Adam Frost

I have just been lucky enough to be commissioned to design a garden just outside of Cairo in Egypt.

 Well what a place! On arrival we were whisked off to our hotel and what a drive that was. I don’t know if any of you have ever driven in Egypt but it’s mad! I soon came to the conclusion that the white lines are purely for decorative purposes – five cars in three lanes!. Anyway, we did finally arrive in one piece to a great hotel. To be honest, the Egyptian people treated us wonderfully during our whole trip (I digress).

Back to the purpose of the trip – the clients garden was 30 miles outside of Cairo. The amount of building in the area was amazing. After surveying the garden we visited a nursery, which to my surprise, I recognised a lot of the plants available. After this our Egyptian hosts said we needed to sample some Egyptian culture and we did. In the next 48 hours we travelled on the Nile, watched belly dancers, visited the pyramids and sphinx. Next we went to the museum and a tour of Tut-Ankh-Amon’s tomb (did you know that he was placed in the tomb with about 10 different sized slippers because they were unsure what age he would come back in the afterlife (and I thought my wife was organised!). These activities were worked around very long and fantastic lunches.

One final destination before we came home was the Bazaars, what a place of hustle and bustle. It was a very enlightening 48 hours. I think, for me though, the highlight was seeing the pyramids. As someone who has created a fair few garden features and used a lot of stone, the pyramids are truly amazing. How they cut and dressed the stone and moved each piece I will never understand. For me they definitely merit their place as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Thanks Abdel and Maha, it was great to meet you and your family

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