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CAIRO
Cairo is the Capital of Egypt, founded on the site of Babylon, near the ruins of ancient Memphis and the largest of Egyptian cities in Africa in terms of area and population. A cosmopolitan city that blends charm of the east with a Mediterranean flavor which accommodates 26% of Egyptian population.
Cairo, the” city of a thousand spires ‘,has a wealth of monuments, mosques, tombs, churches, forts, palaces and hotels representing over fifty centuries of civilization. It is a melting not where antiquities of Pharaonic dynasties, Greco-Roman civilization, Christian and Islamic landmarks co-exist.
Cairo is a dynastic city proud of its warm and friendly people known for their traditional hospitality. What mainly attracts the visitor in Cairo is that vital blend of a majestic past and a glorious present at top of the Mokattam hills extending on the Eastern bank of the Nile, where rises the Citadel of Salah El Deen El-Ayoubi, towering and impressive. On the western bank of the Nile and on top of the Giza plateau rise the colossal pyramids and the mysterious Sphinx, the greatest tribute to Pharaonic art and thought. Between the Pyramids and the Citadel, there is modem Cairo with its network of roads, squares, gardens, clubs, amusement parks, luxurious hotels, skyscrapers and Cairo Tower rising 187 meters high. In the heart of Cairo, the Eternal River Nile flows gently from south to north.
A Cairo visitor cannot miss sailing in a Nile felucca at sunset. Cairo, invites you to come and enjoy its beautiful all-your weather, and visits the immortal monuments and relics, especially the ancient pyramids, in Giza.
Five thousand years of culture are concentrated here, at the center of three continents.
Travel through time in a city that is a living index to civilization. Enjoy the comforts of a cosmopolitan twentieth-century capital. Cairo, a microcosm of the greater world.
Today's skyline mixes minarets and palm trees with art deco villas and multicolored neon - but you can still see the sunset over the Nile. Cairo has a unique atmosphere: both exciting and relaxed. The city pulses with life while the Nile flows on to the sea.
Cairo is divided into 5 categories:
Cairo is the largest city in
Africa, the name means "the victorious city". It is located on both banks of the River Nile near the head of the river's delta in northern
Egypt and has been settled for more than 6000 years, serving as the capital of numerous Egyptian civilizations.
Cairo is known locally as "Misr", the Arabic name for
Egypt, because of its centrality in Egyptian life. Greater
Cairo is spread across three of
Egypt's administrative governorates. The north eastern part is known as Kaliobia Governorate, while the west bank is part of the governorate of Giza, and the eastern parts and south eastern parts are another governorate known as Cairo, the three parts are known together as greater Cairo.
The city is marked by the traditions and influences of the East and the West, the ancient and the modern. However, the city also reflects
Egypt's growing poverty, and it struggles to cope with problems caused by massive population growth, urban sprawl, and a deteriorating infrastructure.
The city of
Cairo covers an area of more than 453 sq km (more than 175 sq m), though it is difficult to separate the city from some of its immediate suburbs. Bracketed by the desert to the east, south, and west and bounded by the fertile Nile delta to the north,
Cairo sits astride the river, though it spreads farther on the east bank than the west.
Cairo also includes several river islands, which play an important role in the life of the city. As the region's principal commercial, administrative, and tourist centre,
Cairo contains many cultural institutions, business establishments, governmental offices, universities, and hotels, which together create a dense pattern of constant activity.
The centre of downtown
Cairo is
Tahrir Square( Midan Tahrir, if you are asking a taxi driver) located on the east bank. A hub of tourist activity, the vast and open square contains numerous attractions, including the
Egyptian
Museum, the Arab League headquarters, and the modern Umar Makram Mosque. Extending from north to south along the east bank of the
Nile is the Corniche,
Cairo's main thoroughfare. Located nearby is the narrow strip of land known as Garden City, one of the city's newer residential areas. In the centre of the city is the river
island of
Zamalek (also called Jezerah, meaning "the Island"), which contains the upscale residential and commercial neighborhood also known as Zamalek, the
Cairo.
Opera House (founded in 1869), and the
Cairo
Tower (1961). Three bridges link the island with both banks of the river. The
island of
Al-Rodah, located to the south, is linked to the mainland by two additional bridges, while another bridge to the north carries road and rail traffic across the
Nile.
Outside the city's central area on the east bank, spanning from the northeast to the southeast, are the neighborhoods of Islamic Cairo. These neighborhoods are known for their narrow streets, crowded markets (bazaars), and hundreds of Mosques, many dating back to the medieval period.
South of the Islamic district is Old Cairo, where some of the city'soldest architectural monuments can be found. Old
Cairo is the home of
Cairo's Coptic Christian community, and the site of the
Coptic
Museum plus a number of Coptic churches.
Population:
In 2006
Cairo was estimated to have a population of 18 million. The people of
Cairo are known as Cairenes; nearly all of them are Egyptians with small number of foreigner. The city is an important centre of the Islamic faith, and Cairens are predominantly Sunni Muslims; however, the city is also home to a sizable Coptic community, which traces its origins to the
Christians who populated
Cairo before the arrival of Islam.
Cairo's population swells daily as workers flow into the city from the surrounding area, clogging roads and rail lines every morning and evening. Many Cairenes are recent arrivals from villages along the
Nile. These rural migrants arrive with few skills or resources, and compound the existing problems of unemployment and scarce housing.
Education and Culture:
The most famous educational institution in
Cairo is the
Al-Azhar
University, the oldest in the Islamic world.
The institution has grown up around the Al-Azhar Mosque, the oldest Mosque in
Cairo.
The Fatimid founded both the university and Mosque in 970.
Al-Azhar
University is an authoritative voice throughout the Islamic world, and its positions on important issues are influential in
Egypt and the Arab world. Other institutions of higher education include
Cairo
University (Founded in1908) and
Ain
Shams
University (1950), which together enrolls more than 100,000 students; and the
American
University in
Cairo, founded in 1919, where the children of
Egypt's elite mingle with students and faculty from abroad. Egyptian history is displayed and preserved in the city's numerous Museum collections.
The
Egyptian
Museum (Founded in 1902) contains hundreds of thousands of artifacts, including more than 1700 pieces from the collection of Tutankhamen. The
Museum of
Islamic Arts (1881) contains a vast collection relating to early Islamic civilization, and the
Coptic
Museum (1910) traces the history of the Coptic community in
Egypt.
Other Cairo Museums maintain collections relating to more modern themes; these range from the El-Gawhara Palace Museum, built in 1811 in the Ottoman style, to the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, founded in 1963, which contains works by Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Peter Paul Rubens, and other European and Egyptian painters of renown.
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