Cairo
Overview
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the largest city in the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minaret
Minaret
A minaret مناره , sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery....
s" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo
Old Cairo
Old Cairo is a part of Cairo, Egypt, that contains the remnants of those cities which were capitals before Cairo, such as Fustat, as well as some other elements from the city's varied history. For example, it encompasses Coptic Cairo and its many old churches and ruins of Roman fortifications...
.
Unanswered Questions
Discussions
Timeline
1945 The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
1952 Black Saturday in Egypt: rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
1969 In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
1985 Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked jetliner, but 60 people die in the raid.
1997 Hussein Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somalia since 1991.
1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board.
Encyclopedia
Cairo is the capital of Egypt
and the largest city in the Arab world
and Africa
, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minaret
s" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture
, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo
. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt
due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis
, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx
and the pyramids of Giza.
Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr , the Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab World, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, al-Azhar University
. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, and the Arab League
has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
With a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometres (174.9 sq mi), Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. With an additional ten million inhabitants just outside the city, Cairo resides at the centre of the largest metropolitan area in Africa and the eleventh-largest urban area in the world. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic, but its metro
– the only one on the African continent until the Algiers Metro
began service on November 1, 2011 – also ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 700 million passenger rides annually. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East
, and 43rd globally by Foreign Policy
s 2010 Global Cities Index
.
The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis
, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt
due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta
. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans
established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile
. This fortress, known as Babylon
, remains the oldest structure in the city. It is also situated at the nucleus of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine church in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including The Hanging Church
, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo
.
After the arab conquest of Egypt in 641, Rashidun
commander 'Amr ibn al-'As
established Fustat just north of Cairo and Babylon. At Caliph Umar's
request, the Egyptian capital was moved from Alexandria
to the new city. Fustat also became a regional centre of Islam
and home to the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As
, the first mosque
in Egypt. When the Abbasids usurped the Umayyads in 750, they moved the capital to al-Askar
, which they had built just north of Fustat. In 868, under the Tulunids
, Egypt's capital was moved further north to their own settlement, al-Qatta'i
. However, neither al-Askar nor al-Qatta'i achieved the prominence of Fustat; al-Askar had become indistinguishable from Fustat by the end of the 9th century, and al-Qatta'i was destroyed by the Abbasids when they recaptured Egypt in 905. With the Abbasids' second conquest, Fustat once again became the capital of Egypt. According to Encyclopædia Americana, the city was founded by the second caliph, Omar ibn al-Khattāb.
from Tunisia
and established a new fortified city northeast of Fustat. It took four years for Gawhar to build the city, initially known as al-Manṣūriyyah, which later took its Modern name, Al-Qahira (Cairo) which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, Jawhar also commissioned the construction of al-Azhar Mosque
, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph al-Mu'izz li Din Allah finally arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia
in Tunisia
in 973, the city was given its present name, al-Qahira ("The Victorious"), in reference to the caliph.
For nearly two hundred years after Cairo was established, the administrative centre of Egypt remained in Fustat. However in 1168 the Fatamids, under the leadership of Vizier
Shawar
, set fire to Fustat to prevent Cairo's capture by the Crusaders
. Egypt's capital was permanently moved to Cairo, which eventually expanded to include the ruins of Fustat and the previous capitals of al-Askar
and al-Qatta'i
. While the Fustat fire successfully protected the city of Cairo, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric I of Jerusalem
, and Syrian
general Shirkuh
led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment.
In 1169 Saladin
was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt and two years later he would seize power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, Al-'Āḍid. As the first Sultan of Egypt
, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty
, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad
. During his reign, Saladin also constructed the Citadel
, which served as the seat of Egyptian government until the mid-19th century.
In 1250 slave soldiers, known as the Mamluk
s, seized Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital of their new dynasty
. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids
, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings. Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city. Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre of Islamic scholarship
and a crossroads on the spice trade
route between Europe and Asia. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west of China
.
stagnation during the Late Middle Ages
, Cairo could not escape the Black Death
, which struck the city more than fifty times between 1348 and 1517. During its initial, and most deadly waves, approximately 200,000 people were killed by the plague, and, by the 15th century, Cairo's population had been reduced to between 150,000 and 300,000. The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama
discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope
, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo.
Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the Ottomans
supplanted Mamluk
power over Egypt
in 1517. Ruling from Istanbul
, Sultan Selim I
relegated Egypt to a mere province
, with Cairo as its capital. For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods. However, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of Yemen
i coffee
and India
n textile
s, primarily to Anatolia
, North Africa
, and the Balkans
. Cairene merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren Hejaz
, especially during the annual hajj
to Mecca
. It was during this same period that al-Azhar University reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today; pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of Islamic scholars
. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise
apartment building
s where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented
out to tenants
.
Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel
. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind only Istanbul, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean
. Still, when Napoleon
arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mamluk—and Cairene—influence in the mid-14th century.
The French occupation was short-lived as British
and Ottoman forces, including a sizable Albanian
contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluk
s jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha
to ascend to the role of commander
and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment
, viceroy of Egypt in 1805.
instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo under Isma'il Pasha
(r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernization processes started by his grandfather. Drawing inspiration from Paris
, Isma'il environs a city of maidans and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo
, came to fruition. Isma'il also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighboring settlements, by establishing a public works
ministry, bringing gas
and lighting to the city, and opening a theater and opera house.
The immense debt resulting from Isma'il's projects provided a pretext for increasing European control, which culminated with the British invasion in 1882. The city's economic centre quickly moved west toward the Nile
, away from the historic Islamic Cairo
section and toward the contemporary, European-style areas built by Isma'il. Europeans accounted for five percent of Cairo's population at the end of the 19th century, by which point they held most top governmental positions.
The British occupation was intended to be temporary, but it lasted well into the 20th century. Nationalists staged large-scale demonstrations
in Cairo in 1919, five years after Egypt had been declared a British protectorate
. Nevertheless, while this led to Egypt's independence in 1922
, British troops remained in the country until 1956. During this time, urban Cairo, spurred by new bridges and transport links, continued to in expand to include the upscale neighborhoods of Garden City
, Zamalek
, and Heliopolis
. Between 1882 and 1937, the population of Cairo more than tripled – from 347,000 to 1.3 million – and its area increased from 10 square kilometres (4 sq mi) to 163 square kilometres (63 sq mi).
The city was devastated during the 1952 Cairo Fire
, also known as Black Saturday, which saw the destruction of nearly 700 shops, movie theatres, casinos and hotels in Downtown Cairo. The British departed Cairo following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but the city's rapid growth showed no signs of abating. Seeking to accommodate the increasing population, President
Gamal Abdel Nasser
redeveloped Midan Tahrir
and the Nile Corniche
, and improved the city's network of bridges and highways. Meanwhile, additional controls of the Nile fostered development within the island of Gezira
and along the city's waterfront. The metropolis began to encroach on the fertile Nile Delta
, prompting the government to build desert satellite town
s and devise incentives for city-dwellers to move to them.
Despite these efforts, Cairo's population has doubled since the 1960s, reaching close to seven million (with an additional ten million in its urban area
). Concurrently, Cairo has established itself as a political and economic hub for North Africa
and the Arab World
, with many multinational businesses and organizations, including the Arab League
, operating out of the city.
In 1992, Cairo was hit by a damaging earthquake
, that caused 545 deaths, 6512 injuries and left 50,000 people homeless.
, east of Cairo, are major urban developments which have been built to accommodate additional growth and development of the Cairo area. New development includes several high-end residential developments.
Cairo is located in northern Egypt
, known as Lower Egypt
, 165 kilometres (102.5 mi) south of the Mediterranean Sea
and 120 kilometres (74.6 mi) west of the Gulf of Suez
and Suez Canal
. The city is along the Nile River
, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and branches into the low-lying Nile Delta
region. Although the Cairo metropolis extends away from the Nile in all directions, the city of Cairo resides only on the east bank of the river and two islands within it on a total area of 453 square kilometres (174.9 sq mi).
Until the mid-19th century, when the river was tamed by dams, levees, and other controls, the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo was highly susceptible to changes in course and surface level. Over the years, the Nile gradually shifted westward, providing the site between the eastern edge of the river and the Mokattam
highlands on which the city now stands. The land on which Cairo was established in 969 (present-day Islamic Cairo
) was located underwater just over three hundred years earlier, when Fustat was first built.
Low periods of the Nile during the 11th century continued to add to the landscape of Cairo; a new island, known as Geziret al-Fil, first appeared in 1174, but eventually became connected to the mainland. Today, the site of Geziret al-Fil is occupied by the Shubra district. The low periods created another island at the turn of the 14th century that now composes Zamalek
and Gezira
. Land reclamation
efforts by the Mamluk
s and Ottomans
further contributed to expansion on the east bank of the river.
Because of the Nile's movement, the newer parts of the city – Garden City
, Downtown Cairo
, and Zamalek – are located closest to the riverbank. The areas, which are home to most of Cairo's embassies
, are surrounded on the north, east, and south by the older parts of the city. Old Cairo
, located south of the centre, holds the remnants of Fustat and the heart of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, Coptic Cairo
. The Boulaq
district, which lies in the northern part of the city, was born out of a major 16th-century port and is now a major industrial centrer. The Citadel
is located east of the city centre around Islamic Cairo
, which dates back to the Fatimid era and the foundation of Cairo. While western Cairo is dominated by wide boulevards, open spaces, and modern architecture
of European influence, the eastern half, having grown haphazardly over the centuries, is dominated by small lanes, crowded tenements, and Islamic architecture
.
Northern and extreme eastern parts of Cairo, which include satellite town
s, are among the most recent additions to the city, as they developed in the late-20th and early-21st centuries to accommodate the city's rapid growth. The western bank of the Nile is commonly included within the urban area of Cairo, but it composes the city of Giza and the Giza Governorate. Giza has also undergone significant expansion over recent years, and today the city, although still a suburb
of Cairo, has a population of 2.7 million. The Cairo Governorate is just north of the Helwan Governorate
, which was created in 2008 when some of Cairo's southern districts, including Maadi
and New Cairo
, were split off and annexed into the new governorate
.
(BWh according to the Köppen climate classification
system), but often with high humidity due to the river valley's effects. Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust
into the city during the months of March and April. High temperatures in winter range from 19 °C (66 °F) to 29 °C (84 °F), while night-time lows drop to below 11 °C (52 °F), often to 5 °C (41 °F). In summer, the highs rarely surpass 40 °C (104 °F), and lows drop to about 50 °C (122 °F). Rainfall is sparse, but sudden showers do cause harsh flooding. In New Cairo
, a place of higher elevation than down town Cairo, the temperatures often drop below zero during winter causing morning frost.
in the country. Cairo's hospitals include the JCI-accredited As-Salam International Hospital - Corniche El Nile; Maadi (Egypt's largest private hospital
with 350 beds), Ain Shams University
Hospital, Dar El Fouad Hospital, as well as Qasr El Ainy General Hospital
.
