Welcome to the Sphinx Guest House
*2018- Newly renovated rooms* view our gallery to see a few of the completed rooms and changes to our roof terrace.
The famous Sphinx Guesthouse of Giza in Egypt, is a well presented family owned hotel situated just one minute from the entrance to the Egyptian Pyramids park of the Giza plateau. We offer competitive rates for half or full board and have a selection of single or double rooms available. Most of our rooms have views over the Sphinx and Pyramids and the roof terrace directly faces the ancient Sphinx monument, a perfect place to sit in the evening to watch the famous Pyramid light show. Due to our unique location with a view offered by no other hotel in Giza we are often home to famous celebrities and writers, you never know who you might meet at our breakfast tables.
The Sphinx Guesthouse is also a popular venue for Egyptian tour groups and conferences, please ask about our special negotiated rates for group bookings. We pride ourselves on offering tailored services and can help
arrange taxis, special food requests, tour guides and even camels!
There's a wide selection of Egyptian papyrus souvenirs and
traditional aromatherapy oils available in our own shop.
Come for the Sphinx & Pyramid view, but stay for the family atmosphere.
Many restaurants, shops (local and touristic), mini-markets, and pharmacies are within 3 minutes walking distance.
Distances to:
Giza Pyramids and Sphinx: 300 feet.
Giza railway station: 10 kilometers.
Egyptian Museum: 15 Kilometers.
Saqqara Monuments: 18 Kilometers.
Saladin’s Citadel: 20 Kilometers.
Cairo International airport: 35 Kilometers.
The Sphinx Guesthouse is also a popular venue for Egyptian tour groups and conferences, please ask about our special negotiated rates for group bookings. We pride ourselves on offering tailored services and can help
arrange taxis, special food requests, tour guides and even camels!
There's a wide selection of Egyptian papyrus souvenirs and
traditional aromatherapy oils available in our own shop.
Come for the Sphinx & Pyramid view, but stay for the family atmosphere.
Many restaurants, shops (local and touristic), mini-markets, and pharmacies are within 3 minutes walking distance.
Distances to:
Giza Pyramids and Sphinx: 300 feet.
Giza railway station: 10 kilometers.
Egyptian Museum: 15 Kilometers.
Saqqara Monuments: 18 Kilometers.
Saladin’s Citadel: 20 Kilometers.
Cairo International airport: 35 Kilometers.
Gouda Fayed and Robert Bauval
THE HOUSE IN FRONT OF THE
SPHINX
The Story of the Al Fayed Family
By Robert G. Bauval
Mohammad Abdel Mawgud Al Fayed was born in 1917 in a most unusual house. It was perhaps the most unusual in all of Egypt. It had been the family home for many generations since the late 1800s, and although it was but little more than a mud-house, it was not the building itself that was the unusual aspect of this setting, but its unique position. In fact the word ‘unusual’ is not really adequate to describe the position of this house. ‘Magical’ would be a better choice. For you see, the house of the Al Fayed family stood directly in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza, and for backyard it had the whole Giza necropolis, home of the Great Pyramids and the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
In the 1920s the Giza necropolis was completely open and free for all. There were no fences, no boundary walls, no ticket office and no security police. One could go in and out at leisure and at any time of day or night. As a child Mohammad would play with his friends under the shadow of the Sphinx and, when he was in his teens, he would race his school friends to the summit of the Great Pyramid. Mohammad indeed lived in a most unusual house and grew up in the most unusual way. During the flood season, from July to September, the house would be surrounded with water and one had to go by boat from Nazlat Al Salman (the ‘Sphinx Village’) to the Mena House Hotel to take the tramway to central Cairo. This was the time of year Mohammad loved most, for he could play in the pools of water with his friends and occasionally catch a Nile perch with his makeshift fishing rod.
In 1925, when Mohammad was only eight years old, the French architect Emile Baraize undertook a photographic study of the Great Sphinx. Mohammad was employed as a carry-boy. It was then that Baraize found the entrance of a tunnel in the rump of the Sphinx. Oddly, baraize re-sealed the entrance and did not report it, even though he did publish some images of it in a journal.
