Shepherd's Hotel

Shepherd's Hotel is on the border between old and new Cairo. Anna Winterbourne sets up residence with her maid Emily there.

Mu'allaqah

Mu'allaqah is the ancient church south of Cairo, where the Virgin Mary and Jesus are said to have been sheltered. Anna and Amal both visit it one hundred years apart.

Hilmiyya

The fashionable district in Cairo where Sharif al-Ghamrawi lives until his marriage to Anna is called Hilmiyya.

Tawasi

The Tawasi village in Minya, Egypt, is where the Ghamrawis have their ancestral lands. Amal fights the bureaucracy to keep the family's schools and clinic from being closed down in the government's fight against terrorism.

The Khedive

The term for Egypt's dynastic ruler, the Khedive is autonomous from but still somehow responsible to the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople, and, under the occupation, is also controlled by the British Governor. Hopes that the position may evolve...