So impressed was Khedive Ismail after a visit to Haussman's "new" Paris in 1867 that he decided to build a modern city along the same architectural lines and aesthetics, and brought European architects to Cairo to initiate Egypt's most dynamic building period since medieval times.The stunning buildings of late 19th- and early 20th-century Cairo remain, but they are in a state of neglect, threatened by pollution, and are being pulled down for concrete highrises and parking lots. Paris along the Nile captures in 200 black-and-white photographs the architectural jewels of "modern" Cairo.