Story – Marina Milad
Pictures of the North Coast – Jalal El-Messiri
Old photos of the beaches of Alexandria – Makram Salama archive
The father reads the newspapers as usual every day. He is attracted by news regarding the “opening of a new village on the North Coast”. The land is still empty, and its fate is not guaranteed, but it has seduced him, especially since he can pay the amount in installments over years. The situation of his existing summer resort forces him to leave it and go away.. The family decides to escape once more and once more. It travels regarding 155 km to the west. On the escape, everything changes, the coast is divided, buildings are formed and with them parallel lives and summer struggles.
About 80 years ago, the journey of the resorts in Egypt began with an aristocracy estimated at half a percent and limited beaches in one city. Then her train continued its relentless journey. And summer vacationers came from all over.. There are now dozens of beaches and dozens of villages.. But their numbering and classification has increased, and the sea is no longer the same.
Kilo 134 west of Alexandria towards Marsa Matrouh – the bodies lie in front of the sea of the village of “Stella Heights” on the North Coast. Crystal blue waters, soft yellow sand, and mild weather on these hot summer nights.
Among them was the family of Hani William, which consisted of a mother and four sons, with their husbands and children. They all came from their home in the Shubra area of Cairo, to spend their first summer in this village, following they recently received their villa there.
The villa was bought by the father regarding ten years ago. When the land had not yet been built, the man with experience in real estate bet a fee for a villa that would later be built, and cost it one million pounds in annual installments.
The father passed away before he saw that his bet had paid off and that space became one of the most expensive areas in Egypt. So much so that it’s in a range classified as “Evil Coast”. His son “Hani” (46 years old), who works as a lawyer, says: “The villa that cost us one million pounds over the years has become 6 million now.”
and in close proximity; Dozens crowded in front of the sea, not to enjoy, but to reserve housing units and villas for the project of the Emirati Emaar Company, the same company that handles projects in New Cairo and the Marassi area on the North Coast.
The required amounts this time start from 10 million pounds and reach up to 100 million. The numbers needed to buy summer homes have sparked criticism and ridicule in a country suffering from an economic crisis and inflation, with a population of more than 103 million, and poverty rates of 29.7% until 2020.
Hani looks at this scene without being surprised by the presence of all these billionaires around him, but he says with a laugh: “The 7 million buyers are poor now!… It’s all comical to me.”
The summer years before Stella Heights; Hani spent it in the coast nicknamed “The Good”, meaning the oldest and least expensive villages. Hani remembers those years now, only 63 km away from her place towards Alexandria.
When he was in the village of “Marseille 3”, which attracted them in 2010 for its few units, and its good level at the time – according to what he said regarding it.
That part of the coast called “Tiba” now, starts from the area of Sidi Kerir, then the villages of Marbella, Mohandessin, Al-Rawda, Lotus and Al-Tijari, until Marina 1 and 2. The average price of renting a “chalet” is up to one thousand pounds per day, with the exception of “Marina”, where the price may rise up to 3 thousand.
in Marseilles; The usual resort of the Hani family began to change gradually around them, but their style did not change much with it, says Hani. They still mostly sit in front of the sea in the morning and stay up late together in the evening, but the idea of a swimming pool increased.
Also, with the beginning of the resort’s closure within a village, the idea of an “owners’ group” emerged electronically on social media platforms to discuss the issues of their village, such as the problem of eroding the coast’s beaches, which appeared recently in the villages adjacent to the marina of “Marassi” yacht marina, and the Ministry of Environment and other parties took action in this regard.
Through this electronic space, the owners began to announce a hidden growl, and then announcing the encroachment of the tenants on their villages.
over time; “Marseille” did not remain the same, perhaps for this reason or another.. Its atmosphere worsened, and the “swimsuit” did not become normal in the face of the strongly rising “burkini”. Hani’s family – especially her girls – has receded into the pool facing the villa.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back; These are the exorbitant “maintenance differences” that Hani pays every year. As a new path appears before him in 2019, it is the villa of the village of “Stella Heights”, which is ready following years of waiting and installments.
Hani was confused between continuing in Marseille or moving to the new village, but his brothers made up their minds early and insisted on going toward more freedom and calm.
