Over 14 years ago, I embarked on a personal journey that started with a simple DNA test. What began as a curiosity about my family tree quickly turned into an all-consuming passion. I found myself piecing together fragments of history from over 1,000 DNA matches, each one leading me to long-forgotten ancestors and their stories. As I gathered documents and connected with distant relatives, these names from the past became as real to me as the people around me today. And then it hit me—unless I did something, these ancestors, their lives, and their legacies would be completely forgotten within a few generations. I couldn’t let that happen, so I began writing their stories.
At the same time, I was nurturing another passion—finding new places in Egypt to show my guests. Guides and locals offered no new insights beyond the usual, well-known destinations. Though I managed to discover hidden gems like Abydos and Dendera early on, Cairo remained a mystery to me, 750 km away and difficult to explore. But the 2011 “revolution” unexpectedly opened a door. With apartments in Cairo for tourists, I packed my bags and went, wanting to see the truth behind the headlines. What I found was not a revolution but a spectacle confined to Tahrir Square—a circus the international media spun for the world. With free time on my hands, I bought a map and set off to discover the real Cairo, searching for new, off-the-beaten-path places to take my guests. What I found was far more than I could have imagined.
During my time in Cairo, I reconnected with a lovely Irish lady I had met years earlier through a mutual American cousin. One day, while sipping tea, I asked her about our family connection. Imagine my surprise when I found out we were only a few marriages apart. And here’s where the story takes an extraordinary turn. As I explored Cairo, I discovered that many of the places I was drawn to were connected to Egypt’s royal family—the descendants of Muhammad Ali, the father of modern Egypt. Many of these royal sites were abandoned or closed, their history seemingly forgotten, much like my own ancestors.
In 2018, I visited my Irish friend again, this time with my son and laptop in tow. As we talked, I mapped out our family trees and made an astonishing discovery, which my friend already knew but I had not actually grasped before—our family connection traced back to King Farouk and the Muhammad Ali dynasty, connecting us to the Ottoman Empire and modern-day Turkey. This revelation sparked a new obsession. I began collecting photos of Egypt’s royal family, trying to bring their stories to life, much like I had done with my own ancestors.
In 2019, the idea struck me to create a visual family tree of the Muhammad Ali dynasty using the photos I had collected. I laid them out on the floor of Mara House’s bar, and as the collection grew, I decided to frame them and display them on the walls. What started as a simple project quickly turned into a labor of love—and sometimes frustration! With Amr’s endless patience, we spent the better part of 2020 framing and re-framing the photos, wrestling with mismatched frames, and rearranging the walls multiple times to get it just right. Eventually, we hit on the idea of using timber lengths with evenly spaced nails, allowing us to hang each framed photo neatly.
Today, the walls of Mara House are adorned with the faces of Egypt’s royal family, stretching across four walls of the bar in an order that mirrors their family tree, in so far as lack of space now allows. The photos are more than just decoration—they are a testament to a legacy nearly forgotten, brought back to life piece by piece.
Where this project will go from here, I’m not entirely sure—much like how Mara House itself came to be. But the collection is beautiful, and I’m currently writing down the personal stories behind each face, gathering what I can of their lives. Whether it’s a good idea to have filled the walls of the bar with these photos, I don’t know—but it’s the most complete collection in the world that I know of, and even more fascinating when you know the stories behind the faces.
If you’re ever at Mara House, I invite you to spend some time with these forgotten royals. Their faces tell stories of a bygone era, stories I am still uncovering and sharing. And who knows? Perhaps they will inspire you, as they did me, to look deeper into your own ancestry and the hidden history that surrounds us.