The Mena House stands at the entrance to the Giza Plateau, 800 metres from the Great Pyramid. Built in 1869 as a royal hunting lodge for Khedive Ismail, it became a hotel in 1886 and has hosted almost every famous name to visit Egypt since: Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, and Richard Nixon among them. The original lodge building is extravagantly decorated in Moorish-Egyptian style: carved cedarwood ceilings, coloured tilework, mashrabiya screens, and a garden of palms and bougainvillea.
Even if you are not staying, the Mena House is worth visiting for the setting and the history. The pyramid view from the garden is extraordinary — Khufu fills the entire northern horizon. The afternoon tea is a civilised alternative to the tourist-trap cafes by the entrance gate. The hotel's history is essentially a miniature history of European and American interest in Egypt over the past 150 years.