City Africa
Cairo
Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. The long Nile River flows through it. The famous pyramids stand at the edge of the city, by the desert.
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, has stood on the banks of the Nile for more than 1,000 years, where the river spreads out into its delta. Founded in 969, it has a medieval old city full of historic mosques and markets, the Egyptian Museum and, at its edge, the Pyramids of Giza. It is one of the largest cities in Africa.
Cairo, Egypt's capital and one of Africa's largest cities, stands where the Nile valley opens into the delta, 800 km below the Aswan High Dam. Founded by the Fatimids in 969 beside the older Al-Fusṭāṭ, it became an imperial metropolis under Saladin and the Mamluks; its medieval core, with more than 400 registered monuments, has been a World Heritage Site since 1979. The city counted about 9.8 million people in a 2023 estimate, in an urban area of more than 19 million (2017).
Photo: © Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Cairo
Cairo is the capital city of Egypt.
It is a huge city beside the Nile River. On one side is green, watered land. Beyond the city is dry, sandy desert. Long ago, people built the pyramids nearby.
Cairo is the capital of Egypt, in the northeast of Africa. It sits mostly on the east bank of the Nile River, where the river begins to spread out into its delta. Cairo is one of the largest cities in Africa: about 9.8 million people lived in the city in 2023, and more than 19 million in the whole urban area in 2017.
In Arabic, Cairo is called Al-Qāhirah, "The Victorious." It is a city of contrasts: tall towers along the Nile, a medieval old city with historic mosques and busy markets, and the Pyramids of Giza at the southwest edge of the metropolis.
Cairo stands on the Nile, mostly on its eastern shore, about 800 km downstream from the Aswan High Dam, at the gateway to the delta where the river divides into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. Metropolitan Cairo includes the Cairo governorate, 214 km², and districts of the Giza and Qalyubia governorates; the governorate had 9,539,673 people in 2017 (Britannica), and Egypt's statistics agency, CAPMAS, estimated 9,801,536 for the city including Ḥulwān in July 2023 (citypopulation.de), and the urban agglomeration 19,295,000 in 2017.
Britannica describes a city of physical contrast: irrigated, green riverbanks with skyscrapers, and older inland quarters in browns and ochres beneath the Muqaṭṭam Hills and the Eastern Desert. It juxtaposes ancient and new, with the Pyramids of Giza at the southwestern edge, an obelisk marking ancient Heliopolis in the northeast and, between them, Roman, Arab and Ottoman monuments. The city is fan-shaped, narrow in the south where desert cliffs pinch the valley and widest in the north where the valley opens into the delta.
- Country
- Egypt (capital)
- People in the city (2023 estimate)
- about 9.8 million
- Urban area (2017)
- about 19.3 million
- Founded
- 969
Famous places
Cairo has a very old part with narrow streets.
There are old mosques with tall towers and busy markets full of spices and gold. A big museum holds treasures from ancient Egypt. At the edge of the city stand the pyramids.
Cairo's medieval old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, has more than 400 registered historic monuments, including mosques, tombs and massive stone gates. Its markets, such as the Khān al-Khalīlī near al-Azhar Mosque, sell gold, copper, spices, rugs and leather. On a hill to the south stands the Citadel, begun by Saladin.
By Tahrir Square, the Egyptian Museum holds a vast collection of ancient Egyptian treasures. At the southwest edge of the metropolis rise the Pyramids of Giza, built near the ancient capital of Memphis. Across the Nile, on the island of Jazīrah, stand the Cairo Tower, gardens and the Cairo Opera House.
The medieval city built under the Fatimids (909–1171) and its extensions hold most of Cairo's historic monuments, from the Mosque of Baybars I in the north to Saladin's Citadel in the south, now dominated by the Muḥammad ʿAlī Mosque. Shāriʿ al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh, lined with major mosques and markets, bisects it; the northern and southern stretches of the 11th-century walls that Saladin extended survive, with three main gates, Bāb al-Futūḥ, Bāb al-Naṣr and Bāb Zuwaylah. Older still, in the south, are the tower of Trajan (130 CE), the reconstructed Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (founded 641–642), the Mosque of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn (878) and, in Old Cairo, many Coptic churches.
The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square displays a vast collection of antiquities, including the colossal statue of Amenhotep III and his wife Tiy; the Coptic Museum, the Museum of Islamic Art and the Manyal Palace Museum add other eras. The Pyramids of Giza, near Memphis, stand at the metropolis's southwestern edge. UNESCO calls Historic Cairo one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with its mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains.