Meanwhile Mohammad grew up into manhood, and worked in the Antiquities Department as a ‘Reis’, a gang-leader on archaeological excavations at Saqqara and Giza. Mohammad married his childhood sweetheart (and second cousin) Saediya, who also was born in Nazlat Al Salman. They had four children: Ahmad, Fatheya, Hammam and Gouda. Ahmad grew up to become a famous guide, and worked many years with the Edgar Cayce Foundation (he died in 2002 during a kidney operation; Fatheya had died of a heart attack the year before).
In 1980 Mohammad pulled down the small one-storey building that had been the home of the Al Fayed family since 1900 and built upon the same land a handsome four-storey house, with a magnificent roof-terrace overlooking the Sphinx and the Giza Necropolis. He had retired from being a ‘Reis’ for the Antiquities Department and instead opened a perfume shop, the ‘Tree of Life Bazaar’. Also in that same year of 1980, when Mohammad was now 63, he approached Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Mark Lehner, the two leading authorities on the Sphinx who, at that time, had started restoration work at the Sphinx, and informed them of Baraize’s discovery.
Here is what Dr. Zahi Hawass said of this event:
“In 1980 I opened, in collaboration with Mark Lehner, a passage that opens at floor level on the northwest hind part of the Sphinx. This was reported to us by Mohammed Abd al-Mawgud Fayed, who had worked as a boy with the 1926 clearing of the Sphinx by Emile Baraize, engineer for the Antiquities Service. Mohammed went on to work for 40 years as an Overseer of workmen and guards for the Antiquities Service. Baraize found patches here and there where the ancient layers of repair masonry had fallen away from the lower part of the body, exposing the natural rock from which the statue was carved. One such patch was at the northwest corner, along the great curve of the base of the Sphinx rump. He remembered that the passage descended to the water table. I had one brick-sized stone removed in order to check the story. Nearly half a
century after he saw it, Mohammed picked just the right stone, for there was the passage. We documented it in maps, architectural profiles, and elevations, and these records have been published. One part of the passage winds down under
the Sphinx before it comes to a dead end about 4.5 meters below floor level. The other part would be a open trench in the upward curve of the rump except that it is covered by the layers of ancient restoration stones. In 1980-81, we found that the lower part did indeed come to the water table, and just above this point the debris contained modern items - glass, cement, tin foil - evidence that Baraize had cleared and refilled the bottom of the passage before he sealed the opening by his restoration of the outer layer of masonry "skin". The passage is crudely cut, its sides are not straight, but there are cup-shaped foot-holds along the sides. It looks like an exploratory shaft.” (NOVA
website on February 10th, 1997; www.pbs.org)
Mohammad died in 2000 at the age of 83. His youngest son Gouda (born 1956), became the head of the Al Fayed family and, in the early 1980s, had helped his father convert the two top floors of the house, as well as the roof terrace, into a guesthouse for travelers. Gouda is married and has four daughters ( Mia, Emam, Yasmin and Hadir) and also a son (Ahmed). Obviously the Al Fayed guesthouse isn’t just an ordinary guesthouse. It is, without much exaggeration, a fairytale place. Many international celebrities have come to experience the unparalleled breathtaking views of the Sphinx and the Pyramids that this place has to offer. Among them was the actress Shirley MacLaine who stayed here for several days in 1982.
In 2004 Gouda managed to obtain the permits to refurbish the modest guesthouse into the ‘Sphinx Guesthouse’ with air-conditioned rooms and fully equipped bathrooms.
Today Nazlat al Salman is no more the quiet little hamlet by the Sphinx. The ever-growing tourist trade has seen the opening of many restaurants, cafeterias, souvenir shops, and there are street vendors of all kinds, and numerous hire businesses for camels and horses. In the months of summer Nazlat is practically invaded by Saudi Arabians and Gulf Arabs who come to enjoy the unique experience of galloping Arabian thoroughbreds in the desert near the Pyramids.
