Cairo history

Cairo has been ruled by Persians, Pharaohs, Romans, Arabian caliphs, British colonials and more, and nurtured the establishment of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions. Not surprisingly, for today’s visitor, the beauty is seeing those centuries unfold in layers, often juxtaposed into modern-day living.

The original ancient city was actually Memphis, now 24km (15 miles) southwest of Cairo, founded in 2,000 BC and ruled by King Menes who united Upper and Lower Egypt. Fustat, as ‘modern-day’ Cairo was known, was founded some 3,000 years later and was one of the world’s greatest, and largest cities and home to Egypt’s first mosque.

There embarked a period of huge construction of some of the city’s most prominent landmarks. The Fatimids established the Al-Azhar mosque (one of the world’s oldest Islamic universities) located in Islamic Cairo, the medieval quarter also home to the sprawling market streets of Khan el-Khalili.

Once the Mamaluk Sultanate was captured by the Ottoman Empire, they shifted most of the trading back to Constantinople and Cairo became little more than a provincial town. The mkedieval curse, the Black Death, struck the city countless times reducing the population by hundreds of thousands. Cairo’s place on the spice route was all but diminished.

The Ottomans were soon unseated by Napoleonic troops who occupied Cairo in the late 18th century, later falling to British troops.

Muhammad Ali Pasha was considered to be the founder of modern Egypt, with social and economic reforms and huge construction in the early 19th century. His grandson Ismail Pasha continued that modernization process, inspired by the broad boulevards of Paris, and his legacy can still be seen around today’s Downtown Cairo.

Debt let to British occupation lasting well into the 20th century, but huge demonstrations led to Egypt’s independence declared in 1922 and Sultan Ahmad Fuad became King Fuad I. His son King Farouk I later married Queen Farida Zulficar.

Since World War II, Cairo’s development has been intense, its huge and fast-growing population leading to its current status as the largest city in Africa and the Muslim world.