KNOW ABOUT EGYPT-CAIRO
Let Us Start from Country itself,
Egypt-
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, and across the Mediterranean lie Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt.
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Iconic monuments such as the Giza Necropolis and its Great Sphinx, as well the ruins of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of scientific and popular interest. Egypt’s long and rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, which has endured, and often assimilated, various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab, Ottoman Turkish, and Nubian. Egypt was an early and important centre of Christianity, but was largely Islamised in the seventh century and remains a predominantly Muslim country, albeit with a significant Christian minority.
Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world. Its metropolitan area, egypt is the largest in Africa, the Arab world, and the Middle East, and the 6th-largest in the world. Cairo is associated with ancient Egypt, as the famous Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta. Cairo was founded in 969 AD by the Fatimid dynasty, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of ancient national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo has long been a centre of the region’s political and cultural life, and is titled “the city of a thousand minarets” for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo is considered a World City with a “Beta +” classification according to GaWC.
Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the world’s second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city; the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
Best time to visit cairo/Cairo Weather.
If weather is your primary concern, the best time to visit Egypt is during the northern hemisphere fall, winter or early spring (October to April), when temperatures are lower. To avoid the crowds at ancient sites like the Pyramids of Giza, Luxor, and Abu Simbel, try to avoid peak season (December and January).
Winters are mild and sunny, but nights are cool to cold, ranging from 5/7 °C (41/45 °F) in the central area (see Luxor) to 10/11 °C in the southern area (see Aswan), though the temperature in the coldest nights can approach freezing (0 °C or 32 °F).
Egypt to witness dust storm, rise in temperature Monday. CAIRO — 23 March 2020: Egypt witnesses Monday active dust storms, causing low visibility on most main roads in Cairo and Giza. … The authority denied reports on Egypt witnessing heavy rains in the coming days.
The Population of the Cairo City is 95 Lakhs.
1. Pyramids of Giza
The Pyramids of Giza are Cairo’s number one half-day trip and a must-do attraction on everyone’s itinerary. Right on the edge of the city, on the Giza Plateau, these fourth dynasty funerary temples have been wowing travelers for centuries and continue to be one of the country’s major highlights. Despite the heat, the dust, and the tourist hustle, you can’t miss a trip here.
The Pyramid of Cheops (also called the Great Pyramid or Pyramid of Khufu) is the largest pyramid of the Giza group, and its interior of narrow passages can be explored, although there isn’t much to see, except a plain tomb chamber with an empty sarcophagus.
Directly behind the Great Pyramid is the Solar Boat Museum, which displays one of the ceremonial solar barques unearthed in the area that has been painstakingly restored to its original glory.
Farther south on the plateau is the Pyramid of Chephren (also known as the Pyramid of Khefre), with an internal tunnel area, which can be entered, and the smaller Pyramid of Mycerinus (Pyramid of Menkaure). Guarding these mortuary temples is the lion-bodied and pharaoh-faced Sphinx; one of the ancient world’s iconic monuments.
The Giza Plateau is set to welcome another attraction when the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is finally finished. When opened, it will be the biggest museum in the world devoted to exhibiting the antiquities of a single civilization, displaying a wealth of Ancient Egypt’s artifacts that have never been seen by the public before. After a stop-start construction, beset with financial difficulties, the museum opening date has been set for 2020.
The pyramid plateau is on the edge of Giza’s suburban sprawl, roughly 13 kilometers southwest of the central city. Most people arrive by taxi, but it’s also accessible by an easier-than-you-think combo of taking the metro to Giza and then hopping on a local minibus that drops you outside the entrance. As the pyramids’ area is quite sprawling though, many travelers elect to see the area by tour. One of the most popular things to do at the pyramids is a camel ride. A good option for first-time visitors is the Private Half-Day Trip to the Giza Pyramids with Camel-Riding. This includes pickup and drop-off at your hotel, a guide, lunch, and 25 minutes on a camel.
2. The Egyptian Museum
The absolutely staggering collection of antiquities displayed in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum makes it one of the world’s great museums. You would need a lifetime to see everything on show.