- Historic Cairo
- UNESCO World Heritage Site, 1979
- Registered historic monuments
- more than 400
- Mosque of Ibn Ṭūlūn
- completed 878
- Khān al-Khalīlī
- large bazaar near al-Azhar Mosque
A thousand years of 'The Victorious'
Long, long ago, ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near here.
Much later, in 969, rulers built a new walled city by the Nile. They called it Al-Qāhirah, "The Victorious." It grew into a very big, busy city.
About 5,000 years ago, Memphis, near today's Cairo, was a busy ancient capital, and the Pyramids of Giza stand near it. Later the Romans had a town here. In 641 an Arab general founded Al-Fusṭāṭ, a camp that grew into a busy port city.
In 969 a new dynasty, the Fatimids, built a walled city to the northeast and named it Al-Qāhirah. Under Saladin and the Mamluk rulers, Cairo became an imperial capital; by about 1340 it was the largest city in Africa, Europe and Asia Minor, with almost half a million people. In the 1800s new European-style districts were built, and in 1952 Egypt became a republic.
Memphis, about 24 km southwest, was a thriving metropolis some 5,000 years ago; about 2,000 years ago the Romans held a town, Babylon, on the site of Old Cairo. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ founded Al-Fusṭāṭ as a military camp in 641; royal suburbs followed in 750 and 870. In 969 the Fatimid general Jawhar laid out a walled city to the northeast, renamed Al-Qāhirah in 973/974. Al-Fusṭāṭ was burned in 1168 to protect Cairo from the Crusaders; Saladin then founded the Ayyubid dynasty, extended the walls and built the Citadel. From 1260 Cairo was the Mamluk capital, and by about 1340 it was the largest city in Africa, Europe and Asia Minor, with almost half a million people and al-Azhar as a principal seat of learning.
Plague from 1348, the loss of the spice monopoly after Vasco da Gama's voyage and Ottoman rule from 1517 brought decline; fewer than 300,000 people lived there in 1798. Muḥammad ʿAlī, viceroy from 1805, began modernization, and Ismāʿīl (1863–79) built European-style districts west of the old core. British rule began in 1882; Egypt became independent in 1922, and in 1952 a military revolt led by Gamal Abdel Nasser ended the monarchy and made Egypt a republic. Mass protests centered on Tahrir Square in the early 2010s overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, and under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, inaugurated in 2014, the government began building a New Administrative Capital about 45 km east of the city.
Getting around Cairo
Cairo's streets are very busy!
There are cars, buses, minibuses and taxis. Sometimes a donkey cart rolls along too. Trains zoom through tunnels under the city.
Cairo is famous for its busy traffic. Buses, licensed taxis and many minibuses carry people around, and sometimes even donkey carts share the road. To help, the government built bypass highways and overpasses.
The Cairo Metro, an underground railway, began running in 1987 and has grown a lot since. Along the river runs the Corniche, a highway built in the 1950s, and bridges cross to the islands and the west bank. A national transportation network links Cairo with most of Egypt's cities.
Britannica describes a transport network of formal and informal parts: a public bus network introduced in the 1950s, licensed cabs, and minibuses and taxis that sprang up in the late 1970s and 1980s and still predominate in informal neighborhoods. The Cairo Metro began service in 1987 and has since been significantly expanded. Wider car ownership has made congestion a serious problem; bypass highways and overpasses were built to fight congestion and pollution, and donkey carts, though technically outlawed, still mix with cars, buses, streetcars and trolleys.
The Corniche (Kūrnīsh al-Nīl), built in the 1950s along the Nile, is the city's north–south axis. Bridges since the mid-20th century encouraged settlement of the islands of Al-Rawḍah and Al-Zamālik and the west bank, and Egypt's extensive transportation network, laid out by the British, connects most urban centers with the capital.
- Cairo Metro
- began service 1987
- Public bus network
- introduced in the 1950s
- The Corniche
- riverside highway built in the 1950s
Weather and seasons
Cairo is a desert city, so it is very dry.
It almost never rains. Summers are long and hot. Winter days are warm and sunny, but the nights are cool.
Cairo has only two seasons: about eight months of summer and four months of winter. In the hottest months, June to August, daytime highs average about 35 °C. Winter days are warm, dry and sunny, around 19 °C, but nights are cool, about 9 or 10 °C, often freshened by breezes from the Nile.