Today, Cairo is the centre for many government offices governing the Egyptian educational system
, has the largest number of educational schools, and higher learning institutes
among other cities and governorates of Egypt.
Some of the International Schools found in Cairo include:
Universities in Cairo:
Transportation in Cairo comprises an extensive road network, rail system, subway system
, and maritime services. Road transport is facilitated by personal vehicles, taxi cabs, privately owned public buses, and Cairo microbuses. Cairo, specifically Ramses Square, is the centre of almost the entire Egyptian transportation network
.
The subway system, officially called "Metro (مترو)", is a fast and efficient way of getting around Cairo. It can get very crowded during rush hour
. Two train cars (the fourth and fifth ones) are reserved for women only, although women may ride in any car they want.
An extensive road network connects Cairo with other Egyptian cities and villages. There is a new Ring Road
that surrounds the outskirts of the city, with exits that reach outer Cairo districts. There are flyovers and bridges, such as the Sixth of October bridge that, when the traffic is not heavy, allow fast means of transportation
from one side of the city to the other.
Cairo traffic is known to be overwhelming and overcrowded. Traffic moves at a relatively fluid pace. Drivers tend to be aggressive, but are more courteous at intersections, taking turns going, with police aiding in traffic control of some congested areas.
On 25 October 2009 a passenger train ran into another one near Giza, just outside Cairo. Local news agencies reported at least 25 people dead. A local resident, Samhi Saleh Abdel Al, told reporters that "the first train stopped after hitting a cow
and 10 minutes later the second train arrived at full speed." One of the two trains was travelling from Cairo to Assiut, while the other was said to have been en-route to Fayoum from Giza. Around 55 people were injured.
Soccer is the most popular Sport in Egypt, and Cairo has a number of sporting teams that compete in national and regional leagues. The best known teams are Al-Ahly
and El Zamalek, whose annual football tournament is perhaps the most watched sports event in Egypt as well as the African and Arabian World. Both teams are known as the "rivals" of Egyptian football, and are the first and the second champions in the African continent and the Arab World. Both teams play their home games at Cairo International Stadium
or Naser Stadium, which is Egypt's 2nd largest stadium, Cairo's largest one and one of the largest stadiums in the world.
The Cairo International Stadium
was built in 1960 and its multi-purpose sports complex that houses the main football stadium, an indoor stadium, several satellite fields that held several regional, continental and global games, including the African Games
, U17 Football World Championship and was one of the stadiums scheduled that hosted the 2006 African Nations Cup which was played in January, 2006 Egypt later won the competition and went on to win the next edition In Ghana (2008) making the Egyptian and Ghanaian national teams the only teams to win the African cup of nations Back to back which resulted in Egypt winning the title for a record number of six times in African Continental Competition's history. This was followed by a third consecutive win in Angola 2010, making Egypt the only country with a record 3-consecutive and 7-total Continental Football Competition winner. This achievement had also placed the Egyptian football team as the #12 best team in the world's FIFA rankings.
Cairo failed at the applicant stage when bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games
, which was hosted in Beijing, China. However, Cairo did host the 2007 Pan-Arab Games
.
There are several other sports teams in the city that participate in several sports including el Gezira Sporting Club
, el Shams Club, el Seid Club, Heliopolis Club and several smaller clubs, but the biggest clubs in Egypt (not in area but in sports) are Al Ahly
& Al Zamalek
. They have the two biggest football teams in Egypt.
Most of the sports federations of the country are also located in the city suburbs, including the Egyptian Football Association
. The headquarters of the Confederation of African Football
(CAF) was previously located in Cairo, before relocating to its new headquarters in 6 October City, a small city away from Cairo's crowded districts.
On October 2008, the Egyptian Rugby Federation was officially formed and granted membership into the International Rugby Board
.
Egypt is internationally known for the excellence of its squash players who excel in both professional and junior divisions. Gizira Club in Zamalek is where former world #1 Amr Shabana and former world #1 Karim Darwish practice. The Heliopolis Club in Heliopolis is the home of current world #1 Ramy Ashour and his brother, world #24, Hisham Ashour. Other major squash-playing venues are The Shooting Club (Nadi el Seid) in Dokki, The Maadi Club in Maadi and Wadi Degla in Degla.
s have always met. The Pharaoh
s together with the Greeks
, Babylonians and the Romans
have left their imprints here. Muslim
s from the Arabian Peninsula, led by Amr ibn al-A'as
, introduced Islam
into Egypt. Khedive
Mohammad Ali
, with his Albanian family roots, put Egypt on the road to modernity. The cultural mixture in this city only is natural, considering its heritage. Egypt can be likened to an open museum with monuments of the different historical periods on display everywhere.
Egypt is proud to be the only state in the region which built two opera house
s within a century.
or Royal Opera House was the original opera house in Cairo, Egypt. It was dedicated on November 1, 1869 and burned down on October 28, 1971. After the original opera house was destroyed, Cairo was without an opera house for nearly two decades until the opening of the new Cairo Opera House in 1988.
of the Arab world.
For more than 500 years of recorded history
, Egypt has fascinated the West and inspired its creative talents from play writer William Shakespeare
, poet and dramatist John Dryden
, and novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell
to film producer Cecil B. de Mille
. Since the silent movies
Hollywood has been capitalising on the box-office
returns that come from combining Egyptian stories with visual effects.
Egypt has also been a fount of Arabic literature
, producing some of the 20th century's greatest Arab writers such as Taha Hussein and Tawfiq al-Hakim to Nobel Laureate, novelist Naguib Mahfouz
. Each of them has written for the cinema.
With these credentials, it was clear that Cairo should aim to hold an international film festival
. This dream came true on Monday August 16, 1976, when the first Cairo International Film Festival
was launched by the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics, headed by Kamal El-Mallakh
. The Association ran the festival for seven years until 1983.
This achievement lead to the President of the Festival again contacting the FIAPF
with the request that a competition should be included at the 1991 Festival. The request was granted.
In 1998, the Festival took place under the presidency of one of Egypt's leading actors, Hussein Fahmy
, who was appointed by the Minister of Culture
, Farouk Hosni
, after the death of Saad El-Din Wahba.
Four years later, the journalist and writer Cherif El-Shoubashy became president.
For 33 years The International Festival has awarded dozens of international superstars, including John Malkovich
, Nicolas Cage
, Morgan Freeman
, Bud Spencer
, Gina Lollobrigida
, Ornella Muti
, Sophia Loren
, Claudia Cardinale
, Victoria Abril
, Elizabeth Taylor
, Shashi Kapoor
, Alain Delon
, Goldy Hawn
, Kurt Russell
, Susan Sarandon
, Greta Scacchi
, Catherine Deneuve
, Peter O'Toole
, Charlize Theron
, Julia Ormond
, Mira Sorvino
, Stuart Townsend
, Alicia Silverstone
, Priscilla Presley
, Christopher Lee
, Irene Papas
, Marcello Mastroianni
, Salma Hayek
, Lucy liu
, Samuel Jackson
, Tom Berenger
and Omar Sharif
, as well as directors like Robert Wise
, Elia Kazan
, Vanessa Redgrave
, Oliver Stone
, Roland Joffe
, Carlos Saura
, Ismail Merchant
and Michelangelo Antonioni
, in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today. The presidents of the Festival since it was founded in 1976 are Saad El-Din Wahba, Hussein Fahmy
and Sherif El Shoubashy. This year the festival a milestone of 30 years in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today.
is an accumulation of almost 200,000 Jewish manuscripts that were found in the genizah of the Ben Ezra
synagogue (built 882) of Fostat, Egypt (now Old Cairo), the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were bought in Cairo in the later 19th century. These documents were written from about 870 to as late as 1880 AD and have now been archived in various American and European libraries. The Taylor-Schechter collection in the University of Cambridge
runs to 140,000 manuscripts; there are a further 40,000 manuscripts at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
.
Cairo is also in every respect the centre of Egypt, as it has been almost since its founding in 969 AD. The majority of the nation's commerce is generated there, or passes through the city. The great majority of publishing houses
and media outlets and nearly all film studio
s are there, as are half of the nation's hospital beds and universities. This has fueled rapid construction in the city—one building in five is less than 15 years old.
This astonishing growth until recently surged well ahead of city services
. Homes, roads, electricity, telephone and sewer services were all suddenly in short supply. Analysts trying to grasp the magnitude of the change coined terms like "hyper-urbanization".
the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Several notable buildings surround the square including, The American University in Cairo's down-town campus, the Mogamma governmental administrative Building, the headquarters of the Arab League
, the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel, the headquarters of the National Democratic Party
, and the Egyptian Museum
. Being at the heart of Cairo, the square witnessed several major protests over the years. However, the most notable event in the square was being the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution
against former president Hosni Mubarak
.
Tahrir Square was not renamed after the 1919 Egyptian Revolution but was renamed after the 1952 Revolution by Nasser.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities
, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, is home to the most extensive collection of ancient Egypt
ian antiquities in the world. It has 136,000 items on display, with many more hundreds of thousands in its basement storerooms.
, or marketplace. It dates back to 1382, when Emir Djaharks el-Khalili built a large caravanserai
, or khan. A caravanserai is a hotel for traders, and usually the focal point for any surrounding area. The caravanserai remains today.
and Fostat, which contains the Coptic Museum
, Babylon Fortress
, Hanging Church
, the Greek Church
of St. George, many other Coptic churches, the Ben Ezra Synagogue
and Amr ibn al-'As
Mosque
.
Established in 972, Al-Azhar mosque was historically the site of the renowned Al-Azhar University
, until the university's move in the late 20th century to a new campus in Nasr City
.
in Cairo is a matter of serious concern. Greater Cairo's volatile aromatic hydrocarbon
levels are higher than many other similar cities. Air quality measurements in Cairo have also been recording dangerous levels of lead
, carbon dioxide
, sulphur dioxide
, and suspended particulate matter concentrations due to decades of unregulated vehicle emissions, urban industrial operations, and chaff and trash burning. There are over 4,500,000 cars on the streets of Cairo, 60% of which are over 10 years old, and therefore lack modern emission cutting features like catalytic converter
s. Cairo has a very poor dispersion factor because of lack of rain and its layout of tall buildings and narrow streets, which create a bowl effect.
In recent years, a mysterious black cloud
(as Egyptians refer to it) appeared over Cairo every fall
and causes serious respiratory diseases and eye irritations for the city's citizens. Tourists who are not familiar with such high levels of pollution must take extra care.
