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Three years ago, Merryland Park near Roxy in Heliopolis was a wonderful place for children to go and feed the ducks and enjoy pedalo rides on the artificial lake. They'd buy balloons and soft drinks at the gate and cry when mum said it was time to leave.
But since 2005, Merryland Park is no longer a green lung in a crowded and polluted Cairo, because development work is underway and there are rumours that the park will be closed.
Garbage is piling up near the entrances, the marble seats are gradually being destroyed and the trees look like they're about to topple over. In short, the park is no longer in good shape.
The park first opened on July 24, 1963 in the time of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, on an area of 50 feddans (acres). It was home to many wonderful, rare plants. Until 1968, the park had been used for horseracing and there were huge greenhouses, covering 6 feddans.
Until 2005, there were three cafeterias providing a takeaway service, in addition to a casino and a dolphinarium with the capacity for 1,000 spectators. But they've all been shut down.
Anwar Ezz, director of the park, admits that the plants in the greenhouse are all dying off, because there aren't enough workers. "We used to sell flowers far more cheaply than the usual market prices. A gladiolus normally sells for LE5 [just less than $1]; we sold them for just LE1 each," he says."The dolphinarium has closed and the pedal boats and ducks have all disappeared because the tenant's contract has finished and the new tenant wants to revamp the place," adds Ezz. He admits that he doesn't know what exactly the new tenant has in mind, although he hopes he will reopen the cafeterias and children's rides.
There was also a big swimming pool which generated a lot of money, but that too has closed. It costs LE1 to go into the park. This very low fee encourages naughty children to 'goof off' school and go and play in the park, dumping their litter there.
Before the cafeterias and other services closed, the park would get about 100,000 visitors per month and even more on feast days and in the summer. The 15 garbage collectors employed by the park couldn't cope with all the rubbish.
As for the rumours that the park is going to close, Ezz says development work is progressing slowly. "When we develop one area, we close it but still the other areas are kept open and the park has never been shut down," he explains."Everything will soon be back to normal, but the dolphinarium's been scrapped for good because it's too expensive for the new tenant to run."
posted
Oh in my last two years in Egypt, I lived with my aunt right next to Merryland. I would be very sad if it closed Posts: 4446 | From: Egyptian in Sydney | Registered: Mar 2005
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