Cairo

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Cairo (Arabic: al-Qāhirah) is the capital of Egypt. Cairo is the 16th-most-populous metropolitan area in the world, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 15.2 million people. While al-Qāhirah is the official name of the city, in local speech it is typically called by the name of the country, Mişr, pronounced Maşr in the local dialect. The modern city is located near the ruins of Memphis, which was the capital of Ancient Egypt and was founded around 3100 B.C.E. by Menes of Tanis after he had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. The first settlement on the location of modern Cairo was a Roman fort, known as Babylon Fort, built about 150 C.E.. Arab invaders, who took the fort town in 642 C.E., established their army in the location. The Arab tented camp outside the fortress, known as Al-Fustat, slowly became the permanent base of the Arab forces in Egypt under the Umayyads and Abbasids, and contains the first mosque in Africa. The North African Shiite Fatimid Dynasty conquered Egypt in 972 C.E. and built a new capital, Al-Mansureya, north of the old settlement. Their leader, Al-Muez Ledin-Ellah, renamed the city Al-Qahirah after the planet Mars that was rising on the day the city was founded.

The Al-Azhar mosque was founded the same year, and along with its accompanying university it made Cairo a center of learning and philosophy. The school remains a major center for Islamic study today. The Seljuks captured Cairo in the mid-1100s, and Saladin and his successors expanded the city further, including the construction of its massive Cairo Citadel.


Name

While al-Qāhirah is the official name of the city, in local speech it is typically called by the name of the country, Mişr, pronounced Maşr in the local dialect. The name Al-Qahirah literally means "The Subduer," though it is often translated as "The Victorious." The origin of the name is believed to come from the appearance of the planet Mars during the founding of the city. The planet Mars, associated with destruction, was called "Al Najm Al Qahir" in Arabic, from which the name of the city was derived. However, the legacy of the name evolved into the title "Qahirat Al Adaa" meaning "subduer of the enemies." This title was given to the city as many armies were destroyed in attempts to invade Cairo or defeated elsewhere by troops sent from Cairo. (Mongols, Crusaders, and Ottomans are examples.)

Egypt, with Cairo governorate highlighted.

Geography

File:Cairo Egypt ASA IMG Orbit 12013 20040617.jpg
This Envisat ASAR Wide-Swath radar multicolour composite image is focused over the capital city of Cairo, Egypt, seen as a large bright area centre left of the image, Credit-ESA 2004.
A simulated-color satellite image of Cairo, Egypt, taken on NASA's Landsat 7 satellite.

Cairo is located on the banks and islands of the Nile River in the north of Egypt, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and breaks into three branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region.

The oldest part of the city is somewhat east of the river. There, the city gradually spreads west, engulfing the agricultural lands next to the Nile. These western areas, built on the model of Paris by Isma'il Pasha (Ismail the Magnificent) in the mid-19th century, are marked by wide boulevards, public gardens, and open spaces. The older eastern section of the city is very different: having grown up haphazardly over the centuries, it is filled with small lanes and crowded tenements. While western Cairo is dominated by government buildings and modern architecture, the eastern half is filled with hundreds of ancient mosques that act as landmarks. Extensive water systems have also allowed the city to expand east into the desert.

Bridges link the Nile islands of Gezira and Roda, where many government buildings are located and government officials live. Bridges also cross the Nile attaching the city to the suburbs of Giza and Imbabah (part of the Cairo conurbation).

File:Pyramids.jpg
Although technically in Giza, The Great Pyramids have become a symbol of Cairo internationally

West of Giza, in the desert, is part of the ancient necropolis of Memphis on the Giza plateau, with its three large pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza (the only surviving “wonder” of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World). Approximately 11 miles (18 km) to the south of modern Cairo is the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis and adjoining necropolis of Saqqara. These cities were Cairo's ancient predecessors, when Cairo was still in this approximate geographical location.

History

Founding and early history

File:Cairo3.jpg
Cairo incorporates an entire medieval section, which is now a popular neighborhood and contains important examples of Islamic architecture.

The current location of Cairo was too far from the ancient course of the Nile to support a city. Just to the south of the modern city's location are the ruins of Memphis, which was the capital of Ancient Egypt and was founded around 3100 B.C.E. by Menes of Tanis after he had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. The capital later moved to Heliopolis, further south to Thebes; then, under the Ptolemaic dynasty, it moved to Alexandria.

The first settlement on the location of modern Cairo was a Roman fort, known as Babylon Fort, built about 150 C.E.. It was built near the settlement known as Babylon-in-Egypt, which lay close to an ancient Egyptian canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.

A small town mostly of Coptic Christians slowly grew around the fort. Arab invaders, led by Amr Ibn-el-As, took the fort town in 642 C.E.. They established their army in the location, rebuilding its defenses. The Arab tented camp outside the fortress, known as Al-Fustat, slowly became the permanent base of the Arab forces in Egypt under the Umayyads and Abbasids, and contains the first mosque in Africa.