The museum was founded in 1857 by French Egyptologist August Mariette and moved to its current home — in the distinctive powder-pink mansion in Downtown Cairo — in 1897. Yes, the collection is poorly labeled and not well set out due to limits of space (and only a fraction of its total holdings are actually on display). It also suffers currently with some empty cases due to artifacts having been transferred to the GEM, but you still can’t help being impressed by the sheer majesty of the exhibits.
If you’re pressed for time, make a beeline straight for the Tutankhamun Galleries. The treasures displayed here were all found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, son-in-law and successor of Amenophis IV (later Akhenaten), who died at the age of 18. The tomb, discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, contained the largest and richest assemblage of grave goods ever found intact in an Egyptian tomb.
Highlights include Tutankhamun’s death mask and sarcophagi (Room 3), the pharaoh’s lion throne (Room 35), and his fascinating wardrobe collection (Room 9). Afterwards, don’t miss a wander through the Egyptian jewelry collection (Room 4), which contains more bling than you’ll ever see again in one lifetime, and finish off by viewing the Royal Mummies Collection (Room 56 & 46), where you can say hello to Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis II, Ramses II, and Seti I in person.
Even when the GEM opens, this iconic building will still be used as a museum. It has not been announced which collections will stay here and which will be moved — except for the Tutankhamun Galleries, which will all eventually be transferred to the GEM.
The Egyptian Museum sits right beside Midan Tahrir, the central square of Downtown Cairo. The easiest way to arrive here is to take the Cairo Metro to Sadat station (on Midan Tahrir) and follow the exit signs to the museum.
3. The Citadel
In a commanding location at the foot of the Mokattam Hills, Cairo’s citadel was built by Saladin in 1176. The original structure he laid out has long disappeared except for the eastern outer walls, but a legacy of rulers has made their own additions here.
The Mosque of Muhammad Ali is the most famous monument and the main reason for visiting. Nicknamed the “Alabaster Mosque,” its white stone and tall, disproportionately slender minarets are one of Cairo’s great landmarks. The other big reason to come up here are the views across the city; head to the Gawhara Terrace for the best panorama in town.
Just to the northeast of the Muhammad Ali Mosque is the El-Nasir Mosque, built in 1318–35 by Mohammed el-Nasir. A collection of rather half-hearted museums (the Police Museum, National Military Museum, and Carriage Museum) take up some of the other buildings on site and are more worthwhile viewing for the architecture of the actual buildings rather than the exhibits themselves.
You can walk to the citadel area from Bab Zuweila, if you’re feeling energetic, by heading along Khayyamiyya Street. The walk takes about 30 minutes.
Location: Off Midan Salah-ad-Din, Islamic Cairo District
4. Al-Muizz li-Din Allah Street
The northern section of Al-Muizz li-Din Allah Street is rimmed by fine Mamluk buildings, which have been painstakingly restored to their former glory. The Madrassa of as-Salih Ayyub, built in 1247, is a showcase of the tranquil simplicity of Islamic architecture.
Directly across the road from the madrassa is the drop-dead gorgeous Madrassa of Qalaun, rightly considered one of the Mamluk period’s greatest architectural triumphs. It was completed in 1293 by Qalaun’s son, Muhammad al-Nasir, and has an interior packed to the brim with intricate tile work, fine marble, mother-of-pearl mosaics, and stained-glass windows. Qalaun’s madrassa also functioned as a hospital when it first opened.
A little farther north is the younger (built in 1309) Madrassa of an-Nasr Mohammed with plenty of ornate detailing to admire, before you come to the fabulous Egyptian Textile Museum with a collection that spans the Pharaonic era right up to the Islamic period.
5. Manyal Palace
The north end of Roda island holds the gorgeously ornate Manyal Palace. After an extensive restoration, which took several years, it has re-opened to the public. The buildings here are an eccentric riot of styles that cherry-pick influences from both traditional Arabic and palatial European designs, resulting in an over-the-top, lavish symphony of interiors.
