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The Katameya Heights club is what westerners would recognise as a country club. It has a tennis centre, swimming pools, a health and fitness centre, a crèche, a medical clinic, in fact everything that opens and shuts.
In golfing terms there’s a par-72, a nine hole par-35, a double ended practice range with target greens, a golf academy and all the usual in-house facilities, including seven restaurants and bars, plus caddies, carts and pull trolleys. The opulent clubhouse would win awards anywhere and visitors are made most welcome.
The course is set on undulating country in one of Cairo’s more desirable suburbs and there are 250 or so swish villas on the high points. Living here wouldn’t be too onerous.
It’s a most unusual course on two counts: the first is that it resembles a British moorland course, heavily undulating and with sparse foliage; the second is that it was designed by a Frenchman, Yves Bureau. He obviously knows his onions. It’s another beauty.
The elevation changes are quite marked and because of this lots of shots are “up” although several are in the reverse. Rising ground in the tee shot landing areas helps stretch the course, too, but the greens are superb. If you can putt and know something of course management you’ll have great fun. The views from the high ground are a bonus. Don’t forget your camera.
A hectic schedule precluded our seeing the other city courses but they came highly recommended by the American editor of Egypt’s national golf magazine, to whom I am indebted for the potted history.
THERE is only one golf course at Luxor but it is well worth the journey and in any event you’ll want to see the ancient relics that attract millions of visitors every year.
Those with an appreciation of history will find The Valley of The Kings totally beguiling. The valley is a series of tombs, cut into the sand stone hills, that house the remains, preserved for their journey to the after-life, of those whose dynasties ruled Egypt centuries before Christ was born.
Each tomb is individual in design, a series of highly decorated rooms off a long tunnel-like corridor that leads to the last resting place. They’re virtually apartments, somewhere for the departed monarch to pause while awaiting his call to the other side.
You’ll gather how large they are from a fascinating tale I heard on the tour. It concerns BMW, the German auto company, whose executive wished to stage a launch function with a difference. So they hired one of the tombs for the night and entertained 200 guests to dinner while a string ensemble and a trio of vocalists performed excerpts from the opera “Aida”.
I can’t say that dinner in a tomb would hold much appeal but it’s impossible not to admire such elan!
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