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Cairo

Capital of EgyptOn the east bank of the Nile in northern Egypt, Cairo sits just south of where the river leaves its desert valley and spreads out into the flat Nile Delta. The Mediterranean Sea is about 165 km to the north.

Why it's the capital

In 969 the Fatimid rulers ordered a new fortified city to be built next to the older capital, Fustat, and in 973 Cairo became the seat of their caliphate. Over the next centuries it took over from Fustat, and later rulers kept governing Egypt from Cairo.

Fun facts

  1. Its Arabic name, al-Qāhira, means "the Conqueror", and one story says it was chosen because the planet Mars, "the Conquering Star", was rising when the city was founded.
  2. Cairo is called "the city of a thousand minarets" because of its many historic Islamic buildings.
  3. The 187-metre Cairo Tower on Gezira Island in the Nile is 44 m taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands about 15 km to the south-west.

Finding it on the globe

Follow the Nile north through Egypt to the point where it fans out into the delta. Cairo is right at the tip of that fan, about 120 km west of the Suez Canal.

Sources: Wikipedia: Cairo