Cairo:
(Arabic: القاهرة transliteration: Al-Qāhirah), which means "The
Vanquisher" or "The Triumphant", is the capital city of Egypt. While
Al-Qahirah is the official name of the city, in Egyptian Arabic it
is typically called simply by the name of the country, Masr (مصر,
Egypt). It has a metropolitan area population of officially about
16.1 million people. Cairo is the seventh most populous metropolitan
area in the world. It is also the most populous metropolitan area in
Africa.
Cairo:
is
one of the world's largest urban areas and offers many sites to see.
It is the administrative capital of Egypt and, close by, is almost
every Egypt Pyramid, such as the
Great Pyramids of Giza on the
very edge of the city, But there are also ancient temples, tombs,
Christian churches, magnificent Muslim
monuments, and of course, the
Egyptian Antiquities Museum all either within or nearby the
city.
Cairo's Flag
Cairo:
Egypt is an
amazing city full of life and movement, and it is that way almost 24
hours every day, with the noisy honking of horns, children playing
in the streets and merchants selling their wears and services. And
here, the Egyptians are most at home in this powerful, modern and
ancient city.
Cairo provides great culture, including art galleries and music
halls, such as the Cairo Opera House,
as well it should, being one of the largest cities in the world. It
also provides some of the grandest accommodations and restaurants in
the world.
Cairo offers an incredible selection of shopping, leisure and
nightlife activities. Shopping
ranges from the famous Khan el-Khalili
Souk, (or bazaar) largely unchanged since the 14th century, to
modern centers displaying the latest fashions. All the bounty of the
East can be here, particularly good buys are spices, perfumes, gold,
silver, carpets, brass and copperware, leatherwork, glass, ceramics
and mashrabiya. Try some of the famous street markets, like Wekala
al-Balaq, for fabrics, including Egyptian cotton, the Tentmakers
Bazaar for appliqué-work, Mohammed Ali Street for musical
instruments and, although you probably won't want to buy, the Camel
Market makes a fascinating trip. This is, and has been for over a
thousand years, truly a shopper's paradise.
The actual official
name of Cairo is al-Qāhirah, though in local speech it is typically
called simply by the name of the country, Misr pronounced Masr in
the local dialect. It is currently Africa's most populous city, and
by some accounts the thirteenth most populous city in the world,
though this statistic probably only refers to Cairo proper. Others
place the city 24th, though this clearly includes only the city and
not the surrounding metropolitan area.
Cairo is the
administrative center of Egypt, but like the rest of the country,
statistical information about the city is sometimes difficult.
Certainly we can produce relatively accurate figures on such topics
as land area, temperature and average rainfall, but the population,
and particularly statistics about the population are problematic
because it is so large and much of its populations lives, so to
speak, under the radar of the government. The information below is
relatively correct, though as some of the information states, it is
for the metropolitan area, without stating exactly what the
metropolitan area is. The city that most visitors see is actually a
combination of cities including Cairo itself, Heliopolis, Nasser
City and Maadi, Giza, as well as some smaller villages. However, the
populations figures probably apply to a larger number of areas,
including 6th of October City, New Cairo, Shrouq, 15th of May City
and Obour.
Cairo's Map click to
enlarge
Historical
background
While the City of
Cairo sprang from the foundations of a "recent" town, by Egyptian
historical standards, it is no wonder that this location developed
the foremost Egyptian city. With one of the few river crossings, the
area around Cairo was originally settled in Paleolithic times and
later saw the development of Neolithic trading communities.
Yet it was Menes, the legendary first King-God of the
Dynastic period who united upper and lower Egypt and established his
capital at Memphis. While it has been suggested that Memphis already
existed upon Menes arrival, what is known is that this city, with
its ruins 15 miles south of current Cairo, was a dominate influence
throughout most of Egypt's pharaonic history. Nearby Memphis (nine
miles north and on the opposite side of the Nile) was the
contemporary religious center of On located in the community the
Greeks called Heliopolis, not to be confused with the nearby modern
suburb of Cairo by the same name.
In 525 BC, the
invading Persians conquered Egypt and built a strategic fort north
of Memphis called Babylon-on-the-Nile. This was where the Persians
controlled Egypt until its capture by Alexander in 332 BC. During
the Greek period, the fort in Cairo held little importance, but
after the Roman conquest, it regained prominence as a stronghold
because of its strategic location guarding the Roman trade routes.
The Roman general Trajan repaired the old Red Sea Canal, originally
built by the pharaohs, which allowed vessels to sail up the Red Sea,
turn west toward Babylon, and then down the Nile to the
Mediterranean.
During the Roman
period, Babylon continued to be a dominant influence in the region
and a Christian community grew up around it, which was likewise a
prominent center of the new religion. It was here that St. Mark
lived, and where St. Peter sent his greetings from the sister church
in Rome. But in the later Roman period, the Coptic church of Egypt
grew apart from most of the world's Christianity. This split
resulted in unrest and often persecution of the Coptics. Hence, when
the Arab Muslims led by Amr arrived in 640 AD, Babylon was an easy
target and was captured after a disastrous battle for the Romans.
Soon, all of Egypt was in the hands of the Islamic Arabs.
Legend has it that
when Amr departed the Babylon area to lay siege to Alexandria, he
left his tent standing in the tent camp next to Babylon. Upon his
return, the tent was still standing and a dove had built a nest in
it. So it was here that Amr built his Mosque, the first in Egypt,
and around the Mosque, Fustat or al-Fustat al-Misr (the Camp of
Egypt), the City of the Tents and the original Muslim capital of
Egypt grew up from his original tent encampment to finally become
Cairo. This encampment was divided into khittat, or districts which
originally divided the various Arab tribes which made up Amr's army.
Throughout ancient
times, Egypt has been one of the most important trade routes for the
world and so it was from that, just as the archaic cities which
proceeded Fustat, this new city also prospered from all manner of
goods which where transshipped to wealthy markets in Europe. They
also developed their own markets in spices, textiles and perfumes
which were legendary throughout the world. Beginning as a haphazard
conglomeration of tents and huts, Fustat grew into a sophisticated
commercial center where its residents enjoyed great wealth. They
built high rise houses with rooftop gardens, public baths modeled
from the Romans (but smaller, earning the name al-hammamat al-far,
or mouse baths). Their architecture grew in both splendor and
magnitude, and they even built covered streets to protect themselves
from the sun.