File:Mosque2.jpg
Al-Azhar University in the heart of Cairo's medieval Old City. Cairo has the largest concentration of medieval structures in the world.

Slowly, the settlement grew into a small city. The North African Shiite Fatimid Dynasty conquered Egypt in 972 C.E. and built a new capital, Al-Mansureya, north of the old settlement. Their leader, Al-Muez Ledin-Ellah, renamed the city Al-Qahirah after the planet Mars that was rising on the day the city was founded.

The Al-Azhar mosque was founded the same year, and along with its accompanying university it made Cairo a center of learning and philosophy. The school remains a major center for Islamic study today. The Seljuks captured Cairo in the mid-1100s, and Saladin and his successors expanded the city further, including the construction of its massive Cairo Citadel.

The sack of Baghdad in 1258 C.E. heightened the importance of the city. It became the leading intellectual and artistic center in the Middle East, and perhaps the world, for the next 250 years. However, power shifted from the Arab world north to the Turkic peoples and Europeans.

The city was taken by the Ottoman Empire under Selim I in 1517 C.E., but the ruling Mameluks quickly returned to power as nominal vassals to the Ottoman Sultan.

Era of westernization

Napoleon conquered Egypt in 1798, and Cairo was quickly surrendered to him by its Mameluk rulers. Napoleon brought with him an army of scientists, scholars and artists to establish a French culture base in Egypt. They made the first European study of Egypt, published as Le description de l'Egypte. Napoleon left Egypt after his fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Aboukir Bay in August 1798, leaving Jean Baptiste Kléber (General Kléber) in charge. Kléber was assassinated in 1800 and the three-year French occupation had little lasting effect.

File:Cairo.jpg
Lions guard the Kasr-el-Nil Bridge which traverses the Nile at Tahrir Square. European architecture and urban design, major infrastructural projects and intense cultural patronage were part of Khedive Isma'il's vision for Cairo as "Paris on the Nile."

The first hints of westernization began under the successors to Mehemet Ali with the introduction of a railway connection to Alexandria in 1851. Significant change, however, did not occur until the reign of Isma'il Pasha when, in 1863, construction of the Suez Canal brought significant numbers of westerners to Egypt. A network of gas lighting was installed by a French company and the railway lines were greatly expanded.

In 1867, Isma'il visited Paris to attend the Universal Exposition of 1867. There he saw the newly redesigned city of Baron Haussmann and, funded by a booming cotton trade, decided to rebuild Cairo on the model of a European capital. He hoped to have this done by 1869 when representatives from around the world came to Egypt for the opening of the Suez Canal.

Rather than rebuild the old city, Isma'il elected to add a new quarter to the western section along the bank of the Nile. The project was carried out by Ali Pasha Mubarak and designed by the French urban planner Pierre Grand. A new area of luxurious villas and apartments was constructed and new government ministries were erected. Grand boulevards were opened through the old town and tram lines soon followed.

The era of colonization in 1882 saw the rebuilding of Cairo continuing. A modern sewer system was installed and new suburbs such as Heliopolis were constructed in the desert. Cairo's population exploded, increasing from 374,000 in 1882 to 1,312,000 by 1937. The city was dominated by westerners, however, and city planners tended to emphasize Christian cathedrals over mosques.

File:Artdeco.jpg
Cairo's rich architectonic melange includes art deco buildings like this one in Garden City

Modern Cairo

Cairo remained the central city of Egypt throughout the period of British rule and afterwards. The 20th century saw massive growth in the size of the city as peasants left the farmlands in pursuit of work in the factories and commerce of the metropolis. The city was especially burdened by refugees from the various wars with Israel: much of the population of the Sinai Peninsula and the cities along the Suez Canal left for Cairo between 1967 and 1978.

Today Cairo is Africa's most populous city and the Arab world's cultural center. Since the 19th century, Cairo has also become a center for tourism as people from around the world have come to see the monuments and artifacts of Ancient Egypt, especially the pyramids. Laws against the export of these treasures has meant that the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is the only place in the world that many items can be seen.

April 2005 Terrorist Attacks

The April 2005 attacks were three related incidents that took place in the city of Cairo, Egypt, on April 7 and April 30, 2005. The latter two incidents are generally considered to have been minor, in that they caused no loss of life other than those of the perpetrators and appear not to have been planned in advance; in the first attack, however, three bystanders were killed. Neither sophisticated methods nor sophisticated materials were used in the incidents, and the Egyptian authorities have consistently classified the attacks as "primitive".

First Incident: Khan al Khalili

On Thursday, April 7, a suicide bomber set off his explosive device on Sharia al-Moski, near the Khan al Khalili bazaar – a street market popular with tourists and locals alike – and the al Hussein Mosque. Three foreign tourists (two from France and one from the United States) were killed, and eleven Egyptians and seven other overseas visitors were injured. Egyptian police identified the perpetrator as Muhammad Sobhi Ali Jidan, originally from Al Qalyubiyah but then living in the northern Cairene neighbourhood of Shubra.

