Tourism & Hospitality | Sunday 5 June, 2016 3:47 pm |

Egypt welcomed another legendary personality this month and this time it was from the world’s most loved sport, Football. Former Barcelona Captain, Carles Puyol, who retired from football back in 2014, arrived in Egypt for a brief two-day visit on May 27th and 28th as part of the Heineken Champions League tour. 

Hosted by Al- Ahram Beverages, Puyol experienced some of the best art and culture that Egypt has to offer. The Spanish defender’s brief stay in Egypt included a tour of the timeless wonder, The Giza Pyramids. This treasure, located in Giza on the outskirts of beautiful Cairo, were built to endure an eternity. The monumental tombs are relics of Egypt's Old Kingdom era and were constructed approximately 4,500 years ago. Rightly classified as one of the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”, even today they remain the most massive buildings on Earth.

Following this, the professional footballer explored The Grand Egyptian Museum which pays homage to eternal ancient Egyptian monuments, treasures, and history, hosting over 100,000 artifacts. A portal to the past, the museum aims at taking grasp of the diversity of Egypt's heritage of monuments and arts and contains irreplaceable monuments from across time.

Commenting on the occasion, Samy Mahmoud, Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Authority said, “Not only are we very pleased to have such a legendary talent visit our country but we also had the great pleasure of showing him our extraordinary history and culture. Egypt has always been a land filled with life, sound, visual beauty and excitement and we are happy to have had a chance to showcase that to Puyol on his trip and give him a small taste of what our great country has to offer.” 

Puyol concluded his visit by thrilling sports fans and attending the Heineken Egypt Champions League final viewing on May 28th at uptown Cairo.