Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, was not only keen to have a luxurious palace, but he also wanted to transform Cairo into the Paris of the East. He was heavily influenced by a visit to the French capital and decided to engage French architects and urban planners to turn the medieval city into a modern metropolis. Talaat Harb Square is at the heart of Downtown Cairo and captures the Khedive’s vision for a European city of gridded streets, contemporary architectural styles, and geometry. In the late nineteenth century, it was home to the Egyptian elite, who enjoyed many modern amenities. On 17th of Talaat Harb Street is the glamorous Café Riche which opened in 1908 and catered to intellectuals and revolutionaries. The novelist Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel laureate in Literature) and future president Gamal Abdel Nasser were frequent patrons.