When I arrived in Amman this past August, my first visual impressions of the airport let me know that I was in a place quite different from the United States.  Similarly, my first impressions of Cairo International Airport let me know that I was in a very different place; however, this setting was different not only from the U.S., but also very much so from Jordan.

Compared to Cairo International Airport, Queen Alia International Airport looks like an old warehouse sitting in the middle of a barren desert.  The interior follows this path as it is dark rather than bright.  Unlike its counterpart in Amman, Cairo International Airport looks as modern as any airport in the United States.  The only real difference between Cairo’s airport and an American airport is that most of the people are Egyptians rather than Americans.  In addition to the visual differences between Amman and Cairo’s two main airports, there is simply a much greater amount of activity and energy in Cairo International Airport.

The differences noticed in the airport certainly continued as my group and I were driven to our hotel inside our tour bus.  For starters, there were simply many more cars on the road.  Knowing that Cairo had [several times] the amount of people than the country of Jordan, I was not really surprised by the fact that the streets were much fuller.  The roads themselves were also much different than those in Amman as they resembled the large boulevards of California that have the massive medians full of palm trees and other vegetation.  As I rode along and gazed along the sides of the roads, I noticed too that there were many skyscrapers, a sight that not normally seen in Amman.  In addition, seeing murals of Hosni Mubarak rather than those of either King Abdullah or late King Hussein was quite strange.

Surprisingly, it was not only the face of Mubarak on the murals that let me know I was in a different place, but also it was his dress that let me know I was in a much different setting and state.  Unlike the traditional Bedouin tribal garb that King Abdullah and his late father are usually pictured in, the dapper Western suits of Mubarak’s murals reminded that I was in the birthplace of Nasser’s Pan-Arab movement rather than the desert kingdom of the Hashemites; however, with nightfall covering much of Cairo and Egypt’s natural beauty, I was not able to see one of the greatest differences between Amman and Cairo until the next morning.

Called “the gift of the Nile” by Herodotus, Cairo, unlike Amman, has the benefit of sitting at the starting point of one of the world’s greatest river deltas.  Consequently, as I went outside on my first morning in Cairo, I saw a lot of green, a color that I had not been that familiar with since coming to the Middle East.  Even though Cairo is a megalopolis, there are still many agricultural fields located in many parts of the city.  Having been staying in a country whose culture, history, and politics have been largely influence by its massive lack of natural resources, I had to grow used to seeing a non-arid landscape once again.

While Amman may be less lively, populated, and green, it is still much wealthier than Cairo.  For instance, during my first day and night, I quickly noticed that the cars in Cairo were definitely not as nice as those in Amman where Range Rovers and Mercedes appear much more frequently.

Overall, I am quite excited at the opportunity to contrast Amman with an Arab city that is quite different from it.