through. Follow the path and turn right, the first doorway into the building called the Hill House will get you into the bookstore.

The cool breeze of the air-conditioning in the medium sized room of books on most subjects under the sun is calming. Books in English line the walls, bright and crisp with un-cracked spines and provide refuge in a city of shouted Arabic. Meandering the aisles, you can find anything, books are priced for international sale (i.e. not cheap), but I never go to buy.

The beauty of the bookshop is I have frequently removed a book, sat down on the floor, and perused at length without ever being asked to leave. I have never seen anyone else do this, but perhaps my presumptive actions and its’ infrequency has prompted the salesmen to leave me to my solitary page flipping.

Otherwise, you can always purchase the book and walk out to read on one of the chairs outside on the campus’s lush green grounds or simply cross the street and sit in any of the air-conditioned cafes dotting the road.


Photo: Qujecit

Like a good power nap, after 20 minutes inside the shop, I stepped out into the street. Bracing my ears the obligatory horn honk, sure enough there it was.

“#%^$!!!!!!!!!!” I thought to myself, but if there’s one thing you can always rely on in Cairo, it's noise.

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY TAHRIR SQUARE CAMPUS; 113 Kasr El Aini St; Cairo.