Estructuras en el golfo de Cambay

Cairo (RTL rear القاهرة, romanisation: Al-Qāhira , the Victorious one) is the Capitale of the Egypt and has an official population of almost 17,5 million inhabitants, but more than 25 million Cairotes actually live there. Its population was estimated at: 700000 inhabitants in the Years 1920. It is more the big city of the Africa and the the Middle East. Although Al-Qāhira is official name, one more often calls it in Egyptian Arabic Misr , the Arab name of Egypt.

It is located on the edge is of the Nile like on some adjacent islands, in the north of Egypt. In the west is the town of Gizeh and its ancient Nécropole of Memphis on the plate of Gizeh, with its three large Pyramide S of which the Grande pyramid of Khéops. In the south is the site of the antique Egyptian city of Memphis.

Geography

The city of Cairo is located on bank is of the Nile like on some adjacent islands, in the north of the Egypt, symbolizing the south where the river leaves the valley bordering with the desert to be divided into two arms in the low area of the Delta of the Nile.

The oldest part of the city is - coarsely - in the east of the river. From here, the city is little-with-little deployed towards the west, including the cultivable grounds around the Nile. These western districts, frames on the model of the town of Paris by Ismaïl Splendid the in the middle of the 19th century, are characterized by broad boulevards, public gardens and many open spaces. The old city in the east is very different: its growth more hazardous than ordered made of it a rich place of small lanes and old over-populated habitats. Whereas Cairo of the west concentrates the official buildings and a modern architecture, half-is it, as for it, rich person of hundreds of old mosques, true historical heritage.

The wide system of water supply of the city enabled him to open in the east, in the desert. Many bridges connect to the dry land the islands of Gezira and of Ground where many buildings of the government are. Other bridges above the Nile attach the city to the suburbs of Giza and Imbalah.

In the west, in the middle of the Deserted , is the town of Gizeh which draws its name from the plate on which it extends. It includes old the necropolis of Memphis, famous for its three large pyramids of which the large Pyramide of Khéops. The site of the antique Memphis is roughly to 18 km in the south of Cairo, in the vicinity immediate of the necropolis of Saqqarah and the suburbs of Helwan.

History

Built in 969 by Jawhar Al-Siqilli (Jawhar the Sicilian), Cairo was the capital of a Califat founded by the Fatimides, which were claimed downward of Fatima, the girl of Mahomet, wife of the 4th Caliph, Ali.

Culture

Cairo is the site more attended of Egypt, because of its reception facilities, of its urban inheritance and the proximity of the Grande pyramid of Gizeh. The city shelters the principal political institutions and administrative country; it is moreover the seat of the Arab Ligue, symbol of its determining role in the Arab world. Its universities, whose University Al-Azhar located in the mosque éponyme, are very famous, and its historical heritage is preserved by prestigious institutions - museum Egyptian, founded in 1857 by the Egyptologist French Auguste Mariette, Islamic museum of Art or museum of Art copte.

Since 1992, with more than one hundred of restored monuments, the capital of Egypt finds a heritage a long time neglected. Time Fatimide (), rampart of Saladin (), mosques and palate Mameluke S () or Caravanserai S Othoman S (), an inheritance without similar fate of the abandonment.

Districts of Cairo

The Old man Cairo (district copte)

This part of Cairo, full with charm, is the oldest district of the city. The fortress of Babylon, built by the Roman , was transformed very early into Christian and Jewish enclave. This district contains the synagog Ben Ezra, founded in 1115, and counted a score of churches of which there remains only five of which, in particular: the suspended church devoted to the Virgin, probably the Christian church oldest in Egypt, dating from the 4th century, the church Saint-Serge built at the end of the 4th century to the top of a crypt where the Holy Family would have taken refuge during the escape in Egypt and the church Holy-Barbara, of the name of an young girl martyrized to have to try to convert his/her father with Christianity, rebuilt at the 11th century. It should be noted that the churches are not characterized by their external ornamentation but by a very rich interior.

Photographs of the district copte

Islamic Cairo

The Islamic monuments of Egypt are almost entirely concentrated in Cairo.

The Fatimides equipped Cairo with many mosques. After them, the sultans Mamelouk S continued to embellish the town of splendid mosques and many Koranic schools, the medreseh ; the amalgam sabil (fountain) and kottab (writer) in a Madrasa can seem strange, but is to follow the recommendations of the prophet, for whom water allows material and spiritual cleanliness; the school is around the fountain.

Mausoleums are gathered into true cities of dead the .

Under the dynasty Mameluke, the city increases considerably and becomes the capital of the Muslim world.

Thus Ibn Khaldoun could say: That which did not see Cairo does not know the size of Islamism. It is the metropolis of the universe, the garden of the world, the anthill of the mankind, the gantry of the islamisme.

The citadel of Saladin

Photographs of the citadel

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