Talaat Harb

The spine of Downtown, named for the economist who tried to give Egypt its own economy.

The street was laid out under Khedive Ismail and long carried the name of Soliman Pasha, a French officer turned Egyptian general. In 1954 it was renamed for Talaat Harb, the nationalist economist who founded Bank Misr in 1920 and a web of Egyptian-owned companies meant to loosen the grip of foreign capital. His statue stands in the square where a French general’s once did.