Middle East - Anthony Ham [100]
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HISTORY
Cairo is not a Pharaonic city, though the presence of the Pyramids leads many to believe otherwise. At the time the Pyramids were built, the capital of ancient Egypt was Memphis, 22km south of the Giza plateau.
The core foundations of the city of Cairo were laid in AD 969 by the early Islamic Fatimid dynasty. There had been earlier settlements, notably the Roman fortress of Babylon and the early Islamic city of Fustat, established by Amr ibn al-As, the general who conquered Egypt for Islam in AD 640. Much of the city that the Fatimids built remains today: the great Fatimid mosque and university of Al-Azhar is still Egypt’s main centre of Islamic study, while the three great gates of Bab an-Nasr, Bab al-Futuh and Bab Zuweila still straddle two of Islamic Cairo’s main thoroughfares.
Under the rule of subsequent dynasties, Cairo swelled and burst its walls, but at heart it remained a medieval city for 900 years. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that Cairo started to change in any significant way.
Before the 1860s, Cairo extended west only as far as what is today Midan Opera. The future site of modern central Cairo was then a swampy plain subject to the annual flooding of the Nile. In 1863, when the French-educated Ismail Pasha came to power, he was determined to upgrade the image of his capital, which he believed could only be done by dismissing what had gone before and starting afresh. For 10 years the former marsh became one vast building site as Ismail invited architects from Belgium, France and Italy to design and build a brand-new European-style Cairo beside the old Islamic city. This building boom has continued until the present day, with the city’s boundaries constantly expanding into the surrounding desert to support an ever-growing populace.
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PLAYING CHICKEN IN CAIRO
It may sound silly, but the greatest challenge most travellers face when travelling through Egypt is crossing the street in Cairo. Roads are frantically busy and road rules are something that the average Cairene has heard of, but only in jokes. Our advice is to position yourself so that one or more locals form a buffer between you and oncoming traffic, and then cross when they cross – they usually don’t mind being used as human shields. Basically, it’s a game of chicken. Never, ever hesitate once you’ve stepped off the footpath; cross as if you own the road. But do it fast.
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ORIENTATION
Finding your way around the vast sprawl of Cairo is not as difficult as it may first seem. Midan Tahrir is the centre. Northeast of Tahrir is Downtown, a noisy, busy commercial district centred on Sharia Talaat Harb. This is where you’ll find most of the cheap eateries and budget hotels. Midan Ramses, location of the city’s main train station, marks the northernmost extent of Downtown.
Heading east, Downtown ends at Midan Ataba and Islamic Cairo takes over. This is the medieval heart of the city, and is still very much alive today. At its centre is the great bazaar of Khan al-Khalili.
Sitting in the middle of the Nile is the island neighbourhood of Zamalek, historically favoured by ruling colonials and still a relatively upmarket enclave with many foreign residents, a few midrange hotels and innumerable restaurants and bars.
The west bank of the Nile is less