Cairo also has many unregistered lead and copper
smelters which heavily pollute the city. The results of this has been a permanent haze over the city with particulate matter in the air reaching over three times normal levels. It is estimated that 10,000 to 25,000 people a year in Cairo die due to air pollution-related diseases. Lead has been shown to cause harm to the central nervous system
and neurotoxicity particularly in children. In 1995, the first environmental acts were introduced and the situation has seen some improvement with 36 air monitoring stations and emissions tests on cars. 20,000 buses have also been commissioned to the city to improve congestion levels, which are very high.
The city also suffers from a high level of land pollution
. Cairo produces 10,000 tons of waste material each day, 4,000 tons of which is not collected
or managed
. This once again is a huge health hazard
and the Egyptian Government is looking for ways to combat this. The Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Agency was founded to collect and recycle the waste; however, they also work with the Zabbaleen
(or Zabaleen
), a community that has been collecting and recycling Cairo's waste since the turn of the 20th century and live in an area known locally as Manshiyat naser
. Both are working together to pick up as much waste as possible within the city limits, though it remains a pressing problem.
The city also suffers from water pollution
as the sewer system tends to fail and overflow. On occasion, sewage
has escaped onto the streets to create a health hazard. This problem is hoped to be solved by a new sewer system funded by the European Union
, which could cope with the demand of the city. The dangerously high levels of mercury
in the city's water system has global health
officials concerned over related health risks. There is also more concern about environmental issues among Egyptians than before. There is now general awareness and some projects are laid down to help make the public aware of the importance of a clean environment.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the largest city in the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minaret
Minaret
A minaret مناره , sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery....
s" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo
Old Cairo
Old Cairo is a part of Cairo, Egypt, that contains the remnants of those cities which were capitals before Cairo, such as Fustat, as well as some other elements from the city's varied history. For example, it encompasses Coptic Cairo and its many old churches and ruins of Roman fortifications...
. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis
Memphis, Egypt
Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Helwan, south of Cairo.According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an...
, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx
Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza , commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt....
and the pyramids of Giza.
Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr , the Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab World, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, and the Arab League
Arab League
The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a...
has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
With a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometres (174.9 sq mi), Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. With an additional ten million inhabitants just outside the city, Cairo resides at the centre of the largest metropolitan area in Africa and the eleventh-largest urban area in the world. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic, but its metro
Cairo Metro
The Cairo Metro in Egypt is the first of only two full-fledged metro system in Africa, and the Arab World. The system consists of two operational lines, with construction having begun on a third line in 2006....
– the only one on the African continent until the Algiers Metro
Algiers Metro
The Algiers Metro in Algiers, Algeria, is a transport project dating from the 1970s that was designed to address the need for mass transport caused by the city's growth. Formally launched in the 1980s, the project slowed down due to financial difficulties and security issues in the 1990s...
began service on November 1, 2011 – also ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 700 million passenger rides annually. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, and 43rd globally by Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...
s 2010 Global Cities Index
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
.
Initial settlements
Memphis, Egypt
Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Helwan, south of Cairo.According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an...
, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
. This fortress, known as Babylon
Babylon Fortress
Babylon Fortress was an ancient fortress city or castle in the Delta of Egypt, located at Babylon in the area today known as Coptic Cairo.It was situated in the Heliopolite Nome, upon the right bank of the Nile, at latitude 30°N, near the commencement of the Pharaonic Canal , from the Nile to the...
, remains the oldest structure in the city. It is also situated at the nucleus of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine church in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including The Hanging Church
The Hanging Church
Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church also known as the Hanging Church is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the 3rd century AD....
, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed that the Holy Family visited this area and stayed at the site of Saints Sergius and...
.
After the arab conquest of Egypt in 641, Rashidun
Rashidun Caliphate
The Rashidun Caliphate , comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death in 632, Year 10 A.H.. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia...
commander 'Amr ibn al-'As
'Amr ibn al-'As
`Amr ibn al-`As was an Arab military commander who is most noted for leading the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640. A contemporary of Muhammad, and one of the Sahaba , who rose quickly through the Muslim hierarchy following his conversion to Islam in the year 8 AH...
established Fustat just north of Cairo and Babylon. At Caliph Umar's
Umar
`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
request, the Egyptian capital was moved from Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
to the new city. Fustat also became a regional centre of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and home to the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As
Mosque of Amr ibn al-As
The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As , also called the Mosque of Amr, was originally built in 642 AD, as the center of the newly-founded capital of Egypt, Fustat...
, the first mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in Egypt. When the Abbasids usurped the Umayyads in 750, they moved the capital to al-Askar
Al-Askar
al-‘Askar was the capital of Egypt from 750-868 AD, when the Abbasid caliphate was in power in Egypt.-History:After the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, Rashidun commander Amr ibn al-As established Fustat just north of Coptic Cairo...
, which they had built just north of Fustat. In 868, under the Tulunids
Tulunids
The Tulunids were the first independent dynasty in Islamic Egypt , when they broke away from the central authority of the Abbasid dynasty that ruled the Islamic Caliphate during that time...
, Egypt's capital was moved further north to their own settlement, al-Qatta'i
Al-Qatta'i
Al-Qatta'i was the short-lived Tulunid capital of Egypt, founded by Ahmad ibn Tulun in the year 868 CE. Al-Qatta'i was located immediately to the northeast of the previous capital, Al-'Askar, which in turn was adjacent to the settlement of Fustat. All three settlements were later incorporated...
. However, neither al-Askar nor al-Qatta'i achieved the prominence of Fustat; al-Askar had become indistinguishable from Fustat by the end of the 9th century, and al-Qatta'i was destroyed by the Abbasids when they recaptured Egypt in 905. With the Abbasids' second conquest, Fustat once again became the capital of Egypt. According to Encyclopædia Americana, the city was founded by the second caliph, Omar ibn al-Khattāb.
Foundation and expansion
In 969, led by General Gawhar al-Siqilli, the Fatimid Caliphate conquered EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
from Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and established a new fortified city northeast of Fustat. It took four years for Gawhar to build the city, initially known as al-Manṣūriyyah, which later took its Modern name, Al-Qahira (Cairo) which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, Jawhar also commissioned the construction of al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque is a mosque in Islamic Cairo in Egypt. Al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh of the Fatimid Caliphate commissioned its construction for the newly established capital city in 970. Its name is usually thought to allude to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, a revered figure in Islam...
, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph al-Mu'izz li Din Allah finally arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia
Mahdia
Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as weaving. It is the capital of Mahdia Governorate.- History :...
in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
in 973, the city was given its present name, al-Qahira ("The Victorious"), in reference to the caliph.
Vizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
Shawar
Shawar
Shawar was a ruler of Egypt, the vizier, from December 1162 until he was assassinated in 1169. He is best known for being part of the three-way power struggle during the Crusades between the Christian King Amalric I of Jerusalem and Shirkuh, a Syrian general and uncle of the man who was to become...
, set fire to Fustat to prevent Cairo's capture by the Crusaders
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
. Egypt's capital was permanently moved to Cairo, which eventually expanded to include the ruins of Fustat and the previous capitals of al-Askar
Al-Askar
al-‘Askar was the capital of Egypt from 750-868 AD, when the Abbasid caliphate was in power in Egypt.-History:After the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, Rashidun commander Amr ibn al-As established Fustat just north of Coptic Cairo...
and al-Qatta'i
Al-Qatta'i
Al-Qatta'i was the short-lived Tulunid capital of Egypt, founded by Ahmad ibn Tulun in the year 868 CE. Al-Qatta'i was located immediately to the northeast of the previous capital, Al-'Askar, which in turn was adjacent to the settlement of Fustat. All three settlements were later incorporated...
. While the Fustat fire successfully protected the city of Cairo, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem was King of Jerusalem 1163–1174, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. Amalric was the second son of Melisende of Jerusalem and Fulk of Jerusalem...
, and Syrian
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....
general Shirkuh
Shirkuh
Asad ad-Din Shirkuh bin Shadhi , also known as Shêrko or "Shêrgo" was an important Kurdish military commander, and uncle of Saladin....
led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment.
In 1169 Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt and two years later he would seize power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, Al-'Āḍid. As the first Sultan of Egypt
Sultan of Egypt
Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generally included Sham and Hejaz, with the consequence that the...
, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty
Ayyubid dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they...
, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. During his reign, Saladin also constructed the Citadel
Cairo Citadel
The Saladin Citadel of Cairo is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo, Egypt. The location, on Mokattam hill near the center of Cairo, was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city...
, which served as the seat of Egyptian government until the mid-19th century.
In 1250 slave soldiers, known as the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
s, seized Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital of their new dynasty
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids
Ayyubid dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they...
, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings. Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city. Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre of Islamic scholarship
Islamic studies
In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...
and a crossroads on the spice trade
Spice trade
Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes...
route between Europe and Asia. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Stagnation and Ottoman rule
Although it avoided Europe'sEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
stagnation during the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
, Cairo could not escape the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, which struck the city more than fifty times between 1348 and 1517. During its initial, and most deadly waves, approximately 200,000 people were killed by the plague, and, by the 15th century, Cairo's population had been reduced to between 150,000 and 300,000. The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo.
Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
supplanted Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
power over Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in 1517. Ruling from Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Sultan Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
relegated Egypt to a mere province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...
, with Cairo as its capital. For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods. However, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
i coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
s, primarily to Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, and the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. Cairene merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren Hejaz
Hejaz
al-Hejaz, also Hijaz is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina...
, especially during the annual hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
. It was during this same period that al-Azhar University reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today; pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of Islamic scholars
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
apartment building
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented
Renting
Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...
out to tenants
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
.
Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel
Cairo Citadel
The Saladin Citadel of Cairo is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo, Egypt. The location, on Mokattam hill near the center of Cairo, was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city...
. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind only Istanbul, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. Still, when Napoleon
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mamluk—and Cairene—influence in the mid-14th century.
The French occupation was short-lived as British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and Ottoman forces, including a sizable Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
s jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha
Muhammad Ali of Egypt
Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was a commander in the Ottoman army, who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan...
to ascend to the role of commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
, viceroy of Egypt in 1805.
Modern era
Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali PashaMuhammad Ali of Egypt
Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was a commander in the Ottoman army, who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan...
instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo under Isma'il Pasha
Isma'il Pasha
Isma'il Pasha , known as Ismail the Magnificent , was the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879, when he was removed at the behest of the United Kingdom...
(r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernization processes started by his grandfather. Drawing inspiration from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Isma'il environs a city of maidans and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo
Downtown Cairo
Downtown Cairo, , has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt since the late 19th century, when the district was designed and built.-History:The area, designed by prestigious French architects was commissioned by Khedive Ismail...
, came to fruition. Isma'il also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighboring settlements, by establishing a public works
Public works
Public works are a broad category of projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community...
ministry, bringing gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
and lighting to the city, and opening a theater and opera house.
