Summary
Cairo, Egypt - Country overview
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Riding the Cairo carousel.
"Welcome in Cairo!" Egyptians say sympathetically to foreigners dazed by the city's chaotic streets, echoing the civility that impressed Herodotus more than two millennia ago. And what streets! Traffic lights are erratically spaced and in any case are commonly ignored by 60,000 taxi drivers whose horns speak a distinct language: two beeps signal a lane change, one warns unwary pedestrians, all sounded at drag-race tempo. Don't pause while weaving across streets, visitors are cautioned, just keep moving. Still, during ten days in Africa's biggest city, currently numbering 17 million inhabitants, we never encountered an accident or even an outburst of road rage. As motorists, Egyptians earn high marks.
We found this true even in potholed back alleys, sized for donkey-carts but nowadays choked with delivery vans, motor scooters, darting teenagers, limping beggars, and the odd policeman who feigns ignorance of the ensuing bedlam. I...See the full content of this document
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