Sorry for my bad english, it's not my native language. Note that i don't remember the order of animals I saw very well, so my descriptions of which exhibit sare next to each other are probably wrong. I have recently visited the Giza Zoo, though my main target in the visit was seeing the Zoological Museum in there(that you probably did not know even existed), though I did see a few animals. I entered from (باب الرحلات) I don't know what is it called in English, though it is one of the zoo gates and roughly translates to "Trips Gate". I asked if there was a map, and surprisingly they did not seem to have any (every time I went they had one)/ From there there were three pathways/routes I could go in, and I went to left-side. The first animal I saw after entering was one (there may have been more) Nile Crocodile. It was kept in a roofed chainlink enclosure with not much water space. To the right of the the crocodile enclosure were the agouti exhibits. I had seen during my previous visit, and the exhibits were rather large and the agoutis seemed to be doing well, there was a large rock with hole in the middle that the agoutis used for shelter. I continued going down the road and then I found the Cafeteria/Rest Area thing, and it was probably the most crowded part of the zoo, so I went all teh way back from there and decided to go all the way back to the the gateway. In front of the gateway there was ad medium sized exhibit for the Barbary Sheep. The zoo had a large herd that consisted of multiple males, females and their offspring. They were being fed by the guests. The large males tried to prevent the young ones from being fed. There were two large food troughs in the exhibit, one that is probably used for water while the other was for food(and judging by the fact they were being fed by the guests it probably was empty). To the left of the Barbary Sheep Enclosure was one of many ostrich enclosure at the zoo. There was keeper standing next to the exhibit, with a stick the he put lettuce one then let the guests feed the ostriches. Fortunately the ostriches seemed to have water to drink. Going forward from the ostriches there was a row of very small grivet monkey exhibits,each one housing a pair, then there was a very large one. It had very high chainlink fencing then a roof, some climbing structures by the sides, then a very big dead tree in the middle. The grivets in there were very active, climbing around the enclosure and dead tree, and there was probably a large number of baby ones in there though I only saw 3. After the grivet monkeys I saw the American Black Bears. They were kept in a small concrete floored enclosure , with a pool of cold water and a fan on the walls I did not see much of the exhibit, though one was sitting in the front and being fed by the guests. After walking for a while I reached the Zoological Mueseum. Very little of the zoo guests knew it even existed, and there were only a few people inside. Admission to the museum costs 10 LE per ticket. The museum was surounded by water with rock fencing around it. Around the museum were some beautiful gardens. The museum was divided into three floors. The bottom floor had collection of animal skeletons in the middle, which was surrounded by a small iron fence. The bottom floor was divided into two halves which were seperrated by small iron fence. One half could be accessed by simply entering from the front gate, while reaching the other one required going up to the second floor then going down the stairs the lead to it. On the sides were taxidermized animals, which were put in the following displays: African Savannah, Wetlands and Sahara. Rest of the description will be posted later today/tomorrow.
Thanks for this review @MoleRat - I've never had the chance to visit the museum. Does it feel quite modern following the renovation? Were there many rare animals on display (which are no longer in the zoo's collection)? In the last few years I've found it difficult to get hold of maps. When the main gates don't have any left, I've found the most reliable place to try is the North West gate, on Cairo University Road nearest the Faculty of Engineering. They usually have a few left even when other ticket booths have run out.
Thanks for your review MoleRat. When in al-Qahira, Misr I was tempted to visit the zoo. Unfortunately, there was too little spare time between archeological excursions to do so. I did see the dorcas gazelles, Barbary sheep and scimitar horned oryx while speeding ... twice with our tour bus.
