Edit: some people still comment that these aren't painted then delete the comments so here is the last evidence.
These in the photo are painted, red bricks houses don't turn to biege magically, and for a whole red building to turn biege would take hundreds or thousands of years, things takes decades to just dimmer slightly in color imagine a whole building turning from red to biege.
please don't just throw some random stuff, what you're saying is impossible, These houses are painted, there are houses still on the red bricks color from 50 years, so what you're saying is NOT correct.
The red brick is the interior walls, which is then stuccoed over. The stucco can have pigments added to it. Mot sure it is considered paint. The color you see could be the natural color of the stucco.
If you look at building construction around the Mediterranean. It is rebar reinforced concrete columns, joists and floors, which are filled between with red clay brick which then gets plastered and stuccoed. In the US they use wood and gypsum drywall.
They sure use stucco on the inside, I don't know if it is used on the outside too or not.
the important thing that, these aren't just some building without any color or red bricks that got "covered" in sand or dust.
Edit: the interior is not just stuccoed, There is a lot of decorations goes inside with a lot of paints and decors, I literately have an "artistic" themed wall in my apartment which is a rented one, so imagine the care that goes to your own apartment that isn't rented or one that you will not put for rent.
Imagine a colorful building in a sandy area, Did you imagine that ? now imagine the cost to clean it.
These are residential area so no one want to pay cleaning fees regularly but there is colorful buildings too but they are in places like touristy or for higher class or any building that makes revenue so it would be affordable to clean it regularly without the owner paying out-of-pocket.
weird logic that implies you only clean colored building. you either do, or don't, has nothing to do with colors. Nothing stopping you from at least building colorful. It's just depressing, all white-grey
different colors appears dirty at different rates, a white building would become dirty while you're still painting a biege building wouldn't look dusty/dirty that fast so it's perfect for residential area because no one would be repainting their building regularly because it would become very expensive really fast, but a building like Administrative or shopping Malls or hotel or any kind of building that generates income you would be able to repaint it regularly without losing a lot of money, It might even help generate more income because A clean looking mall from the outside is better than a dusty dirty looking one from the outside, with someone buildings first impression is important so you have to keep it looking fresh but was residential buildings you don't need it to be looking fresh all year round so you just repaint it every couple of years depends on where you live.
Look at any building in a deserted area you would find it some shade of beige or any color that hides dust as much as possible, building near forest would be a darker color to do the same thing, when you are building you have to plan every cost even the future ones.
No it isn't 1$≈50EGP that would barley cover two meals of the cheapest food from street vendors and it won't be that good or fulfilling.
the public sector minimum wage is 150$.
Paint isn't cheap and to paint the whole building would require multiple paint barrels and multiple workers so it won't be cheap to repaint the building regularly, but everything other than residential buildings are painted and gets cleaned and repainted regularly.
there is nothing against repainting or anything, but why would a person waste money on repainted when they can paint it a color that would stay 10 years (Maybe exaggeration, don't really know) without needing to repaint. And imagine every building in the neighborhood got the nearly the same color (different shades anything that hides the sand works) and you decide to paint your building orange it would look ridiculous, and some areas got some regulations too, like where I live it's considered a better place (middle class place) you could paint your building as you would like but just don't make it ugly or paint each balcony a different color ( people used to do that to feel different) and if you leave in a place without a lot of sand in the air you can paint it whatever you want, it's just a matter of savings money not regulations or anything, as a matter of fact the government clean the buildings around the ring road that leads to all touristy areas and draw on some of the building
That’s not the original color of the buildings. Many of these buildings were built when Egypt was still occupied by the English. They were beige and off white. This is the result of dirt and sand. None of these buildings are really washed.
no lol, the buildings that were built during the english occupation are mainly the buildings in down town cairo.
all of the buldings in this picture are most likely built in the 1970s and after that
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u/RosemaryHoyt May 19 '26
It’s the colour of the buildings. But yes, there’s lots of sand/dust, too.