Ramses Station
Ramses Railway Station, also called Misr Station, is the main railway station of Cairo, Egypt. The name is derived from the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, whose statue was erected by former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser on the square there in 1955.
History
The original railway station was built as the terminal of the first rail link from Alexandria to Cairo in 1856. The current building was erected in 1892 and upgraded in 1955. In January 2001, it underwent a major modernisation. In early 2011, following the Egyptian revolution, Ramses station was fully upgraded and air conditioned with new marble flooring across the station and the addition of escalators. Some critics believe that the modernisations were too modern and destroyed much of the building's original style.Huda Sha'arawi, the Egyptian feminist, famously removed her veil here in 1923.
The classic film Cairo Station was made at Ramses Station. The film's original title, The Iron Gate, is a name by which the station is popularly known.
Structure
Outside of the station used to be the statue of Ramses II that was relocated to the area of Giza on 25 August 2006, in preparation for its eventual installation in the Grand Egyptian Museum. It was eventually placed there in 2018.The famous sculpture of Mahmoud Mokhtar, Nahdat Misr, was originally installed outside the station in 1928, but was removed to its current location near Cairo University in the 1950s.
Facilities in the station include a left luggage office, a post office, ATMs, a pharmacy and a tourist information office.