The immense debt resulting from Isma'il's projects provided a pretext for increasing European control, which culminated with the British invasion in 1882. The city's economic centre quickly moved west toward the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, away from the historic Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo is a part of central Cairo noted for its historically important mosques and other Islamic monuments. It is overlooked by the Cairo Citadel....
section and toward the contemporary, European-style areas built by Isma'il. Europeans accounted for five percent of Cairo's population at the end of the 19th century, by which point they held most top governmental positions.
The British occupation was intended to be temporary, but it lasted well into the 20th century. Nationalists staged large-scale demonstrations
Egyptian Revolution of 1919
The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians and Sudanese from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of revolutionary leader Saad Zaghlul, and other members of the Wafd...
in Cairo in 1919, five years after Egypt had been declared a British protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
. Nevertheless, while this led to Egypt's independence in 1922
Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence
The Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence was issued by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 28 February 1922...
, British troops remained in the country until 1956. During this time, urban Cairo, spurred by new bridges and transport links, continued to in expand to include the upscale neighborhoods of Garden City
Garden City (Cairo)
Garden City is an affluent district on the eastern Nile shore in Cairo, Egypt. It is between the Nile and Downtown Cairo, just south of Tahrir Square off Qasr al-Ayn Street....
, Zamalek
Zamalek
Zamalek Sporting Club , is an Egyptian sporting club based in Meet Okba, Giza, Egypt that plays in the Egyptian Premier League....
, and Heliopolis
Heliopolis (Cairo Suburb)
Modern Heliopolis is a district in Cairo, Egypt. The city was established in 1905 by the Heliopolis Oasis Company, headed by the Belgian industrialist Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain, as well as Boghos Nubar, son of the Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha.-History:The Baron Empain, a well known...
. Between 1882 and 1937, the population of Cairo more than tripled – from 347,000 to 1.3 million – and its area increased from 10 square kilometres (4 sq mi) to 163 square kilometres (63 sq mi).
The city was devastated during the 1952 Cairo Fire
Cairo Fire
The Cairo Fire , also known as Black Saturday, was a series of riots that took place on 26 January 1952, marked by the burning and looting of some 750 buildings -- retail shops, cafes, cinemas, hotels, restaurants, theatres, nightclubs and the country's Opera House -- in Downtown Cairo...
, also known as Black Saturday, which saw the destruction of nearly 700 shops, movie theatres, casinos and hotels in Downtown Cairo. The British departed Cairo following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but the city's rapid growth showed no signs of abating. Seeking to accommodate the increasing population, President
President of Egypt
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
redeveloped Midan Tahrir
Midan Tahrir
Tahrir Square is a major public town square in Downtown Cairo, Egypt.-History:The square was originally called Ismailia Square , after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on the Nile' design...
and the Nile Corniche
Corniche
The word corniche typically refers to a road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising on one side of the road and falling away on the other...
, and improved the city's network of bridges and highways. Meanwhile, additional controls of the Nile fostered development within the island of Gezira
Gezira Island
Gezira Island is located in the Nile River, in central Cairo, Egypt. The southern portion of the island contains the Gezira District, and the northern third contains the affluent Zamalek District....
and along the city's waterfront. The metropolis began to encroach on the fertile Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
, prompting the government to build desert satellite town
Satellite town
A satellite town or satellite city is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially to smaller metropolitan areas which are located somewhat near to, but are mostly independent of, larger metropolitan areas.-Characteristics:...
s and devise incentives for city-dwellers to move to them.
Despite these efforts, Cairo's population has doubled since the 1960s, reaching close to seven million (with an additional ten million in its urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
). Concurrently, Cairo has established itself as a political and economic hub for North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
and the Arab World
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
, with many multinational businesses and organizations, including the Arab League
Arab League
The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a...
, operating out of the city.
In 1992, Cairo was hit by a damaging earthquake
1992 Cairo earthquake
The 1992 Cairo earthquake occurred at 13:09 UTC on 12 October, with an epicenter near Dahshur, 35 km south of Cairo. The earthquake had a magnitude of 5.8, but was unusually destructive for its size, causing 545 deaths, injuring 6512 and making 50,000 people homeless...
, that caused 545 deaths, 6512 injuries and left 50,000 people homeless.
Satellite cities
6th of October City, west of Cairo, and New CairoNew Cairo
New Cairo is a new satellite city of Cairo. Located in what was formerly desert, the master plan was created in 2001 by a Boston firm. It is the home of the new campus of the American University in Cairo, as well as the German University in Cairo, the Future University in Egypt and the Canadian...
, east of Cairo, are major urban developments which have been built to accommodate additional growth and development of the Cairo area. New development includes several high-end residential developments.
Geography
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, known as Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
, 165 kilometres (102.5 mi) south of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
and 120 kilometres (74.6 mi) west of the Gulf of Suez
Gulf of Suez
The northern end of the Red Sea is bifurcated by the Sinai Peninsula, creating the Gulf of Suez in the west and the Gulf of Aqaba to the east. The Gulf of Suez is formed within a relatively young, but now inactive rift basin, the Gulf of Suez Rift, dating back about 28 million years...
and Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
. The city is along the Nile River
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and branches into the low-lying Nile Delta
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...
region. Although the Cairo metropolis extends away from the Nile in all directions, the city of Cairo resides only on the east bank of the river and two islands within it on a total area of 453 square kilometres (174.9 sq mi).
Until the mid-19th century, when the river was tamed by dams, levees, and other controls, the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo was highly susceptible to changes in course and surface level. Over the years, the Nile gradually shifted westward, providing the site between the eastern edge of the river and the Mokattam
Mokattam
Mokattam and the Moqattam Hills, , also Muqattam and Moqattam Mountain, is the name of a hill range and a suburb in them, located in southeastern Cairo, Egypt.-Landform:...
highlands on which the city now stands. The land on which Cairo was established in 969 (present-day Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo is a part of central Cairo noted for its historically important mosques and other Islamic monuments. It is overlooked by the Cairo Citadel....
) was located underwater just over three hundred years earlier, when Fustat was first built.
Low periods of the Nile during the 11th century continued to add to the landscape of Cairo; a new island, known as Geziret al-Fil, first appeared in 1174, but eventually became connected to the mainland. Today, the site of Geziret al-Fil is occupied by the Shubra district. The low periods created another island at the turn of the 14th century that now composes Zamalek
Zamalek
Zamalek Sporting Club , is an Egyptian sporting club based in Meet Okba, Giza, Egypt that plays in the Egyptian Premier League....
and Gezira
Gezira Island
Gezira Island is located in the Nile River, in central Cairo, Egypt. The southern portion of the island contains the Gezira District, and the northern third contains the affluent Zamalek District....
. Land reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
efforts by the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
s and Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
further contributed to expansion on the east bank of the river.
Because of the Nile's movement, the newer parts of the city – Garden City
Garden City (Cairo)
Garden City is an affluent district on the eastern Nile shore in Cairo, Egypt. It is between the Nile and Downtown Cairo, just south of Tahrir Square off Qasr al-Ayn Street....
, Downtown Cairo
Downtown Cairo
Downtown Cairo, , has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt since the late 19th century, when the district was designed and built.-History:The area, designed by prestigious French architects was commissioned by Khedive Ismail...
, and Zamalek – are located closest to the riverbank. The areas, which are home to most of Cairo's embassies
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
, are surrounded on the north, east, and south by the older parts of the city. Old Cairo
Old Cairo
Old Cairo is a part of Cairo, Egypt, that contains the remnants of those cities which were capitals before Cairo, such as Fustat, as well as some other elements from the city's varied history. For example, it encompasses Coptic Cairo and its many old churches and ruins of Roman fortifications...
, located south of the centre, holds the remnants of Fustat and the heart of Egypt's Coptic Christian community, Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed that the Holy Family visited this area and stayed at the site of Saints Sergius and...
. The Boulaq
Boulaq
Boulaq is a district of Cairo, Egypt. It neighbours Downtown Cairo, Azbakeya, and the River Nile.The name Boulaq comes from the French 'Bon Lac', which literally means 'Good Lake'. The name was arabised into Bolaq, which in Egyptian dialect is pronounced 'Bolaa'.-History:Following the Baybars’s...
district, which lies in the northern part of the city, was born out of a major 16th-century port and is now a major industrial centrer. The Citadel
Cairo Citadel
The Saladin Citadel of Cairo is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo, Egypt. The location, on Mokattam hill near the center of Cairo, was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city...
is located east of the city centre around Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo is a part of central Cairo noted for its historically important mosques and other Islamic monuments. It is overlooked by the Cairo Citadel....
, which dates back to the Fatimid era and the foundation of Cairo. While western Cairo is dominated by wide boulevards, open spaces, and modern architecture
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
of European influence, the eastern half, having grown haphazardly over the centuries, is dominated by small lanes, crowded tenements, and Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day, influencing the design and construction of buildings and structures in Islamic culture....
.
Northern and extreme eastern parts of Cairo, which include satellite town
Satellite town
A satellite town or satellite city is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially to smaller metropolitan areas which are located somewhat near to, but are mostly independent of, larger metropolitan areas.-Characteristics:...
s, are among the most recent additions to the city, as they developed in the late-20th and early-21st centuries to accommodate the city's rapid growth. The western bank of the Nile is commonly included within the urban area of Cairo, but it composes the city of Giza and the Giza Governorate. Giza has also undergone significant expansion over recent years, and today the city, although still a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Cairo, has a population of 2.7 million. The Cairo Governorate is just north of the Helwan Governorate
Helwan Governorate
Helwan Governorate was one of the governorates of Egypt. It was located in Lower Egypt.-History:The Helwan Governorate was split from the Cairo Governorate in April 2008. It was created through a presidential decree in order to ease the burden placed on Cairo, one of Egypt's most densely populated...
, which was created in 2008 when some of Cairo's southern districts, including Maadi
Maadi
Maadi is a wealthy suburb south of Cairo, Egypt. The town is home to the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, Cairo American College , Lycée Français du Caire , Misr American College , Maadi British International School , the Cairo Rugby Club, and the national Egyptian Geological Museum.-...
and New Cairo
New Cairo
New Cairo is a new satellite city of Cairo. Located in what was formerly desert, the master plan was created in 2001 by a Boston firm. It is the home of the new campus of the American University in Cairo, as well as the German University in Cairo, the Future University in Egypt and the Canadian...
, were split off and annexed into the new governorate
Governorate
A governorate is an administrative division of a country. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states, provinces, or colonies, the term governorate is often used in translation from non-English-speaking administrations.The...
.
Climate
In Cairo, and along the Nile River Valley, the climate is a desert climateDesert climate
A desert climate , also known as an arid climate, is a climate that does not meet the criteria to be classified as a polar climate, and in which precipitation is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at most a very scanty scrub.An area that features this climate usually experiences less than...
