With millennia of history behind it and multiple empires and civilizations that grew out of it, Egypt is home to one of the world's most astonishingly impressive collections of historical treasures, ancient, modern and everything in between.
Despite of the enormous significance of Egypt's historical footprint, the Egyptian people often ignore their nation's rich heritage. It's almost as if there's way too much of it lying around, that it's just not that big of a deal.
The knowledge of and interest in the stories the history of this ancient country has to tell, often lie in the minds of Egyptologists, researchers and a very small fraction of the actual public. The majority however, sadly don't care enough to find out.
A perfect example is Cairo's Garden city, a small residential district by the Nile, just south of Downtown Cairo. The leafy suburb is small in size compared to Cairo's other suburbs, but it has something they don't: strikingly beautiful historical buildings that tell a story which dates back to 1905 .
The picturesque city was specifically designed in Art-nouveau architecture for Cairo's wealthiest residents at the beginning of the 20th century, one of Khedive Ismail's many efforts to Europeanize Cairo, leading it a century later to have a unique collection of villas and palaces with plenty of historical significance.
Despite the fact that Garden City lies directly below one of Cairo's most important financial hubs and is bordered by Kasr Al-Aini Street and Corniche El-Nil, two of the city's busiest streets, it somehow remains hidden from the public consciousness. Most Egyptians know it exists, but that's pretty much the end of the story for them.
The majority walk and drive right next to the quiet suburb every single day, yet they know nothing about its history, architecture or why either matter in the first place. Even those who happen to find themselves walking its streets just non-nonchalantly walk by beauty that is ignored instead of appreciated.
One could argue that high rates of illiteracy lie behind the public's lack of awareness, but even the majority of the highly educated classes in Egypt know little to nothing about their national heritage.
The problem in question is bigger than an educational one, it's the issue of a people who don't care about their own history, a history that includes one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever witnessed, a civilization that has fascinated and astonished the world for thousands of years.
It is truly despicable that a foreigner could know more about a country's heritage than its own people. Knowledge is always there for those who seek it, they just have to want to seek it.