Photo : Mohamed Ouda — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Sheikh Zayed & 6th October · 6th of October City
Dream Park
West Cairo's amusement park: rides, queues, and very little shade.
Dream Park opened at the turn of the 2000s inside the Dreamland development at 6th of October, when the new city was only beginning to rise out of the desert. It is an old-fashioned amusement park, spread out and open to the sky: a big wheel, carousels, a roller coaster, dodgems, water rides, concrete walkways and sandwich kiosks. Families come, above all at the weekend, at Eid and during the school holidays, and western Cairo has made it its afternoon outing. The painted gateway at the entrance is the same age as the park, and it sets the tone: nothing here is new.
The extra bit
Arrive late in the afternoon: the sun drops, the concrete stops radiating. Ask at the ticket window which attractions are running that day and until what hour, and what the ticket covers, before paying for the whole family.
Know before you go
Shade is scarce and you queue in the sun: in summer the day is punishing before mid-afternoon. At Eid and on Fridays the waiting becomes the main event. Entry and rides are not necessarily the same purchase, and some rides may be out of service with nothing to say so: that is the question for the ticket window. The drive from central Cairo is long and there is no metro — come by car or taxi and agree the return, because a ride back from 6th of October in the evening is not easy to find.