Check out the Reception Palace, where guests were hosted, with its elaborate wood ceilings, and then the Residential Palace with its Rococo flourishes, Ottoman-style tile work, and oil paintings. The Throne Palace, decked out in gold, is the real highlight here, though.
The complex was built in the early 20th century by the uncle of King Farouk. It’s set within lush green gardens on the shore of the island.
Cairo Time zone/Cairo Time Now
Cairo International Airport history started in the forties of the last century when the American Bayn Field air-force base was established five kilometers far from Almaza Airport to serve the Alliance during the Second World War. The American forces left the base by the end of the war.
In 1945, the Civil Aviation Authority took over the base and allocated it to the International Civil Aviation. The Airport was called “King Farouk 1st Airport”. In the meantime, Almaza Airport was dedicated to the domestic flights.
Cairo University , known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt’s premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;however, after being housed in various parts of Cairo, its faculties, beginning with the Faculty of Arts, were established on its current main campus in Giza in October 1929. It is the second oldest institution of higher education in Egypt after Al Azhar University, notwithstanding the pre-existing higher professional schools that later became constituent colleges of the university. It was founded and funded as the Egyptian University by a committee of private citizens with royal patronage in 1908 and became a state institution under King Fuad I in 1925.In 1940, four years following his death, the University was renamed King Fuad I University in his honor. It was renamed a second time after the Egyptian revolution of 1952.The University currently enrolls approximately 155,000 students in 20 faculties and 3 institutions.It counts three Nobel Laureates among its graduates and is one of the 50 largest institutions of higher education in the world by enrollment.
The early period
Some 5,000 years ago Memphis — today lying mainly in ruins approximately 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Cairo — was a thriving metropolis; about 2,000 years ago the Romans occupied a town on the site of present-day Cairo called Babylon (later the Miṣr al-Qadīmah quarter). The seed from which contemporary Cairo later sprang was the town of Al-Fusṭāṭ, founded as a military encampment in 641 CE by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, an Arab general and administrator who brought Islam to Egypt. Successive dynasties added royal suburbs (including Al-ʿAskar, founded in 750 by the Umayyads, and Al-Qaṭāʾiʿ, founded in 870 by Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn) to the increasingly prosperous commercial and industrial port city of Al-Fusṭāṭ. Little remains of these early developments in the southern part of the city, except the tower of Trajan (dating to 130 CE), the mosques of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (founded in 641–642) and Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn (completed in 878), and the partially excavated mounds covering the site of Al-Fusṭāṭ.
In 969 the Fāṭimids, adherents of a Shīʿite sect (see Ismāʿīliyyah) and opponents of Sunni ʿAbbāsid rule, invaded Egypt. The conquering general, Jawhar, established a new, rectangular, walled city to the northeast of the existing settlements. Initially named Al-Manṣūriyyah, the city was given its present name, Al-Qāhirah (“The Victorious”), in 973/974 in celebration of the arrival of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Muʿizz, who made the city the capital centre of a dynasty that lasted for two centuries. Al-Qāhirah and Al-Fusṭāṭ coexisted until 1168, when the unfortified city of Al-Fusṭāṭ was set on fire to protect Cairo from the Crusaders. The Crusaders were driven off by a Sunni army from Syria, after which the victorious commander, Saladin, founded the Ayyūbid dynasty, subsequently controlling a vast empire from Cairo.
Although Al-Fusṭāṭ was partially rebuilt, it was Cairo that was transformed from a royal enclave into an imperial metropolis. Saladin further extended the city’s 11th-century walls, of which the northern and southern walls and three main gates — Bāb al-Futūḥ, Bāb al-Naṣr, and Bāb Zuwaylah — are still extant; he also constructed a citadel on the Muqaṭṭam spur (now dominated by the Muḥammad ʿAlī Mosque). After Baybars I became the first Mamlūk sultan of undisputed legitimacy in 1260, Cairo served as the capital of the Mamlūk empire, which governed Egypt, much of the Levant, and parts of the Fertile Crescent until 1517.