“Sometimes I miss the old days,” says Gouda, “when Nazlat Al Salman was a peaceful and quiet place where you could admire the Sphinx and the Pyramids in the proper manner. Today it has so much changed. The people have become forgetful of their noble past. They no longer remember the simple joys of growing up here, and the magic of being near the Sphinx. They no longer think of the Sphinx and the Pyramids as the sacred monuments of their ancestors. But this is the most sacred of ancient places in Egypt, perhaps even in the whole world. I have been blessed by God to be born here and to be responsible for this house with the unique frontal view of the Sphinx. Every day I see the light of the rising sun illuminate these monuments, turning them into pink and hazy-blue. Every evening I see the setting sun turning the Giza necropolis into a magical sight that always awes me and touches my soul. I want others to also experience this wonderful gift that I have been given. This is why I created the Sphinx Guesthouse, so that people from all over the world can come here and, for a few days, become part of this place and be awed by its grandeur, its magic and mystery. I want their stay with me to be not just a visit but a spiritual experience when their souls will be uplifted and sense the glory of our remote past. And when they leave and go back to their homes abroad, I want them to feel that a piece of their hearts has remained here, with me, and with my beloved Sphinx.”
Photos pertaining to this section can be found in the 'Family Album'
SPHINX
The Story of the Al Fayed Family
By Robert G. Bauval
Mohammad Abdel Mawgud Al Fayed was born in 1917 in a most unusual house. It was perhaps the most unusual in all of Egypt. It had been the family home for many generations since the late 1800s, and although it was but little more than a mud-house, it was not the building itself that was the unusual aspect of this setting, but its unique position. In fact the word ‘unusual’ is not really adequate to describe the position of this house. ‘Magical’ would be a better choice. For you see, the house of the Al Fayed family stood directly in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza, and for backyard it had the whole Giza necropolis, home of the Great Pyramids and the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
In the 1920s the Giza necropolis was completely open and free for all. There were no fences, no boundary walls, no ticket office and no security police. One could go in and out at leisure and at any time of day or night. As a child Mohammad would play with his friends under the shadow of the Sphinx and, when he was in his teens, he would race his school friends to the summit of the Great Pyramid. Mohammad indeed lived in a most unusual house and grew up in the most unusual way. During the flood season, from July to September, the house would be surrounded with water and one had to go by boat from Nazlat Al Salman (the ‘Sphinx Village’) to the Mena House Hotel to take the tramway to central Cairo. This was the time of year Mohammad loved most, for he could play in the pools of water with his friends and occasionally catch a Nile perch with his makeshift fishing rod.
In 1925, when Mohammad was only eight years old, the French architect Emile Baraize undertook a photographic study of the Great Sphinx. Mohammad was employed as a carry-boy. It was then that Baraize found the entrance of a tunnel in the rump of the Sphinx. Oddly, baraize re-sealed the entrance and did not report it, even though he did publish some images of it in a journal.
Meanwhile Mohammad grew up into manhood, and worked in the Antiquities Department as a ‘Reis’, a gang-leader on archaeological excavations at Saqqara and Giza. Mohammad married his childhood sweetheart (and second cousin) Saediya, who also was born in Nazlat Al Salman. They had four children: Ahmad, Fatheya, Hammam and Gouda. Ahmad grew up to become a famous guide, and worked many years with the Edgar Cayce Foundation (he died in 2002 during a kidney operation; Fatheya had died of a heart attack the year before).
In 1980 Mohammad pulled down the small one-storey building that had been the home of the Al Fayed family since 1900 and built upon the same land a handsome four-storey house, with a magnificent roof-terrace overlooking the Sphinx and the Giza Necropolis. He had retired from being a ‘Reis’ for the Antiquities Department and instead opened a perfume shop, the ‘Tree of Life Bazaar’. Also in that same year of 1980, when Mohammad was now 63, he approached Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Mark Lehner, the two leading authorities on the Sphinx who, at that time, had started restoration work at the Sphinx, and informed them of Baraize’s discovery.