Villa “Marseille” joined the villa of Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed Street in Alexandria, the villa owned by the family and where “Hani” was aware of his first resort and the pre-coastal era, then later abandoned it.
Another 90 kilometers beyond Marseilles, was the beginning of the story for the resort of the Hani family and others.
Alexandria forties.. The city is full of palaces and casinos. Aliens put their fingerprints on everything in it. On the sea side; Its “bajas” are filled with “swimsuits”, and wooden cabins directly overlooking the beach, which were owned by the “high life” class – as they were called at the time.
At this time, the idea of ”summers” began in Egypt, but the summer residents were a very small percentage of the aristocracy, which means the pashas, the beys, and the high officials. That percentage was once estimated by the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser at half a percent – according to what writer Jalal Amin mentions in his book “What Happened to the Egyptians?”
As for the rest of the population, which amounted to 16 million people; Their relationship with the summer resort was to hear regarding him or read his news in the newspapers.
And in the midst of all this; Miami was known as a beach for the rich. An entrance fee of 3 piasters is imposed. The visitors play the games freely, and his girls lie on the sand, dressed as they like, or as Jalal Amin describes them: “They act as if they are on the French Riviera in terms of types of swimsuits, food and drinks.”
As for “Miami” in the nineties version, facing the “William” villa, which leads Khalid Bin Al Waleed Street; He is no longer closed to a certain class as he was, his cabins have been removed, and he has lost his old grandiose image, but his condition has not deteriorated yet.. It is still spacious, one can carry his chair and umbrella inside, and he and his ilk have not been dominated by the concept of renting in its present form.
This time is in Hani’s memory; It was quiet, and nothing in front of the villa prevented her from seeing the sea.
in the two-storey villa; The big family gathers to spend their summer days together, which lasts for regarding two weeks.
No phones, no computers, nothing to occupy them but to spend the day on the sea in Mamoura Beach. And in the evening, their meeting on the balcony is the main scene.. they hang out, play cards or go out to buy food or ice cream.
Hani loved their evening outings, while still captivating the now-over-seventy mother; Their morning time in the quiet world, she says: “It was full of artists, and the girls wore swimsuits and felt more comfortable.”
The globe was formed in the post-1952 years.
A new era has arrived and the last king has passed, and with it the high barriers of the beaches were broken, and people poured on them.
It was a strong justification for the upper class to go far. At this time, a new class is being formed, a class born of the revolution. The Montazah cabins were built with Egyptian names (Aida, Cleopatra, and Semiramis). The first beaches dedicated to it were “Al Mamoura”.
In describing the beach of Mamoura, Jalal Amin said in his book: “He did not say beautiful regarding Miami, but was distinguished by its greenness and spaciousness… But he did not attract only a very small number of members of the old high class, as their habits of enjoyment differed from the rising class.”
As usual for the rich to protect themselves, fees were imposed to enter the world, and the idea of ”Miami” was once more represented… Then the “chalet rent” system appeared. Amin sees this as a “return of the class system,” but Hani did not see the world as a class as it is an opportunity for calm and freedom that the summertime should not waste.
While they fled towards the globe, the old high class was taking their place in the distant beaches of Ajami, which needed a car.. The Khawajas established it as it appears from their names (Hanoville, Bliss, Bianchi).
For the period of university, “Hani” headed towards Al-Ajami as well.. An image of her settled in his memories represented in the Al-Bitash area, which he fell in love with, girls wearing “cash swimsuits”, and a long night in which young men stay up on the open carts.
The resort means, among other things, relative freedom from restrictions… But little by little, the space of the old Ajami resorts has narrowed. Egypt added to its population regarding 26 million people from the 1940s until 1980, and witnessed an economic openness that opened the doors of trade, import and contracting, and expanded sources of money with it.
At that time, Hani’s father was working in the field of real estate construction, and he switched from the idea of leasing in Alexandria from a foreign woman to owning, so he bought an apartment in the Asafra area overlooking the sea at a side angle, followed by Khaled Ibn Al-Walid’s villa overlooking it from all its angles.
