The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

With the saturation of the many escape rooms that have exploded onto the scene over the last couple of years, it’s become hard to find a gimmick or quality that would gave a venue a unique take or quality that might keep Cairenes interested.

Enter The Maze; hidden away in a secluded and quiet street in New Cairo, it opened in 2015 as Egypt’s first ‘Maze Room’. After going down the steps we were greeted and given waivers to sign, through which you accept being in claustrophobic areas and complete darkness. There are two rooms available; The Unknown challenges you to find your way out of a-door infested maze in 60 minutes, while The Jungle Maze’s story asks you to save monkeys before they get experimented on.

After accepting the responsibilities and signed the waivers, we went with The Unknown as the other one was occupied. Each maze can be played with two-to-six players and sometimes even eight guests, with prices going for 250 LE for two, 330 LE for three and 100 LE per person for four or more.

After being informed of the rules and instructions, we were divided into two teams after being led into the maze while blindfolded. And like the video on their Facebook page, we proceeded to open the doors as fast as we can, using the clues provided to us.

The clues were either brain teasers or riddles that relied on teamwork, as one team was given half of the clue, while the other team was given the other half. Communication is the key here; if they don’t relay the information to each other effectively, both teams would have certainly got stuck. If stumped, we were afforded the luxury of waving to the cameras in the room in order get a hint from the control room. Some might consider this a rather easy get-out-of-jail card, but it’s a nice touch that keeps the game going.

The Maze has just enough of a difference to offer a unique escape room game experience that maintains a sense of urgency all while still keeping it lighthearted and fun and it even offers corporate events and custom made mazes. Hopefully next time we’ll get to save some monkeys.