Cairo (city)

Capital of Egypt, and the largest city in Africa and in the Middle East, situated on the east bank of the River Nile 13 km/8 mi above the apex of the delta and 160 km/100 mi from the Mediterranean; population (1996) 6,789,500, (2007 calc) 7,933,200. The city is the leading commercial and industrial centre of Egypt; its industries include the manufacture of textiles, chemicals, leather, cement, processed foods, vegetable oils, and steel. At Helwan, 24 km/15 mi to the south, an industrial centre is powered by electricity from the Aswan High Dam. With the attractions of the pyramids and sphinx at Giza and the Egyptian museum, which has one of the world's leading archaeological collections, there is also a very substantial tourist industry, while the film and publishing industries serve most of the Middle East.

History
El Fustat (Old Cairo) was founded by Arabs about in about AD 642, and Al Qahira in about 1000 by the Fatimid ruler Gowhar. Cairo was the capital of the Ayyubid dynasty, one of whose sultans, Saladin, built the Citadel in the late 1100s. Under the Mamelukes (1250–1517) the city prospered, but declined in the 16th century after conquest by the Turks. It became the capital of the virtually-autonomous kingdom of Egypt established by Mehmet Ali in 1805. During World War II it was the headquarters of the Allied forces in north Africa.

In October 1992 an earthquake in a suburb of the city left over 500 dead. In 1994 Cairo hosted the United Nations Conference on Population and Development.