Cairo Tower

The Cairo Tower (Arabic: برج القاهرة‎, burj al-qāhira, colloquially burg al-qāhira) is a free-standing concrete television tower in Cairo, Egypt. It stands in the Zamalek district on Gezira Island in the River Nile, close to the city centre. At 187 m (610 ft), it is 43 metres (140 ft) higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands some 15 km (9.3 mi) to the southwest. It is one of Cairo's most famous and well-known landmarks.

The Cairo Tower was built from 1956 to 1961, reportedly to convince a sceptical world the nation had the capability to construct the Aswan Dam.^{[citation needed]} Designed by the Egyptian architectNaoum Chebib, the tower's partially open lattice-work design is intended to evoke a lotus plant. The tower is crowned by a circular observation deck and a rotating restaurant with a view over Cairo. One rotation takes approximately 70 minutes.