There’s salt on the brow and upper lip when one enters Alexandria’s Cecil Hotel. It’s the 1940s, jazz is swinging in the lobby, chandeliers hang low enough to warm the collar, and the smell of freshly baked bread brings with it the overpowering undertones of lemon and whiskey. Fame and fortune are common guests here, so are some of the world’s most recognizable names. Political adversaries debate in the dining rooms, Umm Kalthoum retires in her sea-view suite, and King Farouk plays a fine hand of poker in the banquet hall. This was the essence of the Cecil. Built in 1929 by the French-Egyptian Metzger family, it was designed to be romantic—a place of elegance and delicate detailing, Genovese corner crowns and thick satin drapes. Sitting right on the Alexandrian corniche, with a wide view of the Mediterranean, the Cecil Hotel occupies Saad Zaghloul square, where Cleopatra’s Needle was once on display. Winston Churchill was a regular at the Cecil, ordered his drinks on the rocks and his bread warm. The British Secret Service had a permanent suite from which they ordered their operations. For decades, it was home to…
