‘Sugar and Lemon’ is a name given to a district after a visit to Mohamed Ali Pasha. Residents tell the story of his visit every time they give our their addresses or a stranger passes by.
The ‘Sugar and Lemon’ district consists of simple narrow streets and stores.
Arafa Hussein, a mechanic who lives there, says “the street names goes back to Mohamed Ali Pasha era, when he hosted a big banquet in his palace celebrating the opening of ‘Magra al-Oyoun’ which brought water to Fomm al-Khaleeg and the area around the citadel.”
He goes on saying, “Jubilant about the guests, people distributed lemon juice among the passers-by. Since then, this area, consisting of a square, street and an alley took the name.”
The celebration did not only take place in that area alone. “There is another place with the same name in Bab al-Shaariya district,” Hussein says.
Another inhabitant Fekry Arafa, engineer says many of the other inhabitants have been living there for years, until newcomers came after the 1991 earthquake, as some houses collapsed and were replaced by new buildings.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