(BWh according to the Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
system), but often with high humidity due to the river valley's effects. Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust
Mineral dust
Mineral dust is a term used to indicate atmospheric aerosols originated from the suspension of minerals constituting the soil, being composed of various oxides and carbonates. Human activities lead to 30% of the dust load in the atmosphere...
into the city during the months of March and April. High temperatures in winter range from 19 °C (66 °F) to 29 °C (84 °F), while night-time lows drop to below 11 °C (52 °F), often to 5 °C (41 °F). In summer, the highs rarely surpass 40 °C (104 °F), and lows drop to about 50 °C (122 °F). Rainfall is sparse, but sudden showers do cause harsh flooding. In New Cairo
New Cairo
New Cairo is a new satellite city of Cairo. Located in what was formerly desert, the master plan was created in 2001 by a Boston firm. It is the home of the new campus of the American University in Cairo, as well as the German University in Cairo, the Future University in Egypt and the Canadian...
, a place of higher elevation than down town Cairo, the temperatures often drop below zero during winter causing morning frost.
Infrastructure
Health
Cairo, as well as neighbouring, has been established as Egypt's main centre for medical treatment, and despite some exceptions, has the most advanced level of medical careHealth care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
in the country. Cairo's hospitals include the JCI-accredited As-Salam International Hospital - Corniche El Nile; Maadi (Egypt's largest private hospital
Private hospital
A private hospital is a hospital owned by a profit company or a non-profit organisation and privately funded through payment for medical services by patients themselves, by insurers, or by foreign embassies. This practice is very common in the United States and Australia...
with 350 beds), Ain Shams University
Ain Shams University
Ain Shams University is an institute of higher education located in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1950, the university provides education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels.-History:...
Hospital, Dar El Fouad Hospital, as well as Qasr El Ainy General Hospital
Kasr El Aini Hospital
Kasr El Aini is a research and teaching hospital in Cairo, Egypt. This hospital is affiliated to the faculty of Medicine, University of Cairo....
.
Education
Cairo has long been the hub of education and educational services for Egypt and the region.Today, Cairo is the centre for many government offices governing the Egyptian educational system
Education in Egypt
Egypt has the largest overall education system in the Middle East and North Africa and it has grown rapidly since the early 1990s. In recent years the Government of Egypt has accorded even greater priority in improving the education system...
, has the largest number of educational schools, and higher learning institutes
Egyptian universities
Universities in Egypt are generally either state-funded or privately funded. Education in Egypt is free by law, however there are very small fees paid for enrollment. Public institutions, with few exceptions are generally overcrowded with a student body of several thousands...
among other cities and governorates of Egypt.
Some of the International Schools found in Cairo include:
Universities in Cairo:
| University | Date of Foundation |
|---|---|
| Al Azhar University Al-Azhar University Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is... |
975 |
| Cairo University Cairo University Cairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought... |
1908 |
| American University in Cairo American University in Cairo The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt... |
1919 |
| Ain Shams University Ain Shams University Ain Shams University is an institute of higher education located in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1950, the university provides education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels.-History:... |
1950 |
| Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport The Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport is an organization specialized in Science and Technology and Maritime Transport.... |
1972 |
| Helwan University Helwan University Helwan University is a public university based in Helwan in Egypt. It comprises 18 faculties as well as 50 research centers.Generally, it is known for engineering and business studies... |
1975 |
| Sadat Academy for Management Sciences | 1981 |
| Higher Technological Institute Higher Technological Institute - Identification :Higher Technological Institute was established by a ministerial decision issued on 27/10/1988, according to the law of private higher institutes No... |
1989 |
| Modern Academy In Maadi Modern Academy In Maadi The Modern Academy In Maadi , Egypt, was founded in 1993 by a group of professional educationalists, Initially, The Modern Academy is located in Maadi, a southern suburb of Cairo known by its greenery and quietness. MAM currently occupies permanent buildings on road # 304, New Maadi... |
1993 |
| Misr International University Misr International University is an undergraduate and comprehensive private university located in the suburbs of Cairo. Established in 1996, in Maadi, The University changed its location to Cairo-Ismailia Road... |
1996 |
| Misr University for Science and Technology Misr University for Science and Technology -History:Misr University for Science and Technology is a leading independent university in Egypt, it was established by the presidential decree No. 245/1996 in accordance with law No.101/1992 governing private universities in Egypt. MUST enjoys full legal recognition by all educational authorities... |
1996 |
| Modern Sciences and Arts University Modern Sciences and Arts University Modern Sciences and Arts University ' is an Egyptian university, a natural extension of an extensive network of Dar El Tarbiah Languages Schools founded by Dr Nawal El Degwi since 1958 which has always been acknowledged by the British Council for its contribution of establishing models of best... |
1996 |
| Université Française d'Égypte | 2002 |
| German University in Cairo German University in Cairo The German University in Cairo , is a private, nonsectarian Egyptian university established in cooperation with some German state universities of as well as some of the German and Egyptian educational institutions.... |
2003 |
| Canadian International College Canadian International College The Canadian International College , is an Egyptian Private college established as the Cairo campus of Cape Breton University in Canada. It is the first Canadian college in Egypt.- History :... |
2004 |
| British University in Egypt British University in Egypt The British University in Egypt is a private university in El Sherouk, Greater Cairo, Egypt. Founded in September 2005, the university campus covers approximately 40 acres of land. The available space within the buildings is 27000 m².-Faculties:... |
2005 |
| Ahram Canadian University Ahram Canadian University The Ahram Canadian University is an Egyptian private university established in cooperation with The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada which represents the Canadian universities and it is the only Canadian university in Egypt.... |
2005 |
| Nile University Nile University Nile University is a not-for-profit institution of higher learning. The University was established in Egypt in July 2006 by the Egyptian Foundation for Technological Education Development .... |
2006 |
| Future University in Egypt Future University in Egypt Future University in Egypt is a private university located in New Cairo, Egypt founded in 2006 by education pioneer, the late Dr. Hassan Azazy. FUE is a leading private university strategically located in the heart of New Cairo.The University provides a comprehensive, high quality education that... |
2006 |
Transportation
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
, and maritime services. Road transport is facilitated by personal vehicles, taxi cabs, privately owned public buses, and Cairo microbuses. Cairo, specifically Ramses Square, is the centre of almost the entire Egyptian transportation network
Transport network
A transport network, or transportation network in American English, is typically a network of roads, streets, pipes, aqueducts, power lines, or nearly any structure which permits either vehicular movement or flow of some commodity....
.
The subway system, officially called "Metro (مترو)", is a fast and efficient way of getting around Cairo. It can get very crowded during rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
. Two train cars (the fourth and fifth ones) are reserved for women only, although women may ride in any car they want.
An extensive road network connects Cairo with other Egyptian cities and villages. There is a new Ring Road
Ring road
A ring road, orbital motorway, beltway, circumferential highway, or loop highway is a road that encircles a town or city...
that surrounds the outskirts of the city, with exits that reach outer Cairo districts. There are flyovers and bridges, such as the Sixth of October bridge that, when the traffic is not heavy, allow fast means of transportation
Mode of transport
Mode of transport is a term used to distinguish substantially different ways to perform transport. The most dominant modes of transport are aviation, land transport, which includes rail, road and off-road transport, and ship transport...
from one side of the city to the other.
Cairo traffic is known to be overwhelming and overcrowded. Traffic moves at a relatively fluid pace. Drivers tend to be aggressive, but are more courteous at intersections, taking turns going, with police aiding in traffic control of some congested areas.
On 25 October 2009 a passenger train ran into another one near Giza, just outside Cairo. Local news agencies reported at least 25 people dead. A local resident, Samhi Saleh Abdel Al, told reporters that "the first train stopped after hitting a cow
Water Buffalo
The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, northern Africa, and elsewhere....
and 10 minutes later the second train arrived at full speed." One of the two trains was travelling from Cairo to Assiut, while the other was said to have been en-route to Fayoum from Giza. Around 55 people were injured.
- Cairo International AirportCairo International AirportCairo International Airport is the busiest airport in Egypt and the primary hub for Star Alliance member EgyptAir. The airport is located to the north-east of the city around from the business area of the city.The airport is administered by the Egyptian Holding Co...
- Ramses Railway StationRamses StationRamses Railway Station is the main railway station of Cairo, Egypt. The name is derived from the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II whose statue was erected by Nasser on the square in 1955. The station was formerly known as Misr Station....
- Cairo Tram
- Cairo Transportation Authority CTACairo Transportation AuthorityCairo Transportation Authority is the operator of mass transit within Cairo, and the largest operator in Egypt.CTA operates buses , a surface metro, ferries and river buses...
- Cairo Taxi/Yellow Cab
- Cairo MetroCairo MetroThe Cairo Metro in Egypt is the first of only two full-fledged metro system in Africa, and the Arab World. The system consists of two operational lines, with construction having begun on a third line in 2006....
- Cairo Nile Ferry
Sports
Al-Ahly
Al-Ahly Sports Club , commonly known as simply Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian sporting club. Founded in April 1907, Al-Ahly was named in 2000 by the Confederation of African Football as the "African Club of the Century"...
and El Zamalek, whose annual football tournament is perhaps the most watched sports event in Egypt as well as the African and Arabian World. Both teams are known as the "rivals" of Egyptian football, and are the first and the second champions in the African continent and the Arab World. Both teams play their home games at Cairo International Stadium
Cairo International Stadium
Cairo International Stadium or "Stad El-Qahira El-Dawly", is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. It is the Arab World's second largest . It is the foremost Olympic-standard facility befitting the role of Cairo, Egypt as the center of events in the region...
or Naser Stadium, which is Egypt's 2nd largest stadium, Cairo's largest one and one of the largest stadiums in the world.
The Cairo International Stadium
Cairo International Stadium
Cairo International Stadium or "Stad El-Qahira El-Dawly", is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. It is the Arab World's second largest . It is the foremost Olympic-standard facility befitting the role of Cairo, Egypt as the center of events in the region...
was built in 1960 and its multi-purpose sports complex that houses the main football stadium, an indoor stadium, several satellite fields that held several regional, continental and global games, including the African Games
All-Africa Games
The All-Africa Games, sometimes called the African Games or the Pan African Games, are a regional multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa...
, U17 Football World Championship and was one of the stadiums scheduled that hosted the 2006 African Nations Cup which was played in January, 2006 Egypt later won the competition and went on to win the next edition In Ghana (2008) making the Egyptian and Ghanaian national teams the only teams to win the African cup of nations Back to back which resulted in Egypt winning the title for a record number of six times in African Continental Competition's history. This was followed by a third consecutive win in Angola 2010, making Egypt the only country with a record 3-consecutive and 7-total Continental Football Competition winner. This achievement had also placed the Egyptian football team as the #12 best team in the world's FIFA rankings.