Cairo is in the desert, so rain is very rare: only about 25 millimeters fall in a whole year, mostly between November and March. From June to September there is almost no rain at all.
Britannica describes two seasons, about eight months of summer and four of winter. In June, July and August the average daily maximum is 35 °C and the minimum 21 °C, and temperatures have reached 47 °C; in January and February the average maximum is 19 °C and the minimum 8.5 °C, with warm, dry days under the strong Tropic of Cancer sun and cool, humid nights.
World Meteorological Organization normals for 1981–2010 give mean daily maxima and minima of 34.8 °C and 22.9 °C in July and 19.0 °C and 9.7 °C in January. Monthly rainfall never exceeds about 6 mm, and the annual total is only about 25 mm, and the city's drinking water is generally Nile water that has been filtered and purified.
- July, average daily high and low
- about 35 °C and 23 °C
- January, average daily high and low
- about 19 °C and 10 °C
- Rain in a year
- about 25 mm
Living in Cairo
Cairo is a lively city of music and movies.
Many famous Arabic films are made here. Families sail on the Nile in boats and visit the big zoo. Markets sell spices, gold and copper pots.
Cairo has long been a cultural capital of the Middle East. Most Arabic films are made by companies in Cairo, many famous singers and actors live there, and its radio and TV shows are watched across the Arab world. The Cairo Opera House was completed in 1988.
People enjoy sailboat trips on the Nile, riverfront cafés and the Cairo Zoo in Giza. Most people in Cairo are Muslim, and there is also a significant Coptic Christian community. Many residents were born in the countryside and moved to the city to work.
Britannica calls Cairo a long-standing cultural capital of the Middle East and the region's chief mass-media center: the majority of Arabic films are produced by companies in Cairo, many leading stars of the Arab world are based there, its radio and television series are broadcast throughout the Arab world, and the daily Al-Ahrām has been published since 1875. The original opera house burned in 1971; its modern replacement on Jazīrah was completed in 1988.
Once ethnically and religiously more diverse, the population is now predominantly Muslim, with a significant Coptic Orthodox community and remnants of Italian, Greek, Syrian and Sudanese communities; many residents were born in rural Egypt, and about half live in the suburbs. Since the 1970s new desert towns such as 10th of Ramadan City and 6th of October City have drawn growth away from the farmland of the delta, while informal housing makes up a considerable share of the city.
- Cairo Opera House
- completed 1988
- Al-Ahrām newspaper
- founded 1875
- Cairo Zoological Gardens
- in Giza
Cairo on the map
Find Cairo on the globe.
It is in Egypt, in the northeast of Africa. Look for the long Nile River. Cairo sits where the river begins to split into many branches.
Cairo is in northeastern Egypt, in Africa. It sits on the Nile River about 800 kilometers downstream from the Aswan High Dam, just where the river opens into its wide, green delta.
The city is shaped like a fan: narrow in the south, where desert cliffs squeeze the river valley, and wide in the north, where the valley opens into the delta. Desert lies to the east and west.
Cairo lies at about 30.1° N and 31.2° E, primarily on the Nile's eastern shore, at the head of the delta where the river separates into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. The Muqaṭṭam Hills and the Eastern Desert rise to the east.
Over the centuries the city expanded westward as the river channel receded and left flood-free land, then northward into farmland and, since the 1970s, into the desert with satellite towns. Memphis lies about 24 km southwest, and the Pyramids of Giza mark the metropolis's southwestern edge.
- Latitude
- about 30.1° north
- Longitude
- about 31.2° east
- Aswan High Dam
- about 800 km upstream
- Memphis (ancient capital)
- about 24 km southwest
Amazing facts
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Cairo's name means "The Victorious."
Cairo's Arabic name, Al-Qāhirah, means "The Victorious."
First named Al-Manṣūriyyah, the Fatimid city was renamed Al-Qāhirah ('The Victorious') in 973/974 to celebrate the arrival of the caliph al-Muʿizz.
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Three old stone gates of the walled city still stand in Cairo.
Three of the old city's great gates, Bāb al-Futūḥ, Bāb al-Naṣr and Bāb Zuwaylah, still stand.
Of the 11th-century walls that Saladin extended, the northern and southern stretches survive with three main gates: Bāb al-Futūḥ, Bāb al-Naṣr and Bāb Zuwaylah.
