From Dump to Park in Cairo

"Amid Cairo's sprawling cityscape, there's a lush retreat where Egyptians can find some breathing space."

"Like New York's Central Park, the 74-acre Al-Azhar Park is a green getaway for the city's 17 million residents. But less than a decade ago, Al-Azhar Park was little more than a mound of dirt and trash — a 500-year-old garbage dump."

"'It was … the shame of the city,' says Thomas Taha Rassam Culhane, founder of Solar Cities, a group that is installing environment-friendly solar hot-water heaters in Cairo's slums."

"At a cost of $30 million, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture hired world-class Egyptian, European and American architects who worked with the city and local residents to create Cairo's first new green space in more than a century."