Then another source of income increased, which is immigration to the oil country. Many people are now able to become wealthy and head towards Al Mamoura and Al Ajami.
The restriction on summer residents in these areas was not only overcrowding. Rather, the newcomers came with a completely different culture. Said Sadek, professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo, describes this period as “the beginning of society’s division and conflict.”
He demonstrates a scene that took place during his summer resort in the late seventies in the park… when he found two adjacent beaches, one poor and crowded, filled with food utensils, and his summer residents swimming in their clothes, and another wearing a bikini with alcoholic drinks in their hands.
It is true that the religious view rose and the veil spread more, but in Sadeq’s opinion the two main reasons for this new culture are: “migration from the countryside to the cities, and returning from the Gulf countries.”
The direction to the farthest began to loom once more on the horizon.. The village of Marakia was built, the first on the coastal road, and then a marina, which was surrounded by high walls, and its entry required a connection with the owner or a payment of ten pounds. The writer Jalal Amin describes these villages, saying: “It is actually the furthest thing from the village, as it is neither productive nor green.”
But the image of Alexandria as a summer resort has changed over the years. Hani’s family was forced to think of leaving her, and their thinking increased one summer following another.
It was no longer the city they had become familiar with, as its noises and barriers that separated them from the sea became louder. Street vendors surrounded their villa in “Khalid ibn al-Walid”. Others took control of the beaches by renting them from the province, establishing a new order for them.
“We can no longer go to the sea there,” Hani says.
Fights from the balcony spoil their evening, and Hani surrounds his sisters when they come down for fear of harassment. So they set out, like others, towards the new coast; The choice fell on the village of Marseille 3, and then “Stella Heights”.
The severity of the economic crisis in Egypt has escalated, the business community has expanded, and the gap between its population has increased. There is now a summer residence for the poor and another for the rich, and a space for the “burkini” and another for the “bikini”.
The Marina has expanded from Kilo 94 to Kilo 111, divided into 7 gates. It did not last in its high position for long, so new villages followed, of which Jalal Amin says regarding their residents: “A new social class was formed from the wealthy with extraordinary wealth… New beaches had to be built for them, but a new sea was created for them.”
The road to these villages, which “Hani” used to pass by, was empty since he was a young man, and now it surprises him with new towers and hotels every time he passes… He says that they “go up at the speed of a rocket.”
The new “Hani” family villa, adjacent to villages such as Marassi, Hacienda, Amwaj, and others; Where it is prestige and pleasure, and a rent value of up to 15 thousand pounds for one day in a villa, and regarding 8 thousand for an average chalet.
The scourge of this coast is exaggerated in the opinion of Hani, who laughs and says, “He’s really evil.” Although he is now a resident of it, he acknowledges his “classism and seclusion, and that it is filled with annual conflict between tenants and landlords” – according to his speech.
As for its prices, it is another matter, which “Hani” is trying to overcome by going to the Sidi Abdel Rahman area, as there are average prices. However, he spends at least a thousand pounds per day on his small family of four.
Perhaps the loud and disturbing nights for him are a continuation of the “evil” of this coast.. Youth parties abound on the beach, next to the big stars’ parties, some of which require wearing white clothes and fabulous sums.
Hani and his family did not integrate into this atmosphere. Then he looked at that village with an investment view other than entertainment.. That’s when a person working in the field of real estate advised him regarding the importance of every inch of the coast, so he bought a “chalet” in the same village, to rent it at a price of three thousand pounds per day.
The summer has its charm and fun. So are his stories. Hani knew many of them on their trip to the resort, in which they set out for kilometers over and over once more, as if the waves were pushing them forward. He knew people, societies, and ideas.. He formed memories, in the midst of which the Alexandria resort remained.
This is in contrast to his two sons (12 and 15 years old), who know no resort other than the coast, and have never had anything to do with it.
His phone rings, and he finds new offers for more distance.. This time to the Ras Al-Hikma area, which is formed as a tourist area near Marsa Matrouh.. Playing on the strings of calm, freedom and luxury seems to be unstoppable.. Hani is currently wondering regarding the idea, but his idea may change and he will not Stella Heights will be the end of the trip in the coming summers.
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