Cairo - Egypt
Mosque of Mohammed Ali, within the Citadel walls.
Cairo (Arabic: al-Qāhirah), which means "the Vanquisher" or "the Triumphant" is the capital and largest city of Egypt. It is the Arab World's largest and Africa's most populous city.While Al-Qahirah is the official name of the city, in Egyptian Arabic it is called by the dialect's name for the country, transliteration: Masr. (Egypt's first Arab capital, Fustat, was known as Misr al-Fustat, "City of the Tents".)
Cairo was founded by the Fatimid caliphs as a royal enclosure. It replaced Fustat as the seat of the government. It later came under the Mamluks, was ruled by the Ottomans 1517 to 1798, and briefly occupied by Napoleon. Muhammad Ali of Egypt made Cairo the capital of his independent empire from 1805 to 1882, after which the British took control of it until Egypt attained independence in 1922.
Cairo has a population of about 6.8 million people, according to the 2006 population census. The number of inhabitants was about a million higher at the time of the census, but this was adjusted downwards on the 17th of April 2008. Cairo's metropolitan area has a population of about 17.8 million people.Cairo is the sixteenth most populous metropolitan area in the world. It is also the most populous metropolitan area in Africa.
Cairo - Egypt
Mosque of Mohammed Ali, within the Citadel walls.
Cairo (Arabic: al-Qāhirah), which means "the Vanquisher" or "the Triumphant" is the capital and largest city of Egypt. It is the Arab World's largest and Africa's most populous city.While Al-Qahirah is the official name of the city, in Egyptian Arabic it is called by the dialect's name for the country, transliteration: Masr. (Egypt's first Arab capital, Fustat, was known as Misr al-Fustat, "City of the Tents".)
Cairo was founded by the Fatimid caliphs as a royal enclosure. It replaced Fustat as the seat of the government. It later came under the Mamluks, was ruled by the Ottomans 1517 to 1798, and briefly occupied by Napoleon. Muhammad Ali of Egypt made Cairo the capital of his independent empire from 1805 to 1882, after which the British took control of it until Egypt attained independence in 1922.
Cairo has a population of about 6.8 million people, according to the 2006 population census. The number of inhabitants was about a million higher at the time of the census, but this was adjusted downwards on the 17th of April 2008. Cairo's metropolitan area has a population of about 17.8 million people.Cairo is the sixteenth most populous metropolitan area in the world. It is also the most populous metropolitan area in Africa.