Garden City is a well-planned and leafy district of central Cairo, immediately south of the very centre of the modern city at Midan Tahrir. In 1905 the agricultural architect Jose Lamba was asked by the owners of the Nile Land and Agricultural Company to design a new city. His vision was of a leafy, suburb with a layout drawn up more using a compass than a ruler, unlike the grid system with strong right angles and straight lines popular in other suburbs like Ma'adi, and Zamalek. Lambas preferred an Art Nouveau style with smaller roads and uneven lines, interspersed with triangles often leading the walker back to where they started.Garden City is the location of several large hotels and embassies. The British and the American to name two. There's not much to do here, but it's a reasonable place to stay, close to downtown, but in a quiet and high security area. This is one Cairo neighbourhood that once housed the elite of the 30's and 40's Egypt. It is considered, to this day, a posh place to live.The Vatican in Rome owns the biggest portion of land in garden City with 12 of the original 273 plots, and houses the Mere de Dieu School for Girls.