Cairo failed at the applicant stage when bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
, which was hosted in Beijing, China. However, Cairo did host the 2007 Pan-Arab Games
Pan Arab Games
The Arab Games are a regional multi-sport event held between nations from the Arab World. They are organized by the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees. The first Games took place in 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt. Intended to be held every four years since, political turmoil as well as financial...
.
There are several other sports teams in the city that participate in several sports including el Gezira Sporting Club
Sports club
A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
, el Shams Club, el Seid Club, Heliopolis Club and several smaller clubs, but the biggest clubs in Egypt (not in area but in sports) are Al Ahly
Al-Ahly
Al-Ahly Sports Club , commonly known as simply Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian sporting club. Founded in April 1907, Al-Ahly was named in 2000 by the Confederation of African Football as the "African Club of the Century"...
& Al Zamalek
Zamalek
Zamalek Sporting Club , is an Egyptian sporting club based in Meet Okba, Giza, Egypt that plays in the Egyptian Premier League....
. They have the two biggest football teams in Egypt.
Most of the sports federations of the country are also located in the city suburbs, including the Egyptian Football Association
Egyptian Football Association
The Egyptian Football Association is the governing body of football in Egypt.The leading Egyptian clubs are as follows, with the total number of national competitions following the name of the club....
. The headquarters of the Confederation of African Football
Confederation of African Football
The Confederation of African Football is the administrative and controlling body for African association football.CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs continental, national, and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those...
(CAF) was previously located in Cairo, before relocating to its new headquarters in 6 October City, a small city away from Cairo's crowded districts.
On October 2008, the Egyptian Rugby Federation was officially formed and granted membership into the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
.
Egypt is internationally known for the excellence of its squash players who excel in both professional and junior divisions. Gizira Club in Zamalek is where former world #1 Amr Shabana and former world #1 Karim Darwish practice. The Heliopolis Club in Heliopolis is the home of current world #1 Ramy Ashour and his brother, world #24, Hisham Ashour. Other major squash-playing venues are The Shooting Club (Nadi el Seid) in Dokki, The Maadi Club in Maadi and Wadi Degla in Degla.
Culture
Over the ages, and as far back as four thousand years, Egypt stood as the land where civilizationCivilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
s have always met. The Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
s together with the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, Babylonians and the Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
have left their imprints here. Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s from the Arabian Peninsula, led by Amr ibn al-A'as
'Amr ibn al-'As
`Amr ibn al-`As was an Arab military commander who is most noted for leading the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640. A contemporary of Muhammad, and one of the Sahaba , who rose quickly through the Muslim hierarchy following his conversion to Islam in the year 8 AH...
, introduced Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
into Egypt. Khedive
Khedive
The term Khedive is a title largely equivalent to the English word viceroy. It was first used, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and vassal of the Ottoman Empire...
Mohammad Ali
Muhammad Ali of Egypt
Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was a commander in the Ottoman army, who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan...
, with his Albanian family roots, put Egypt on the road to modernity. The cultural mixture in this city only is natural, considering its heritage. Egypt can be likened to an open museum with monuments of the different historical periods on display everywhere.
Cairo Opera House
President Mubarak inaugurated the new Cairo Opera House of the Egyptian National Cultural Centres on October 10, 1988, 17 years after the Royal Opera House had been destroyed by fire. The National Cultural Centre was built with the help of JICA, the Japan International Co-operation Agency and stands as a prominent feature for the Japanese-Egyptian co-operation and the friendship between these two nations.Egypt is proud to be the only state in the region which built two opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
s within a century.
Khedivial Opera House
The Khedivial Opera HouseKhedivial Opera House
The Khedivial Opera House or Royal Opera House was the original opera house in Cairo, Egypt. It was dedicated on November 1, 1869 and burned down on October 28, 1971....
or Royal Opera House was the original opera house in Cairo, Egypt. It was dedicated on November 1, 1869 and burned down on October 28, 1971. After the original opera house was destroyed, Cairo was without an opera house for nearly two decades until the opening of the new Cairo Opera House in 1988.
Cairo International Film Festival
Egypt's love of the arts in general can be traced back to the rich heritage bequeathed by the Pharaohs. In modern times, Egypt has enjoyed a strong cinematic tradition since the art of filmmaking was first developed, early in the 20th century. A natural progression from the active theatre scene of the time, cinema rapidly evolved into a vast motion picture industry. This together with the much older music tradition, raised Egypt to become Hollywood Middle East and the cultural capitalCultural capital
The term cultural capital refers to non-financial social assets; they may be educational or intellectual, which might promote social mobility beyond economic means....
of the Arab world.
For more than 500 years of recorded history
Recorded history
Recorded history is the period in history of the world after prehistory. It has been written down using language, or recorded using other means of communication. It starts around the 4th millennium BC, with the invention of writing.-Historical accounts:...
, Egypt has fascinated the West and inspired its creative talents from play writer William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, poet and dramatist John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
, and novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...
to film producer Cecil B. de Mille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
. Since the silent movies
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Hollywood has been capitalising on the box-office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
returns that come from combining Egyptian stories with visual effects.
Egypt has also been a fount of Arabic literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
, producing some of the 20th century's greatest Arab writers such as Taha Hussein and Tawfiq al-Hakim to Nobel Laureate, novelist Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
. Each of them has written for the cinema.
With these credentials, it was clear that Cairo should aim to hold an international film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
. This dream came true on Monday August 16, 1976, when the first Cairo International Film Festival
Cairo International Film Festival
The Cairo International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Cairo, Egypt. It was established in 1976 and was the first international film festival held in the Arab world...
was launched by the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics, headed by Kamal El-Mallakh
Kamal el-Mallakh
Kamal el-Mallakh was a famous Egyptian archaeologist who discovered The King Khufu Solar ship in 1950.-Life:He was born to a Coptic family from Upper Egypt on 26 October 1918 and died on 29 October 1987....
. The Association ran the festival for seven years until 1983.
This achievement lead to the President of the Festival again contacting the FIAPF
FIAPF
The FIAPF based in Paris, created in 1933, is an organization composed with 31 member associations from 25 of the leading audiovisual production countries...
with the request that a competition should be included at the 1991 Festival. The request was granted.
In 1998, the Festival took place under the presidency of one of Egypt's leading actors, Hussein Fahmy
Hussein Fahmy
Hussein Fahmy, is an Egyptian actor born in 1940 in Cairo. He is the brother of actor Mustafa Fahmy.A leading movie star and the first UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab States in 1998 and since then has worked hard to convey to his audience in the Middle East important human development messages...
, who was appointed by the Minister of Culture
Ministry of Culture (Egypt)
The Ministry of Culture of Egypt is a ministry responsible for maintaining and promoting the culture of Egypt. The current Minister is Dr. Emad Badr El-Din Mahmoud Abu Ghazy.-Critics:...
, Farouk Hosni
Farouk Hosny
Farouk Hosny , is an Egyptian abstract painter who was Minister of Culture from 1987 to 2011.-Early life and career:...
, after the death of Saad El-Din Wahba.
Four years later, the journalist and writer Cherif El-Shoubashy became president.
For 33 years The International Festival has awarded dozens of international superstars, including John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
, Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...
, Bud Spencer
Bud Spencer
Bud Spencer is an Italian actor, filmmaker and former swimmer . He is known for past roles in spaghetti westerns together with his long time filmpartner Terence Hill...
, Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...
, Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
, Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...
, Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril is a Spanish film actress. She is best known to international audiences for her performance in the movie ¡Átame! by director Pedro Almodóvar....
, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Shashi Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor , born Balbir-Raj Prithviraj Kapoor on 18 March 1938 in Calcutta , is an award-winning Indian film actor and film producer. He has also been film director and assistant director in Hindi Films. He is a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema...
, Alain Delon
Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
, Goldy Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
, Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
, Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi is an Italian-Australian actor.-Early life:Scacchi was born Greta Gracco in Milan, Italy, on 18 February 1960, the daughter of Luca Scacchi Gracco, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Carsaniga, an English dancer and antiques dealer...
, Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
, Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
, Julia Ormond
Julia Ormond
Julia Karin Ormond is an English actress who has appeared in film and television and on stage.-Early life and education:...
, Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
, Stuart Townsend
Stuart Townsend
Stuart Townsend is an Irish actor and director. His most notable portrayals are of the characters Lestat de Lioncourt in the 2002 film adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned, and Dorian Gray in the 2003 film adaptation of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.-Early life and...
, Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone is an American actress, author, and former fashion model. She first came to widespread attention in music videos for Aerosmith, and is perhaps best known for her roles in Hollywood films such as Clueless and her portrayal of Batgirl in Batman & Robin .-Early life:Silverstone...
, Priscilla Presley
Priscilla Presley
Priscilla Presley is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the ex-wife of singer Elvis Presley, and the mother of singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley....
, Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
, Irene Papas
Irene Papas
Irene Papas is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.-Life:...
, Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
, Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
, Lucy liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
, Samuel Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
, Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger
Tom Berenger is an American actor known mainly for his roles in action films.-Early life:Berenger was born as Thomas Michael Moore in Chicago to an Irish Catholic family. Berenger's father was a printer for the Chicago Sun-Times. Berenger has a sister, Susan...
and Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
, as well as directors like Robert Wise
Robert Wise
Robert Earl Wise was an American sound effects editor, film editor, film producer and director...
, Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
, Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
, Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
, Roland Joffe
Roland Joffé
Roland Joffé is an English-French film director who is known for his Oscar nominated movies, The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television. His early television credits included episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada...
, Carlos Saura
Carlos Saura
Carlos Saura Atarés is a Spanish film director and photographer.-Early life:Born into a family of artists , he developed his artistic sense in childhood as a photography enthusiast.He obtained his directing diploma in Madrid in 1957 at the Institute of Cinema Research and Studies...
, Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
and Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
, in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today. The presidents of the Festival since it was founded in 1976 are Saad El-Din Wahba, Hussein Fahmy
Hussein Fahmy
Hussein Fahmy, is an Egyptian actor born in 1940 in Cairo. He is the brother of actor Mustafa Fahmy.A leading movie star and the first UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab States in 1998 and since then has worked hard to convey to his audience in the Middle East important human development messages...
and Sherif El Shoubashy. This year the festival a milestone of 30 years in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today.
Cairo Geniza
The Cairo GenizaCairo Geniza
The Cairo Geniza is a collection of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the Genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, presently Old Cairo, Egypt. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and the collection includes a number of...
is an accumulation of almost 200,000 Jewish manuscripts that were found in the genizah of the Ben Ezra
Abraham ibn Ezra
Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....
synagogue (built 882) of Fostat, Egypt (now Old Cairo), the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were bought in Cairo in the later 19th century. These documents were written from about 870 to as late as 1880 AD and have now been archived in various American and European libraries. The Taylor-Schechter collection in the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
runs to 140,000 manuscripts; there are a further 40,000 manuscripts at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
.
