Maritim Hotelgesellschaft, Germany's second largest hotel chain, announced its first hotel in Egypt.

After contracts were signed for a Maritim Hotel at the Costa del Sol, Spain, earlier this year, Wolfgang Hedderich, CEO of HMS International Ltds in Cologne, an associated partner of Maritim, now concluded a management contract for the Maritim Hotel Solimer Cairo, a first class hotel (regional category five stars) located just at the gates of the Egyptian capital Cairo, in the new vacation and leisure region Solaimaneyah City.

Thus, as of autumn 2006, Maritim will operate their first hotel in Egypt and take a further big step in their current international expansion.

The Maritim Hotel Solimer Cairo offers 122 rooms and suites in two buildings. A third building with 240 rooms and an affiliated congress and conference centre will be completed by the end of the year 2007.

The hotel complex then will be run as Maritim Hotel & Conference Centre Solimer Cairo and cover 366 large scaled rooms with terrace or balcony, air-condition and further amenities, such as two convention rooms for up to 1,500 guests and several smaller conference rooms.

Thus Maritim remains true also in Egypt to its philosophy of combining meeting and staying in close neighbourhood or even under one roof.

Simultaneously, the Resort places itself also as golf and leisure hotel. It is embedded into the Pyramids Golf & Country Club which currently offers five 9-hole courses. Because of a floodlighting system unique in Egypt which is installed on one of the courses golfers do not have to clean their clubs at nightfall here but can play well into the late evening.

Further golf courses are planned. Squash and soccer grounds, pool landscapes, different indoor and outdoor restaurants as well as a spa and fitness centres will also belong to the Maritim Hotel & Conference Centre Solimer Cairo.

Solaimaneyah City comprises four districts with villas, residences and restaurants. In the near future shops, various service industries and leisure and amusement facilities for adults and children will also settle here. The slightly hilly area of the city covers over 13 million square metres. Lakes and ponds, plantations of palms, pines, shrub, lawn areas and flowers have changed the desert here into an extensive park that is supplied by its own subterranean water source.

Based on the good air and wind circumstances, the area offers the best recreational value in Cairo and its surrounding. It is situated on a plateau, amid a green oasis, northwest of Cairo, at the Desert Road in the triangle of Alexandria, Cairo and Suez. The pyramids of Gizeh are just 25 minutes away and within 40 minutes by car lively downtown city Cairo with its museums, bazaars and cultural monuments is reachable. The international airport of the capital city is at a distance of 70 minutes.