Includes 6 thousand creatures belonging to 175 different families

Giza Zoo: the third oldest within the world and the first in Africa

Inside the cage of monkeys, Samia, those monkeys that came from the "Congo forests", awakened early, not usual, then hurried to wake her sons "Joe" and "Nadia" saying: "Come on, my children, wake up, today is that the Spring Festival.. Come on until You see the human ".... !!

Excuse me, this is often not a mockery, but it's the reality, Since we were young, whenever we wanted to run after weeks, or perhaps months of study, my father would think so think and think, and suddenly he shouted, "We will visit the zoo, boys".

I didn't know what was the connection between that garden stuffed with styles of animals, and therefore the undeniable fact that we were children who wanted to travel for a practise which we relieve the strain of that School, but despite this, we were happy that it had been the sole hope to urge out of the house.

 

Days and years passed, and we had, as i've got the kids of Egypt who were remarked therein ancient garden, an album of memories, sometimes next to the king of the forest, sometimes next to the elephant house, and at other times we feed giraffes, but always The same strange question was insisting on us: Who watches who, should we head to that ancient park so we see the animals and birds and revel in them? Or can we go in order that they enjoy watching us ?, a matter despite its gullibility that has always occupied everyone’s heads since their childhood, who watches whom ?, the human or the animal?.

The zoo, this can be the oldest and oldest park, which was one in all the foremost important huge parks in Africa and therefore the Middle East, and per chronological monitoring, it's the third zoo within the world, and therefore the first in Africa, that park was a natural product of the Egyptian historical relationship with pets and wild animals. and therefore the plane, which came to observe us how Queen Cleopatra and therefore the ancient kings of the Pharaohs wont to like to collect animals during their trips in Africa to display them in their palaces, and although the quantity of its visitors exceeds 1,000,000 visitors annually, most Egyptians don't bring it to mind except on holidays and occasions.

Giza Zoo, in-built 1891, which was once called, the assets of the zoos in Africa, considering it the primary and most prestigious zoos within the African continent, ordered to be established by Khedive Ismail, on a region of 85 acres, and opened during the reign of Khedive Muhammad Tawfiq Ibn Khedive Ismail, and started displaying imported flowers and plants that don't seem to be found within the Egyptian nature, and now includes about 6 thousand animals belonging to 175 species or species, additionally to the spread of streams, caves, waterfalls, wooden bridges, bird lakes, and a museum that was in-built 1906 that contains Rare collections of stuffed animals, birds and reptiles.

 

Once you pass the most garden door next to the statue of the Renaissance of Egypt, overlooking Charles Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle Street, after you narrow an easy ticket worth some pounds on a busy day, you can't go in the park streets without bumping into anyone, and you will find screaming sounds of some women who are searching for their children Here and there.

The day of the park begins with many distinct sounds of the zoo animals, which welcome its guests, a number of them enjoying the meeting, and most of them complaining, Its presence within the middle of a crowded city, but its unique design made it more like an integrated forest, closed with many rare trees. i attempted to storm the rows of tourists and approached the antler cage near the garden door to ask him about his worries, He failed to answer, but he pointed to a tall man carrying a firearm. He approached me to request from me about my destination.

 

The commander of the guard took me at the start to the bridge, which was designed by the French engineer Gustave Eiffel in 1911, and connects two mountains with an entrance at the underside and an exit at the highest of the mountain, and he told me that this bridge today follows the Antiquities Authority, which closed it completely, which it's become a prohibited place, because its condition is incredibly dilapidated. It became dangerous to humans, those that wont to get a part of its ingredients as a bequest from that garden.

I moved with the commander of the guard to the party of lions, that house during which there's only 1 white Asian lion, and therefore the remainder of the lions are of African origin, and one tiger, and therefore the home is divided into two parts, one for display inside the five cages, and also the other is open for a daily picnic, and accommodates over ten thousand Square meters, sort of a small natural forest, where lions move out 3 times every week, while tigers start up on the last three days.

 

We left the house of lions, and that we walked over the leaves of the trees that cover the bottom, and that we encountered many sorts of them, like cedar and palm trees, and glided by many sorts of monkeys, ostriches, lamas and ibex. a replacement house devoid of animals caught my eye, and that i knew from the guard commander that it had been the house of the new orangutan, his name "Bantu", sitting inside that creature alone, was locked inside the new display cage, the strange thing is that he understood our conversation, and even extended his large palm outside the cage, complaining about his alienation and his loneliness, they begged me to return to him his wife, who was temporarily bereft of her, so he feels lonely, and when She involves him feeling happy that he found her in this new house, and coexists along with her.

e left the "Bantu" and visited the castle mountain, which is that the origin of the garden, designed by the Turkish engineer Sibus in 1867, covered with coral reefs, fossilized trees and stones, its roads covered by colored pebbles, that mountain One of the five mountains within the garden, there's also the Menorah mountain and therefore the hanging bridge tea island, created as a special edifice for Khedive Ismail within the Mother Pasha Park, to receive his guests from the princes and ministers, it absolutely was designed in an oval shape from the within, with a settee painted with the flag of Egypt dedicated to the Khedive and his wife And another on the far right et al. within the far north reserved for his guests from the princes, additionally to four chairs for ministers, and within the middle of the ceiling there's alittle lighthouse that amplifies the sound and makes it resonate, and there are two chairs on the door of rest for the guards.

We went up the castle mountain with its unique design, and that we employed in that sloping views, which were designed to dispense with the peaceful steps, and although it's been affiliated with the Ministry of Antiquities for over five years, it's been closed to visitors, Egyptians and foreigners, so it's become deserted that nobody knows about, its walls are designed On the shapes of animals, although it absolutely was established before the Khedive thought of converting it into a zoo, so this design would be evidence of his intense love for animals. within the past, a line from the Nile would reach the highest of Jabaliya to irrigate Jabaliya itself within the type of a natural waterfall, and behind it there's a basin that the Khedive used as a shower Swimming, but today it's used as a basin for white swans.

I finished my trip to Jabaliya to prevent before of the elephant house, within which there are only two elephants, one among them may be a female of Indian origin, who wont to move alone every morning to the show cage, where the garden crowd met her, then returned within the evening to her house alone without a guard As for the opposite elephant, which is additionally a female, it's African in type, and stays reception and doesn't venture out just like the Indian, is young, is barely 30 years old, and ten years ago those elephants came with a male elephant, but it died, and therefore the elephants are often not composed with a male Easily post, and go up to kill one another.

“The park isn't only a picnic site, but it's also a research project site.” Thus the commander of the guard told me, so there's an integrated scientific center inside the park. the primary and last goal is to check the zoo animals, and their impact on the new environment, the standard of food, and their psychological and wholeness, which may be a laboratory It consists of two floors, the primary to receive quite 1700 samples per day for examination, In addition to the sick cases that don't await periodic examination, but samples are taken from them immediately, the second for the assorted examination laboratories and also the culling of viruses, and eventually the morgue for examining dead animals to see the explanation for death, additionally to the toxicology unit answerable for preparing and examining food.

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