Cairo

Cairo القاهرة
Capital city
The Nile, 6th October Bridge and Downtown from Cairo Tower on Gezira Island Ibn Tulun Mosque Cairo Tower Al-Muizz Street Talaat Harb Square Baron Empain Palace Cairo Citadel Cairo Opera House
Flag Emblem
Nickname:  City of a Thousand Minarets
Cairo Location of Cairo within Egypt Show map of Egypt Cairo Cairo (Africa) Show map of Africa
Coordinates: 30°2′40″N 31°14′9″E / 30.04444°N 31.23583°E / 30.04444; 31.23583
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Cairo
First major foundation	641–642 AD (Fustat)
Last major foundation	969 AD (Cairo)
Government
• Governor	Ibrahim Saber Khalil[2]
Area [a][3]
• Metro	2,734 km2 (1,056 sq mi)
Elevation	23 m (75 ft)
Population  (2018)
• Capital city	10,100,166[1]
• Density	3,700/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
• Metro [4]	22,623,900
• Demonym	Cairene
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Area code	(+20) 2
Website	cairo.gov.eg
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Historic Cairo
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, v, vi
Designated	1979
Reference no.	89

Cairo (/ˈkaɪroʊ/ ^ⓘ KY-roh; Arabic: القاهرة, romanized: al-Qāhirah, Egyptian Arabic: [el‿ˈqɑːheɾɑ] ^ⓘ) is the capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people.^[5] It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world, and the Middle East. The Greater Cairo metropolitan area is one of the largest in the world by population with over 22.1 million people.^[4]

The area that would become today's Cairo witnessed sparse settlement activity during ancient Egyptian time, in contrast to heavy activity on the west bank of the Nile, where the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient capital of Memphis were built. One of the oldest settlements is the ancient town of Heliopolis, to the city's north-east in present day Ain Shams, and close to where the modern eponymous district was built. However, little remains of it today.

The modern city can trace its roots some centuries later to Roman times, when the fortress of Babylon was built during the 4th Century, on the east bank of the Nile to guard the entrance to a canal that linked the Nile to the Red Sea.^[6]

Around that time, Cairo's oldest churches were built within the fortress, and later, on its ruins, such as the Church of Saint Barbara and the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (from the late 7th or early 8th century), now in the district of Misr al-Qadima (Old Cairo), particularly the neighbourgood of Coptic Cairo.

Following the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641, the Arabs built the town of Fustat just east of Misr al-Qadima, declaring it the capital of Egypt, and thus replacing Alexandria which had held the title for seven centuries.^[7] Over the next four centuries, the settlements of Al-'askar and Al-Qata'i were added to the north of Fustat. Today, almost nothing remains of these early settlements except Cairo's (and Egypt's) oldest mosque, Amr Ibn al-'as, and a small ruin field.^[8][9]

Subsequently, Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in 969. It later superseded Fustat as the main urban centre during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (12th–16th centuries).^[10]

Cairo has since become a longstanding centre of political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo's historic center was awarded World Heritage Site status in 1979.^[11] Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC.^[12]

Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industry in the Arab world, as well as Egypt's oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city; the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.

Cairo, like many other megacities, suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic. The Cairo Metro, opened in 1987, is the oldest metro system in Africa,^[13] and ranks amongst the fifteen busiest in the world,^[14] with over 1 billion^[15] annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005,^[16] and 43rd globally on Foreign Policy's 2010 Global Cities Index.^[17]

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