Egypt Collector Preserves Hundreds of Classic Cars

FILE: An Egyptian collector of vintage cars, drives a British Standard Flying Eight Tourer - 1948 automobile at his father's store where he also has an exhibition of old cars, in the Giza suburb of Abu Rawash, Egypt October 25, 2020. (Reuters)
FILE: An Egyptian collector of vintage cars, drives a British Standard Flying Eight Tourer - 1948 automobile at his father's store where he also has an exhibition of old cars, in the Giza suburb of Abu Rawash, Egypt October 25, 2020. (Reuters)
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Egypt Collector Preserves Hundreds of Classic Cars

FILE: An Egyptian collector of vintage cars, drives a British Standard Flying Eight Tourer - 1948 automobile at his father's store where he also has an exhibition of old cars, in the Giza suburb of Abu Rawash, Egypt October 25, 2020. (Reuters)
FILE: An Egyptian collector of vintage cars, drives a British Standard Flying Eight Tourer - 1948 automobile at his father's store where he also has an exhibition of old cars, in the Giza suburb of Abu Rawash, Egypt October 25, 2020. (Reuters)

The past frequently collides with the present in Cairo, with traffic snarling next to ancient sites.

Cars in the city can take a beating — between soaring temperatures, desert dust and the crowded streets. Classic models are not uncommon, but they often languish in dusty alleys or garages. One man, however, has decided to try to preserve a slice of Egypt’s four-wheeled history.

Car collector Mohamed Wahdan says he has accumulated more than 250 vintage, antique and classic cars. Most of them he discovered inside the country, The Associated Press reported.

A fleet of this size would rank him among the world’s top classic car collectors. Experts typically classify vehicles as vintage, antique or classic depending on their year of production.

The 52-year-old Wahdan runs a tourist company taking visitors to Egypt's famous landmarks. But he’s devoted to his hobby. He owns several different garages to keep all of them, and employs a full time team of mechanics for maintenance.

He says one of the challenges is in getting the cars license plates. Government employees often aren’t sure how to classify them.

Wahdan's oldest, a 1924 Model T Ford that belonged to Egypt’s last monarch, King Farouk, is a museum piece, complete with a velvet rope to mark its parking place in his garage.

The country’s history makes it a treasure trove for antiques. Egypt was a destination for Europeans in the late 19th Century and the first half of the 20th century. Italian, Greek, and Jewish communities once flourished in Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Its historic markets, or souqs, sell many reminders of times gone by, replicas and genuine.

Wahdan has collected many of them. Rotary-dial telephones, gramophones, and old newspapers and stamps also fascinate him.

Recently, his cars have also made a name for themselves, with one appearing in a TV series set in the 1930s. He’s noticed that interest in car collecting is growing among Egyptians, as more flock to classic car shows where his vehicles are displayed.

One of his dearest items is his first purchase, a 1970s Mercedes. Like his other cars, he doesn’t drive it often. But he says he would never sell any of his collection.

“Anyone who is passionate about those cars is unable to do without them,” he said.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.