Economy
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
and media outlets and nearly all film studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
s are there, as are half of the nation's hospital beds and universities. This has fueled rapid construction in the city—one building in five is less than 15 years old.
This astonishing growth until recently surged well ahead of city services
Municipal services
Municipal services or city services refer to basic services that residents of a city expect the city government to provide in exchange for the taxes which citizens pay. Basic city services may include sanitation , water, streets, schools, food inspection fire department, police, ambulance, and...
. Homes, roads, electricity, telephone and sewer services were all suddenly in short supply. Analysts trying to grasp the magnitude of the change coined terms like "hyper-urbanization".
Cairos Automobile assembler & manufacturer
- Arab American Vehicles CompanyArab American VehiclesArab American Vehicles is an Egyptian automobile manufacturer based in Cairo, Egypt.The company manufactures various vehicles under license from Daimler AG, Kia, Chrysler LLC, and Peugeot — having begun as a joint venture between the Arab Organization for Industrialization and 49% of the...
- Egyptian Light Transport Manufacturing Company (Egyptian NSU pedant)
- Ghabbour GroupGhabbour GroupThe Ghabbour Group is an Egyptian manufacturer of automobiles, buses, trucks and motorcycles located in Cairo.The company was founded by the brothers Kamal and Sadek Ghabbour because they realized that the automotive sector is a growing up market...
(Fuso, Hyundai and Volvo) - MCV Corporate GroupManufacturing Commercial VehiclesManufacturing Commercial Vehicles is an Egyptian manufacturer for buses and trucks located in El Salam City, Cairo. The manufacturer owns the trademark rights of the brands ECHOLINE, eVolution and MCV...
(a part of the Daimler AG) - Mod Car
- Seoudi GroupSeoudi GroupThe Seoudi Group is an Egyptian automobile manufacturer which was founded in 1975 with its current head office in Cairo.The company began its work with the Modern Motors S.A.E. which is specialized for manufacturing Nissan vehicles...
(Modern Motors: Nissan, BMW (formerly); El-Mashreq: Alfa Romeo and Fiat) - Speranza (former Daewoo Motors Egypt; CheryChery AutomobileChery Automobile Co Ltd is a state-owned automobile manufacturer in the People's Republic of China.Chery became the 7th most-productive Chinese vehicle manufacturer in 2010, selling nearly 700,000 units.-History:...
, Daewoo)
Main sights
- For a complete list, see Visitor attractions in Cairo, list of mosques
Tahrir Square
Tahrir Square was founded during the mid 19th century with the establishment of modern down-town Cairo. It was first named Ismailia Square, after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on the Nile' design. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1919Egyptian Revolution of 1919
The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians and Sudanese from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of revolutionary leader Saad Zaghlul, and other members of the Wafd...
the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Several notable buildings surround the square including, The American University in Cairo's down-town campus, the Mogamma governmental administrative Building, the headquarters of the Arab League
Arab League
The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a...
, the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel, the headquarters of the National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party
The National Democratic Party could refer to* Afar National Democratic Party* Kamerun National Democratic Party* National Democratic Party * National Democratic Party * National Democratic Party...
, and the Egyptian Museum
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms....
. Being at the heart of Cairo, the square witnessed several major protests over the years. However, the most notable event in the square was being the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...
against former president Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
.
Tahrir Square was not renamed after the 1919 Egyptian Revolution but was renamed after the 1952 Revolution by Nasser.
The Egyptian Museum
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms....
, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, is home to the most extensive collection of ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ian antiquities in the world. It has 136,000 items on display, with many more hundreds of thousands in its basement storerooms.
Khan El-Khalili
Khan el-Khalili is an ancient bazaarBazaar
A bazaar , Cypriot Greek: pantopoula) is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area...
, or marketplace. It dates back to 1382, when Emir Djaharks el-Khalili built a large caravanserai
Caravanserai
A caravanserai, or khan, also known as caravansary, caravansera, or caravansara in English was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...
, or khan. A caravanserai is a hotel for traders, and usually the focal point for any surrounding area. The caravanserai remains today.
Old Cairo
The part of Cairo that contains Coptic CairoCoptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed that the Holy Family visited this area and stayed at the site of Saints Sergius and...
and Fostat, which contains the Coptic Museum
Coptic Museum
The Coptic Museum is a museum in Coptic Cairo, Egypt with the largest collection of Egyptian Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Christianity in Egypt from its beginnings to the present day...
, Babylon Fortress
Babylon Fortress
Babylon Fortress was an ancient fortress city or castle in the Delta of Egypt, located at Babylon in the area today known as Coptic Cairo.It was situated in the Heliopolite Nome, upon the right bank of the Nile, at latitude 30°N, near the commencement of the Pharaonic Canal , from the Nile to the...
, Hanging Church
The Hanging Church
Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church also known as the Hanging Church is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the 3rd century AD....
, the Greek Church
Greek Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...
of St. George, many other Coptic churches, the Ben Ezra Synagogue
Ben Ezra Synagogue
The Ben Ezra Synagogue , sometimes referred to as the El-Geniza Synagogue or the Synagogue of the Palestinians, is situated in Old Cairo, Egypt. According to local tradition, it is located on the site where baby Moses was found...
and Amr ibn al-'As
'Amr ibn al-'As
`Amr ibn al-`As was an Arab military commander who is most noted for leading the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640. A contemporary of Muhammad, and one of the Sahaba , who rose quickly through the Muslim hierarchy following his conversion to Islam in the year 8 AH...
Mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
.
Cairo Tower
The Cairo Tower is a free-standing concrete TV tower in Cairo. It stands in the Zamalek district on Gezira Island in the Nile River, in the city centre. At 187 meters, it is 43 metres higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands some 15 km to the southwest.Al Qahira Fatimia Mosques
- Al-Azhar Mosque
Established in 972, Al-Azhar mosque was historically the site of the renowned Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
, until the university's move in the late 20th century to a new campus in Nasr City
Nasr City
Nasr City is a district of Cairo, Egypt. It is located to the east of the Cairo Governorate and consists mostly of condominiums. It was established in the 1960s as an extension to neighboring suburb of Heliopolis. The establishment of the district was part of the Egyptian Government's plan to...
.
- Al-Hakim MosqueAl-Hakim MosqueThe al-Hakim Mosque is a major Islamic religious site in Cairo, Egypt. It is located in "Islamic Cairo", on the east side of Muizz Street, just south of Bab Al-Futuh...
Jame-al-Anwar, 928 - Aqmar MosqueAqmar MosqueThe Aqmar Mosque is one of the few remaining mosques in Cairo, Egypt that have been built in the Fatimid era under vizier al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi during the caliphate of Imam al-Amir, son of Mustansir. The mosque is located along north Muizz Street, with several significant monuments located next to...
, 1125 - Juyushi MosqueJuyushi MosqueThe Juyushi Mosque was built in Imam Mustansir era under Badr al-Jamali in 1085 AD. This is one of historical mosque of Egypt of Fatimid Caliphate era....
, 1085 - Lulua MosqueLulua MosqueThe Lulua Mosque is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt, that was built in 1015-16 AD. It is thought that it was constructed during the reign of al-Hakim. The mosque partially collapsed in 1919, but was later rebuilt by the Dawoodi Bohra....
, 1015
Islamic sites in the old city
- Imam Husayn Mosque
- Mosque-Mausoleum Zaynab
- Sayyidah Ruqayya Mashhad
- Sayyeda Nafisa Mosque
- Mohammed Ali Basha Mosque
Pollution
Cairo is an expanding city, which has led to many environmental problems. The air pollutionAir pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
in Cairo is a matter of serious concern. Greater Cairo's volatile aromatic hydrocarbon
Aromatic hydrocarbon
An aromatic hydrocarbon or arene is a hydrocarbon with alternating double and single bonds between carbon atoms. The term 'aromatic' was assigned before the physical mechanism determining aromaticity was discovered, and was derived from the fact that many of the compounds have a sweet scent...
levels are higher than many other similar cities. Air quality measurements in Cairo have also been recording dangerous levels of lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
, sulphur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
, and suspended particulate matter concentrations due to decades of unregulated vehicle emissions, urban industrial operations, and chaff and trash burning. There are over 4,500,000 cars on the streets of Cairo, 60% of which are over 10 years old, and therefore lack modern emission cutting features like catalytic converter
Catalytic converter
A catalytic converter is a device used to convert toxic exhaust emissions from an internal combustion engine into non-toxic substances. Inside a catalytic converter, a catalyst stimulates a chemical reaction in which noxious byproducts of combustion are converted to less toxic substances by dint...
s. Cairo has a very poor dispersion factor because of lack of rain and its layout of tall buildings and narrow streets, which create a bowl effect.
In recent years, a mysterious black cloud
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
(as Egyptians refer to it) appeared over Cairo every fall
Inversion (meteorology)
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to a temperature inversion, i.e...
and causes serious respiratory diseases and eye irritations for the city's citizens. Tourists who are not familiar with such high levels of pollution must take extra care.
Cairo also has many unregistered lead and copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
smelters which heavily pollute the city. The results of this has been a permanent haze over the city with particulate matter in the air reaching over three times normal levels. It is estimated that 10,000 to 25,000 people a year in Cairo die due to air pollution-related diseases. Lead has been shown to cause harm to the central nervous system
Central nervous system
The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...
and neurotoxicity particularly in children. In 1995, the first environmental acts were introduced and the situation has seen some improvement with 36 air monitoring stations and emissions tests on cars. 20,000 buses have also been commissioned to the city to improve congestion levels, which are very high.
The city also suffers from a high level of land pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
. Cairo produces 10,000 tons of waste material each day, 4,000 tons of which is not collected
Waste collection
Waste collection is the component of waste management which results in the passage of a waste material from the source of production to either the point of treatment or final disposal...
or managed
Waste management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...
. This once again is a huge health hazard
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
and the Egyptian Government is looking for ways to combat this. The Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Agency was founded to collect and recycle the waste; however, they also work with the Zabbaleen
Zabbaleen
The Zabbaleen are a minority religious community of Coptic Christians who have served as Cairo's informal garbage collectors for approximately the past 70 to 80 years. Zabbaleen means "Garbage people" in Egyptian Arabic...
(or Zabaleen
Zabbaleen
The Zabbaleen are a minority religious community of Coptic Christians who have served as Cairo's informal garbage collectors for approximately the past 70 to 80 years. Zabbaleen means "Garbage people" in Egyptian Arabic...
), a community that has been collecting and recycling Cairo's waste since the turn of the 20th century and live in an area known locally as Manshiyat naser
Manshiyat naser
Manshiyat naser, also known as Garbage City, is a slum settlement at the base of Mokattam Hill on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. Its economy revolves around the collection and recycling of the city's garbage...
. Both are working together to pick up as much waste as possible within the city limits, though it remains a pressing problem.
