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With hindsight, several rulers must have regretted that Ismail moved the seat of state from the Citadel to what is now the Abdin quarter , where tenements surrounded the palace enclave long ago. When Ismail began building the European-style Abdin Palace , in the 1860s, a worldwide scarcity of cotton had raised the value of Egypt's export crop to GBP25 million a year, and his own civil list was double that of Queen Victoria. After prices slumped and creditors gathered, the palace was bequeathed to his successors together with vast debts that reduced them - and Egypt - to near vassal status. The nadir of humiliation came in February 1942, when British armoured cars burst through the palace gates and Ambassador Lampson demanded that King Farouk sack the prime minister or abdicate himself. It was this that resolved Nasser to assemble the Free Officers, seize power and redeem Egypt. Ten years later, as Farouk displayed his long-awaited son at a magnificent reception, rioters burned downtown Cairo within earshot of the palace; six months afterwards, the Free Officers deposed him and declared a Republic. Another mass protest - against Sadat's abolition of subsidies on bread and other essentials in January 1977 - actually happened outside the palace on Midan el-Gumhorriya (Square of the Republic). Chanting "Thieves of the Infitah, the people are famished", crowds overwhelmed Central Security and rampaged against symbols of wealth and authority until the subsidies were restored. Still the state headquarters of Egypt's president, the Abdin Palace is flanked to the north by the Cairo Governorate building. During Ramadan a large tent is pitched in the middle of the square, in which virtuoso performers recite the Koran. Behind the palace grounds are blocks of crumbling tenements where families lower baskets from the upper windows to passing street vendors. The neighbourhood is chiefly residential, with many Nubians and Sudanese, several street markets (around Midan Lazoghli) and a reputation for ghorzas. Sharia Bur Said (Port Said), which divides it from the Saiyida Zeinab quarter, marks the course of the Khalig al-Masri canal that was filled in early last century after the Aswan Dam reduced Cairo's dependency on Nile floodwater. Various stretches of Bur Said carry buses and minibuses to diverse locations around the city, but you need to know the routes well to take advantage of them. Easier to suss is the Saiyida Zeinab to Matariyya tram service, which runs along the street.
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