Second Incident: The Sixth of October Bridge

The first of several attacks on Saturday, April 30, took place at 15h15 local time (12h15 GMT) in a city bus station located in a 300-meter-wide concourse between the Ramses Hilton Hotel and the Egyptian Museum near Cairo's main traffic intersection. Ehab Yousri Yassin, an Egyptian man suspected of involvement in the April 7 attack, was being pursued along the Sixth of October Bridge, a flyover leading into the center of Cairo from the River Nile island of Gezira. He apparently leapt from the bridge down into the bus station below, with a nail bomb detonating as he fell. The bomber was killed and seven passersby were injured: three Egyptians and four foreign tourists (an Israeli couple, an Italian woman, and a Swede).

Third Incident: The Citadel

Approximately two hours later the same day, two veiled females armed with guns opened fire on a tourist bus in the neighborhood known as Islamic Cairo, not far from the Citadel. After firing on the coach, one of the women shot the other dead before turning her gun on herself. Three bystanders were reportedly injured. Police sources later revealed that the women were Negat Yassin, Ehab Yousri Yassin's sister, and Iman Ibrahim Khamis, his wife (described as his fiancée in some early reports). This was the first attack in modern Egyptian history to be carried out by women; police believe it arose from a spur of the moment decision taken by the women upon learning of the Sixth of October Bridge incident.

Tourism

Museums

Cairo is home to museums of Egyptian Antiquities, but it is also a congregation of museums committed to every period in history:

  • Abdeen Palace Museum Complex
  • Agricultural Museum
  • Ahmed Shawki Museum
  • Bayt Al-Kritliyya
  • Bayt Al-Suhaymi
  • Beit El-Umma (House of the People)
  • Beshtak Palace
  • Carriage Museum
  • The Child Museum
  • The Coptic Museum
  • The Egyptian Antiques Museum
  • Gayer-Anderson Museum
  • Imhotep Museum
  • Kasr ( Qasr) El-Gawhara (Jewel Palace)
  • Manial Palace
  • Military Museum
  • Mukhtar Museum
  • Museum of Islamic Ceramics
  • Museum of Mohamed Khalil
  • The National Geographic Society Museum
  • The Pharaonic Village
  • Police Museum
  • Postal Museum
  • Qasr Al-Eini
  • Rail Museum
  • Ramses Wessa Wassef Art Center
  • Taha Hussein Museum

To find more information on these museums go here.

Markets and Shopping

  • Bookseller’s Market
  • El-Ghuri Wakala
  • Khan el-Khalili
  • Midan El-Ataba el-Khadra
  • Qaitbay Wakala

To find more information on these locations go here.

Parks and Gardens

  • The Andalusian Gardens
  • Al-Azhar Park
  • Aquarium Grotto Garden
  • Cultural Park for Children

To find more information on these locations go here.

Sports

Cairo has a number of sporting teams that compete in national leagues. The best-known teams are Al-Zamalek and Al-Ahly, whose annual football Local Derby is perhaps the most watched sports event in Egypt as well as in the Arab world. Both teams are known as the giants of Egyptian and Arabic football, and are champions in the African continent and the Arab World.
Both teams play their home games at Cairo International Stadium, which is Cairo's and Egypt's largest stadium.

The Cairo International Stadium is a multipurpose sports complex that houses the main soccer stadium, an indoor stadium, and several satellite fields that have held several regional, continental and global games, including the African Games, and the Football World Championship for U17. There are several other athletic teams in the city that participate in sports, such as Al Jazeera Sporting Club, Shooting Club, Heliopolis Club, and several smaller clubs.

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 was previously located in Cairo before relocating to its new headquarters in 6th October City.

Famous Cairenes

  • Boutros Boutros Ghali - former Secretary-General of the United Nations, born in Cairo.
  • Maimonides - Royal court physician to Saladin and Talmudic scholar.
  • Omar Sharif - Actor
  • Naguib Mahfouz - Nobel Laureate and novelist

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Abaza, Mona. 2006. Changing consumer cultures of modern Egypt: Cairo's urban reshaping. Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia, v. 101. Leiden: Brill. ISBN: 9789004152779 9004152776
  • Beattie, Andrew. 2005. Cairo: a cultural history. Cityscapes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0195178939 9780195178937 0195178920 9780195178920
  • Discovery Channel (Firm). 2002. Cairo. London: APA. ISBN: 9812348891 9789812348890
  • O'Kane, Bernard. 2006. The treasures of Islamic art in the museums of Cairo. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press. ISBN: 9774248600 9789774248603
  • Raymond, André. 2000. Cairo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN: 0674003160 9780674003163
  • Ruthven, Malise, and Robert Azzi. 1980. Cairo. The Great cities. Amsterdam: Time-Life Books. ISBN: 0705405052 9780705405058
  • Yeomans, Richard. 2006. The art and architecture of Islamic Cairo. Reading, UK: Garnet Pub. ISBN: 1859641547 9781859641545

External Links


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