A SHOCK OF GREEN IN CAIRO - 2005-03-12

More than a decade in the making, al-Azhar park has changed the physical environment -- herons and hawks and other wildfowl absent for half a century now nest there and the relatively clean air is fragrant with flowering plants -- and its creation has affected the whole neighbourhood. Darb al-Ahmar, once a drug-dealing no-go zone, is slowly becoming a cultural tourism destination.