where the soldiers are in Zamalek

On the whole, Zamalek is barely militarized. I’ve noticed two main exceptions.

The major exception is the Libyan Embassy, for obvious reasons. There are soldiers at every intersection near it (it’s an unusually large Embassy/yard that eats up a lot of city space, as well as armored personnel carriers.

The minor exception, interestingly enough, is the Chinese Embassy. That one is another space-eating monster, a huge complex that stretches on endlessly. There are soldiers in desert fatigues with automatic weapons outside that Embassy, too. And I would guess that their presence was requested by the Chinese themselves, which is interesting in its own right.

And in the sake of fairness, let me add that by far the most monstrous space-eater of all embassies in Cairo is that of the United States. It’s a gigantic fortress complex in the heart of the city, and the closing off of the surrounding streets post-9/11 has had a noticeable negative effect on downtown Cairo traffic flow.

A few other embassies of geopolitically harmless countries, such as the Dominican Republic, are so tiny you can’t even see where they are. You just see the guard outside in his booth with the Dominican flag painted on it, and the Embassy must be inside the apartment building he sits in front of.

The Swedish Embassy looks like a Lutheran Church, and there are a few others like that which are barely guarded.

But then, along with Libya, China, and the U.S., another monster Embassy is the North Korean Embassy across the street from Libya’s. The highlight of that one are all the color photos of Kim Jong-Il engaged in various activities, in the display case on the outer wall.

Incidentally, I used to be a regular reader of the North Korean news service web site. My favorite news about Kim Jong-Il was that he had just played golf for the first time and scored 11 holes-in-one on the 18 holes. This was shortly after he finished composing his Fifth Symphony, by the way.