Maadi is one of the most culturally diverse places in Cairo, it has everything from an amazing nightlife to an ever-evolving culinary scene, making it perfect for people looking for a place away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, while still being in one of the most interesting hotspots in the capital.
So we decided to look into Maadi&rsquo;s past, and we found five things you probably didn&rsquo;t know about it.
1-Its Name and Origin
Its name "Maadi" is the plural of the word &ldquo;Maadeyah&rdquo; which means ferry in Arabic so Maadi literally means ferries, because it was built at an area where ferries used to carry people across the banks of the Nile.
The area it was built on was found to be an ancient Egyptian site, however, due to its building in the 1900s many of the archaeological sites were either removed or destroyed.
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<figcaption>Al Mansion in Maadi</figcaption>
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Building and planning of Maadi started in in 1905 by retired Canadian Officer Alexander Adams, who put strict rules and regulations in the development of residential areas in Maadi, ranging from how wide the streets are, down to the color options of window shutters.
2-Maadi&rsquo;s Wadi Degla Petrified Forest
This forest isn&rsquo;t a couple of thousand years old, it&rsquo;s at least 35 million years old, making it a very unique place, unlike anything else in the world.
The remnant pieces of trees in the area&nbsp;have turned into stone over time, and date back to the Oligocene era which ranges from 30 to 35 million years ago.
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<figcaption>Trees turned into stone at Maadi's petrified forest</figcaption>
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There are holes in the ground that reach a depth of 40 thousand meters, so watch your step!
3- New Zealand&rsquo;s main overseas base of operations was there
When WWII broke out, Egypt was a British protectorate, and thus the UK moved troops from New Zealand to Egypt to be closer to the European theater of war.
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<figcaption>Troops at road 9 (L), A Thank you message left by the troops (M), The Maadi military base(R)</figcaption>
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Looking for a base for their troops they decided to station them in Maadi, becoming their main overseas base of operations.
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/G3yn8qI3FpY" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>76,000 troops were station there, and the rocky plateau was leased to the New Zealand&rsquo;s main force for the next six years as they trained in the desert area near Wadi Degla.
4- New Zealand&rsquo;s Maadi Cup was named after our Maadi
While New Zealand&rsquo;s forces were station in Maadi, they competed in rowing competitions against local Egyptian Rowing clubs.
And during one of the of those competitions the New Zealander&rsquo;s Maadi Camp Rowing Club, won the Freyberg Cup beating the Cairo River Club, however, gifted the cup to the competitors.
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<figcaption>The team that won the cup(L), The Military Captain receiving the cup(M), The Cairo River Club(R)</figcaption>
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After the conclusion of the war, as a token of friendship champion Egyptian rower, Dr. Youssef Baghat went to New Zealand and donated one of his trophies to the New Zealand Rowing Team as a trophy for an annual boys' eight-oared race between secondary schools.
And this that trophy was renamed the Maadi Cup and is still being competed for today by secondary schools boys' under 18 rowing eights
5- The world&rsquo;s first solar thermal power station was built in Maadi
An American scientist and inventor named Frank Shuman wanted to test out a theory and system in which people could use the power of the sun to get energy instead of coal, and formed the Sun Power Company in 1908.
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<figcaption>The cover of The Electrical Experimenter Magazine in 1916 taking about Shuman's testing</figcaption>
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And to prove his theory he built the world&rsquo;s first solar thermal power station in Maadi, Cairo in 1912 to 1913, as his station was able to pump 6000 gallons of water from the Nile to nearby cotton fields.
However, the start of the First World War stopped any advancement in the development of solar energy studies. &nbsp;
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<figcaption>Middle Paragraph continuing to talk about Shuman's work</figcaption>
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Shuman stated in the New York Times: &ldquo;We have proved the commercial profit of sun power in the tropics and have more particularly proved that after our stores of oil and coal are exhausted the human race can receive unlimited power from the rays of the sun.&rdquo;&nbsp;

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