Here is what Dr. Zahi Hawass said of this event:
“In 1980 I opened, in collaboration with Mark Lehner, a passage that opens at floor level on the northwest hind part of the Sphinx. This was reported to us by Mohammed Abd al-Mawgud Fayed, who had worked as a boy with the 1926 clearing of the Sphinx by Emile Baraize, engineer for the Antiquities Service. Mohammed went on to work for 40 years as an Overseer of workmen and guards for the Antiquities Service. Baraize found patches here and there where the ancient layers of repair masonry had fallen away from the lower part of the body, exposing the natural rock from which the statue was carved. One such patch was at the northwest corner, along the great curve of the base of the Sphinx rump. He remembered that the passage descended to the water table. I had one brick-sized stone removed in order to check the story. Nearly half a
century after he saw it, Mohammed picked just the right stone, for there was the passage. We documented it in maps, architectural profiles, and elevations, and these records have been published. One part of the passage winds down under
the Sphinx before it comes to a dead end about 4.5 meters below floor level. The other part would be a open trench in the upward curve of the rump except that it is covered by the layers of ancient restoration stones. In 1980-81, we found that the lower part did indeed come to the water table, and just above this point the debris contained modern items - glass, cement, tin foil - evidence that Baraize had cleared and refilled the bottom of the passage before he sealed the opening by his restoration of the outer layer of masonry "skin". The passage is crudely cut, its sides are not straight, but there are cup-shaped foot-holds along the sides. It looks like an exploratory shaft.” (NOVA
website on February 10th, 1997; www.pbs.org)
Mohammad died in 2000 at the age of 83. His youngest son Gouda (born 1956), became the head of the Al Fayed family and, in the early 1980s, had helped his father convert the two top floors of the house, as well as the roof terrace, into a guesthouse for travelers. Gouda is married and has four daughters ( Mia, Emam, Yasmin and Hadir) and also a son (Ahmed). Obviously the Al Fayed guesthouse isn’t just an ordinary guesthouse. It is, without much exaggeration, a fairytale place. Many international celebrities have come to experience the unparalleled breathtaking views of the Sphinx and the Pyramids that this place has to offer. Among them was the actress Shirley MacLaine who stayed here for several days in 1982.
In 2004 Gouda managed to obtain the permits to refurbish the modest guesthouse into the ‘Sphinx Guesthouse’ with air-conditioned rooms and fully equipped bathrooms.
Today Nazlat al Salman is no more the quiet little hamlet by the Sphinx. The ever-growing tourist trade has seen the opening of many restaurants, cafeterias, souvenir shops, and there are street vendors of all kinds, and numerous hire businesses for camels and horses. In the months of summer Nazlat is practically invaded by Saudi Arabians and Gulf Arabs who come to enjoy the unique experience of galloping Arabian thoroughbreds in the desert near the Pyramids.
“Sometimes I miss the old days,” says Gouda, “when Nazlat Al Salman was a peaceful and quiet place where you could admire the Sphinx and the Pyramids in the proper manner. Today it has so much changed. The people have become forgetful of their noble past. They no longer remember the simple joys of growing up here, and the magic of being near the Sphinx. They no longer think of the Sphinx and the Pyramids as the sacred monuments of their ancestors. But this is the most sacred of ancient places in Egypt, perhaps even in the whole world. I have been blessed by God to be born here and to be responsible for this house with the unique frontal view of the Sphinx. Every day I see the light of the rising sun illuminate these monuments, turning them into pink and hazy-blue. Every evening I see the setting sun turning the Giza necropolis into a magical sight that always awes me and touches my soul. I want others to also experience this wonderful gift that I have been given. This is why I created the Sphinx Guesthouse, so that people from all over the world can come here and, for a few days, become part of this place and be awed by its grandeur, its magic and mystery. I want their stay with me to be not just a visit but a spiritual experience when their souls will be uplifted and sense the glory of our remote past. And when they leave and go back to their homes abroad, I want them to feel that a piece of their hearts has remained here, with me, and with my beloved Sphinx.”
Photos pertaining to this section can be found in the 'Family Album'