Customer Reviews

Cairo Illustrated

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was born in Cairo, by Italian parents,and I must say that Mr.Haag has done a superb job in going around and discovering all these fantastic places.I saw some, but not all.Indeed it has fascinated me the way he pictured them,and wrote about the locations that he saw.Through his own photographic eye.
This book is particularily interesting if you are a woman and would like to visit some of the old mosques, but cannot go to Egypt.It is very hard to go into the mosques as a foreign woman.It is a treasure of art to see.Also some other pictures represent street scenes which are absolutely great.Everywhere you go to Egypt, you will never have the same picture again.One because the peopleare in constant movement,and second the light changes whether it is during the morning or at sunset.The sunsets are just breathtaking,and it also affects the photography and the scene that you are depicting.
Mr. Haag goes around easily being a man, and it is more difficult to go in certain coffee places when you are a woman.You cannot go infact.
Enjoy this book he has done a superb job.

For a person like me who has been to Cairo many times, this book offered me the chance to look at my favourite place once more. For those of you who have never been to Cairo and want to see what it looks like, I think this book gives you a good idea. Very nice pictures, I recommend it!

The pictures are fine, and the text, although limited, is interesting. The only problem is that neither can do justice to the city. Photos are inadequate to describe the scope and depth of the place, and text, however fluent, has a difficult time capturing the perspective of it all. There is so much to Cairo, as in any city really, that nothing can represent it fully on the page.
This book, however, does give a lot of information about Cairo through both media, and while not a substitute for "being there" is a good descriptive source for people who cannot or will not go to see the living thing.
It is with strong nostalgia and anticipated return that I look through my copy of Cairo Illustrated and am able to revisit the places and recall many of the sensations of my life there. It is a valuable reference, dream enhancer, and memory prod to me.
Herbert L. Smith, author, "Cairo: The Mother Of The World"