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Long ago, Cairo was the biggest city in Africa and Europe.
By about 1340, Cairo was the largest city in Africa, Europe and Asia Minor, with almost half a million people.
By about 1340 Cairo had become the largest city in Africa, Europe and Asia Minor, with almost half a million people in an area five times that of the Fatimid walled city.
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Most Arabic movies are made in Cairo.
Most Arabic-language films are made by companies in Cairo.
The majority of Arabic films are produced by Egyptian companies in Cairo, and many of the Arab world's leading film and music stars are based there.
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The island of Būlāq is not an island anymore.
Būlāq, a district of Cairo, was an island until 1340 and became the city's main port by 1560.
Būlāq was an island until 1340, Cairo's main port by 1560 and an industrial district from the early 19th century.
Words to know
- capital
- the city where a country's government meets
- delta
- flat land at a river's mouth where the river splits into many channels
- bazaar
- a market with many small shops and stalls
- mosque
- a building where Muslims gather to pray
- citadel
- a fortress on high ground that protects a city
- dynasty
- a family of rulers who govern one after another
- governorate
- a region of Egypt with its own governor, like a state or province
Discovery challenge
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Which river flows through Cairo?
Cairo stands at the head of the delta of which river?
Cairo lies about 800 km downstream from the Aswan High Dam on which river?
- The Nile
- The Amazon
- The Danube
Show the answer
The Nile
The Nile! It brings water to the desert city.
The Nile, which splits into branches in its delta north of the city.
The Nile; the Rosetta and Damietta branches divide below Cairo.
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What stands at the edge of Cairo, by the desert?
Which ancient monuments stand at the southwestern edge of metropolitan Cairo?
Which monuments near ancient Memphis now mark the southwestern edge of the metropolis?
- The Pyramids of Giza
- The Eiffel Tower
- Big Ben
Show the answer
The Pyramids of Giza
The pyramids! They are made of giant stones.
The Pyramids of Giza, near the ancient capital of Memphis.
The Pyramids of Giza, on the desert edge near Memphis.
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Does it rain a lot in Cairo?
About how much rain falls in Cairo in a whole year?
Roughly what is Cairo's average annual rainfall in the WMO normals?
- About 25 millimeters
- About 1,500 millimeters
- About 5,000 millimeters
Show the answer
About 25 millimeters
No! Only a tiny bit of rain falls.
Only about 25 millimeters, because Cairo is in the desert.
About 25 mm; no month averages more than about 6 mm.
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What does Cairo's Arabic name mean?
What does Al-Qāhirah, Cairo's Arabic name, mean?
The Fatimids renamed their city Al-Qāhirah in 973/974. What does it mean?
- The Victorious
- The River Town
- The Golden
Show the answer
The Victorious
The Victorious!
The Victorious.
'The Victorious', marking the arrival of the caliph al-Muʿizz.
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When was Cairo started?
In which year did the Fatimids build the walled city that became Cairo?
In which year did the Fatimid general Jawhar lay out the new walled city northeast of Al-Fusṭāṭ?
- 969
- 1952
- 1987
Show the answer
969
969! That is more than 1,000 years ago.
969. Al-Fusṭāṭ, nearby, was even older.
969; 1952 is the republic and 1987 the Metro.
Nearby places
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Landmark
The Great Sphinx
The Great Sphinx at Giza, Egypt, is a lion with a human head, carved out of the solid rock about 4,500 years ago. It is about 73 meters long and 20 meters high, one of the largest sculptures in the world. Most experts think it shows the face of King Khafre.
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Landmark
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built more than 4,500 years ago as the tomb of King Khufu of Egypt. About 2.3 million stone blocks were cut, moved and stacked to make it. Egypt's antiquities ministry calls it the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
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Landmark
Giza pyramid complex
The Giza pyramid complex is a group of ancient tombs on a rocky plateau beside the Nile River in Egypt. Three kings from one family, Khufu, his son Khafre and his grandson Menkaure, built huge pyramids there about 4,500 years ago. Around them are temples, small pyramids for queens, rows of tombs for nobles, the Great Sphinx and even the town where the builders lived.
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Landmark
Egyptian pyramids
Egypt's pyramids were giant stone tombs for kings. They did not start out pointed: the first, King Djoser's Step Pyramid, was a stack of six giant steps. King Snefru's builders tried again and again, making the Bent Pyramid and then the Red Pyramid, the first planned true pyramid. Soon after came the great pyramids of Giza.
