Covering an area of approximately 500 sq km along with an estimated population of 22 million, Greater Cairo is crowned as the largest city in the Middle East and Africa. Cairo’s Arabian name is ‘ al-Qahirah’ which means ‘the conqueror’ or ‘the vanquisher’ in Arabic. The city of 1000 minarets was founded in 969 by the Fatimid Caliphate from Tunisia although there were earlier settlements. This historical city also hosts one of the oldest universities in the world- the al-Azhar University, which was founded in 975 CE. Also known as ‘Umm al-Dounia’ by Egyptians which means Mother of the World,…
Cairo, the City of Lost History