The city also suffers from water pollution
Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....
as the sewer system tends to fail and overflow. On occasion, sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
has escaped onto the streets to create a health hazard. This problem is hoped to be solved by a new sewer system funded by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, which could cope with the demand of the city. The dangerously high levels of mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
in the city's water system has global health
Global health
Global health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations. Health problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact, are often emphasized...
officials concerned over related health risks. There is also more concern about environmental issues among Egyptians than before. There is now general awareness and some projects are laid down to help make the public aware of the importance of a clean environment.
North America
| Houston, United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (1998) New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... , United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... (1982) Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... , Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... , Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... (1989) |
Asia
| Beijing Beijing Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's... , China People's Republic of China China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres... (1990) Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world... , South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south... (1997) |
Tokyo Tokyo , ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family... , Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... (1990) Xi'an Xi'an Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty... , China People's Republic of China China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres... (1997) |
Europe
| Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of... , Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... (1992) Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010... , Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... (1979) Istanbul Istanbul Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and... , Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... (1988) |
Minsk Minsk - Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened... , Belarus Belarus Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,... (1998) Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... , France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... (1985) Stuttgart Stuttgart Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million .... , Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... (1979) |
Famous people born in Cairo (Cairenes)
- Ahmed ZewailAhmed ZewailAhmed Hassan Zewail is an Egyptian-American scientist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology.- Birth and education :Ahmed Zewail was born on...
- (born February 26, 1946) is an Egyptian American scientist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology."actually he was born in Desuq" - Abu Sa'id al-AfifAbu Sa'id al-AfifAbu Sa'id al-Afif was a renowned Samaritan physician in fifteenth century Cairo....
- 15th century Samaritian - Boutros Boutros-GhaliBoutros Boutros-GhaliBoutros Boutros-Ghali is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1992 to December 1996...
, former Secretary-General of the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace... - Naguib MahfouzNaguib MahfouzNaguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
, novelNovelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist, Nobel Prize in LiteratureNobel Prize in LiteratureSince 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
in 1988. - Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director GeneralDirector-generalThe term director-general is a title given the highest executive officer within a governmental, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institution.-European Union:...
of the International Atomic Energy AgencyInternational Atomic Energy AgencyThe International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize laureateNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
. - DalidaDalidaDalida , born with Italian name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was a world-famous singer and actress born in Egypt with Italian origins but naturalised French with the name Yolanda Gigliotti. She spent her early years in Egypt amongst the Italian Egyptian community, but she lived most of her adult...
Italian-Egyptian singer who lived most of her life in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
She received 55 golden records and was the first singer to receive a diamond discMusic recording sales certificationMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. - Yasser ArafatYasser ArafatMohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
(1929–2004), Founder and first president of the Palestine Liberation OrganizationPalestine Liberation OrganizationThe Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed... - Sir Magdi Yacoub (1935), world-famous cardiothoracic surgeon
- Dorothy Hodgkin, British chemist, credited with the development of protein crystallography, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1969
- Naguib SawirisNaguib SawirisNaguib Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman and politician. He was executive chairman of the telecommunications companies Wind Telecom and Orascom Telecom Holding before turning to politics in May 2011...
, 62nd richest person on earth in 2007 list of billionairesBillionaireA billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
, reaching US$10.0 billion with his company Orascom Telecom HoldingOrascom Telecom HoldingOrascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. is a leading international telecommunications company operating GSM networks in the Middle East, Africa, Canada and Asia. It started its operations in Egypt by launching the first egyptian mobile operator in 1998, .... - Sam Mounir, writerWriterA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, actorActorAn actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, and director - Sherif SonbolSherif SonbolSherif Sonbol is a photographer specializing in architecture, scenic fine arts and photojournalism.- Early life :...
(1956), chief photographer of the Cairo Opera HouseCairo Opera HouseThe Cairo Opera House , part of Cairo's National Cultural Center, is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Home to most of Egypt's finest musical groups, it is located on the southern portion of Gezira Island in the Nile River, in the Zamalek district west of and near downtown...
and Al AhramAl-AhramAl-Ahram , founded in 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya . It is majority owned by the Egyptian government....
Weekly, book author, first Egyptian photographer whose work has been subject of an exhibit at New York´s Lincoln CenterLincoln Center for the Performing ArtsLincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:... - Constantin XenakisConstantin XenakisConstantin Xenakis is a European artist based in France. His work often includes written script, in particular the Hebrew alphabet.-Life:...
(1931) GreekGreeksThe Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
artist - Ekmeleddin İhsanoğluEkmeleddin IhsanogluEkmeleddin İhsanoğlu is a Turkish academic, diplomat and currently the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , the second largest intergovernmental organisation after the United Nations...
TurkishTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
professor and the secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation - Voula ZouboulakiVoula ZouboulakiVoula Zouboulaki was a Greek actress . She attended the Dramatic School of the National Theatre, the School of the National Odeon and the Law School of the University of Athens.Zouboulaki began at the National Lyric Stage in 1952 and two years later appeared in prose...
(1931) Greek actress - Raffi CavoukianRaffi (musician)Raffi Cavoukian, CM, OBC , better known by his stage name Raffi, is a Canadian-Armenian singer-songwriter, author, essayist and lecturer...
, CanadianCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
children's singer, born 1948 - Mido, Professional football player with AFC Ajax
- Umar al-TilmisaniUmar al-TilmisaniUmar al-Tilmisani was the third General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers. He headed the Egyptian Islamist organization from 1972 until 1986...
, The third General Guide (Murshid al-'Am) of the Egyptian Muslim BrothersMuslim BrotherhoodThe Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an... - Alaa AbdelnabyAlaa AbdelnabyAlaa Abdelnaby is a retired Egyptian-American professional basketball player. He played for Duke University in college and then played in the NBA and CBA, among other leagues.-Early life:Abdelnaby was born in Cairo, Egypt...
- NBANational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
player for the Portland Trail BlazersPortland Trail BlazersThe Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The Trail Blazers originally played their home games in the...
, Milwaukee BucksMilwaukee BucksThe Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. They are part of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and currently plays at the Bradley Center....
, Boston CelticsBoston CelticsThe Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
, Philadelphia 76ersPhiladelphia 76ersThe Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA...
, and the Sacramento KingsSacramento KingsThe Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association... - Nora ValsamiNora Valsami-Life and career:Nora Valsami was born in Cairo, Egypt. Her first stage appearance was in a 1965 production of Aristophanes' tragedy Ecclesiazusae while still a student at the Athens Drama School. Her film acting debut was in Tzeni Tzeni, a 1966 film. Even though she played a minor role in the film...
, GreekGreeksThe Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
actress, in 1945 - Maryem TollarMaryem TollarMaryem Tollar , is a Toronto based singer who primarily sings Arabic songs. She played with her own band called Mernie!.Born in Cairo, Maryem went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with her parents when she was 1 in 1969...
, EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian singer who primarily sings Arabic songs. - Yakup Kadri KaraosmanoğluYakup Kadri KaraosmanogluYakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu was a Turkish novelist, journalist, diplomat, and senator.-Early life:...
, TurkishTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
novelist - Sonja Zuckerman, socialite and philanthropist known for her charitable contribution to women's shelterWomen's shelterA women's shelter is a place of temporary refuge and support for women escaping violent or abusive situations, such as rape, and domestic violence....
and homeless organization, net worth of $1 billion. - Kosta Argeres, who emigrated to AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1956 and became a well-regarded soccer player before becoming a successful property developer and owner.
See also
- Charles AyroutCharles AyroutCharles Habib Ayrout was an architect practicing in Cairo and is considered as one of that city's Belle Epoque/Art Déco architects for his landmark buildings and villas.-Family:...
- Large Cities Climate Leadership GroupLarge Cities Climate Leadership GroupThe Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now officially known as the C40 is a group of cities working to reduce urban carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. It believes it has an important role to play as cities contain around 50% of the world population, consume 75% of the world's...
- Meir'enaim SynagogueMeir'enaim SynagogueMeir'enaim Synagogue is a synagogue in Cairo, Egypt....
- List of cities in Egypt
- The Townhouse GalleryThe Townhouse GalleryThe Townhouse Gallery was established in 1998 as an independent, non-profit art space in Egypt with a goal of making contemporary arts accessible to all without compromising creative practice. The Townhouse supports artistic work in a wide range of media through exhibitions, residencies for artists...
Further reading
- Nezar AlSayyad. Cairo: Histories of a City (Harvard University Press; 2011) 260 pages; Explores 12 defining moments in the city's architectural history
- Artemis Cooper, Cairo in the War, 1939–1945, Hamish HamiltonHamish HamiltonHamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton . Confusingly, Jamie Hamilton was often referred to as Hamish Hamilton...
, 1989 / Penguin Book, 1995. ISBN 0-14-024781-5 (Pbk) - André Raymond, Cairo, trans. Willard Wood. Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
, 2000. - Max RodenbeckMax RodenbeckMax Rodenbeck is an American journalist and author, based in Cairo. He grew up in Cairo, having moved there when his father John Rodenbeck took up an academic position at the American University in Cairo in the 1960s. He has been writing for the Economist magazine on Middle Eastern affairs for more...
, Cairo– the City Victorious, Picador, 1998. ISBN 0-330-33709-2 (Hbk) ISBN 0-330-33710-6 (Pbk) - Wahba, Magdi (1990). Cairo Memories" in Studies in Arab History: The Antonius Lectures, 1978–87. Edited by Derek Hopwood. London: Macmillan Press.
- Peter TherouxPeter TherouxPeter Theroux is an American writer and translator. He studied English literature at Harvard University, and spent a year at the American University in Cairo...
, Cairo: Clamorous heart of Egypt National Geographic Magazine April 1993 - Cynthia Myntti, Paris Along the Nile: Architecture in Cairo from the Belle Epoque, American University in Cairo Press, 2003.
- Cairo's belle époque architects 1900 – 1950, by Samir Raafat.
- Antonine Selim Nahas, one of city's major belle époque (1900–1950) architects.
- Nagib Mahfooz novels, all tell great stories about Cairo's deep conflicts.
- Paulina B. Lewicka, Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes: Aspects of Life in an Islamic Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean (Leiden, Brill, 2011).
External links
- New Projects in Cairo From Worldarab
- Cairo City Government
- Demographia - Cairo: Central City & Suburban Population & Density
- Coptic Churches of Cairo
- Mosques in Cairo
Photos and videos
- Cairo in Pictures
- Maqrizi's Cairo
- Cairo in 100 pictures page in French.
- Cairo 360-degree full-screen images
- Impressions of Cairo's Streetlife
- Cairo Travel Photos Pictures of Cairo published under Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
License - Call to Cairo Time-lapseTime-lapseTime-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing...
film of Cairo cityscapes - 200+ high-quality photos of Cairo
- Photos of Cairo's nights
- Photos of hammams in Cairo
- Cairo, Egypt - video by Global Post