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Landmark
Memphis
Memphis was the capital of Egypt in the time of the first great pyramids, more than 4,000 years ago. It stood on the west side of the Nile, about 24 kilometers south of modern Cairo. Kings, priests, craftworkers and traders lived there, and its rulers were buried in pyramids and tombs along the desert edge, from Giza to Dahshur.
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Landmark
Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Finished in about 280 BCE on the island of Pharos, it was said to be more than 110 meters tall. An earthquake in the 1300s brought it down, and in 1477 a fortress was built on its ruins.
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Natural wonder
Negev
The Negev is a dry region in the Middle East, shaped like a triangle with its point at the Red Sea. Its name comes from a Hebrew word meaning to dry. It has huge craters called makhteshim, carved by erosion, ancient towns on an old incense trade route, and farms watered by pipelines.
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Landmark
Petra
Petra, in southern Jordan, was the capital of the Nabataeans, who grew rich from trade in incense and spices. Many of its tombs and monuments are carved straight into red sandstone cliffs, and a narrow gorge called the Siq leads to its most famous facade, the Treasury.
Explore next
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Country
Egypt
Egypt is in the northeastern corner of Africa, and its Sinai Peninsula reaches into Asia. Almost all of it is desert, so most of its more than 100 million people live along the green banks of the Nile River, where one of the world's earliest civilizations grew.
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Natural wonder
Nile
The Nile flows north through northeastern Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, and its basin is shared by 11 countries. Its length is usually given as about 6,650 kilometers. Two great branches, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, meet at Khartoum in Sudan, and the green strip of farmland along its banks made it the lifeline of ancient Egypt.
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Landmark
Giza pyramid complex
The Giza pyramid complex is a group of ancient tombs on a rocky plateau beside the Nile River in Egypt. Three kings from one family, Khufu, his son Khafre and his grandson Menkaure, built huge pyramids there about 4,500 years ago. Around them are temples, small pyramids for queens, rows of tombs for nobles, the Great Sphinx and even the town where the builders lived.
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Watch
Landmark
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built more than 4,500 years ago as the tomb of King Khufu of Egypt. About 2.3 million stone blocks were cut, moved and stacked to make it. Egypt's antiquities ministry calls it the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
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Life around the world
Life along the Nile in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt's capital, has stood beside the Nile for more than 1,000 years. Around it lies desert, so people live close to the river: from space at night, their lights trace the Nile like a glowing flower. The river waters farms, and a new riverside walkway gives people a place to stroll.
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City
Istanbul
Istanbul is the biggest city in Türkiye, built on both sides of the Bosporus, the narrow strait between Europe and Asia. Once called Byzantium and then Constantinople, it was the capital of two great empires. About 15.7 million people lived in Istanbul province in 2023.
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City
Athens
Athens is the capital of Greece and one of the oldest cities in the world. Above it rises the Acropolis, a rocky hill crowned by the marble Parthenon, built about 2,500 years ago. Ancient Athens was home to early democracy, great thinkers and theater.
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City
Baghdad
Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the Tigris River in the land once called Mesopotamia. It was founded in 762 as a round city, and for about 500 years it was one of the greatest cities in the world and a great center of learning, where scholars studied math, medicine and the stars. Today it is Iraq's largest city.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Cairo on the Nile at the head of the delta in Egypt.
- Explain how a desert city depends on a river for water.
- Describe how Cairo grew from Al-Fusṭāṭ and the Fatimid city into a modern capital.
- Tell the difference between ancient Memphis and the Pyramids and the much younger city of Cairo.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Cairo gets almost no rain. How do people there get the water they need?
- The Pyramids are much older than Cairo itself. Why do you think a big city grew up near them?
- What would you like to buy or see in a bazaar like the Khān al-Khalīlī?
Try at home or in class
- Make a model delta: pour water slowly onto a tilted tray of sand and watch the river split into branches.
- Measure one week's rain with a jar outside. Compare it with Cairo's 25 millimeters in a whole year.
Key vocabulary: capital, delta, bazaar, mosque, citadel, dynasty, governorate
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Cairo , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Cairo: People, economy and transportation , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Cairo: Cultural life and history , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Cairo: Development of the city , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Egypt: Governorates and Major Cities , City Population (Thomas Brinkhoff), from CAPMAS
- Historic Cairo , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Cairo: climatological information , World Meteorological Organization, World Weather Information Service
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.