Talk:Cairo

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Contents

[edit] Fustat destruction

It is mentioned that Al Fustat was destroyed to prevent its capture from Crusaders, this is historically not true and needs a citation —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.234.15.216 (talk) 17:25, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Population

Here it says "around 16 million" and in the list of metropolitan areas by population it's 15,600,000. In the article of the week candidate list someone mentions 18+ million, and in some of the different language versions of this article the figure is as high as 20 million. (Also, brief googling gave anything from 12 to 19 million.) I wonder if anyone knows the real (approximate) population of the Cairo metropolitan area... Or should we just settle with a vague "about 16-20 million"? --Jonik 19:43, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I've lived there and yes, the varying estimates one hears range consistantly from 16 to 20 million. Wikipedia should be secure in the uncertainty. An official figure for the population of the Greater Cairo region is 16.075 million. That's in an area of 86,369.3 km. (Egypt Almanac 2003). --[[User:HamYoyo|Bendž

|Ť]] 22:55, Jul 8, 2004 (UTC)

A related question: according to the list of cities by population, Cairo (the city without the metropolitan area) is the most dense large city in the world. Does anyone know more about this and is it relevant to add to the article? It seems like an interesting matter --Mathan 09:00, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

== Gezira/Zamalek == rearranging section, and replying

Are Gezira and Zamalek different names for the same place in Cairo? Gareth Hughes 19:26, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

My understanding is that Gezira is the island, while Zamalek is the up-market residential quarter on the northern end of that island. I'm more than willing to be corrected by someone who knows the city better than me, of course. –Hajor 04:57, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for that: I thought that Zamalek didn't cover all of Gezira. I'll see if I can alter the stub on Zamalek to make more sense. Gareth Hughes 10:35, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Gareth is correct. Gezira is the arabic word for island (identical to Jazeera, but in Egyptian colloquial) and Zamalek is the area towards the top.

Is Cairo the largest city in Africa? If it isn't, I can only imagine Kinshasa would be bigger. Does anyone know? --Gareth Hughes 23:25, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Cairo is the largest city in Africa by general consensus - I will try and dig up a source or two for this when I have the time.

[edit] Origin of the name "Cairo"

There seems to be some confusion about where the name of this city came from. As this article currently reads, the introductory section states that the city originally was named as "The Subduer" or after the planet Mars, from which the name Qahirat al-Adaa ("the Subduer of Enemies") was derived. However, thumbing thru Paul E. Walker's Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatamid History and its Sources, he states that the city was originally named al-Qahira al-Mu'izziya or "City of the Victory of al-Mu'izza"; this is the same explanation found at Fatimid.

Should I assume that Walker & the source for the Fatimid article are wrong? Or that the relationship to Mars is wrong? Or is correct to say that there are several competing etymologies for the name of this city, each of which has its own champions? (Since I know no Arabic, I can't research this issue for myself.) -- llywrch 03:35, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Certainly this seems like an interesting topic, but not appropriate for 2 whole paragraphs at the top of the article. Sbwoodside 08:34, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

In German Wikipedia somebody wrote this about the topic: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskussion:Kairo#.C3.9Cbersetzungsfehler_falsche_Namensbedeutung_-Al_Qahira_-_Kairo There somebody wrote that Kairo means 'the strong' (freely translated). He also said that this fault appears in many books.As source he names: Cairo - City of history, André Raymond, AUC Press, Page 37; Deutsch-Arabisches Wörterbuch (German-Arabic Dictionary) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.209.8.141 (talk) 13:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Maimonides

Is it fair to say that the Rambam was a "Famous Cairenes". He was born in Cordoba in Al-Andalus and shifted through various places. --Irishpunktom\talk July 4, 2005 15:19 (UTC)



As An Egyptian I can tell you that the city was called Al-Quahira because -simply- in Arabic language the pharse(verb-quaher) means "conqueror". For she( the city ) beat all the enemys through it's history. Nora



To my knowledge, the name come from the Pharoes era ( Cahi-Raa ) which mean the city of the Sun's God Raa or city of the Sun's God from which the Greek translation Heliopolice ( Helios - police ). The Jews still call Cairo (Cahir) from very old time before Islam. Regards Nour Bassiouni

[edit] category:Holy cities

To whom is Cairo a holy city? The article doesn't say anything about this, nor does the list of holy cities. —Charles P. (Mirv) 17:08, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

the following posted on User talk:Mirv by 63.87.74.235 (talk · contribs) and copied here for future reference.

I have read your question about Cairo and as an Egyptian I think I can answer it, Cairo is considered a holy city because it got the rules of the three profits Mousse, Jesus and Mohammed. Mousse was born in Cairo and raised by the pharos, Jesus escaped to Egypt when he was young boy and Mohammed always said he liked Egypt that he didn’t visit but married an Egyptian lady (Maria). Also you will notice in Cairo the presence of thousands of mosques and churches beside the pharonic temples, which can be considered as holy places for ancient Egyptians.
  • Ehim! It seems to me that Cairo is the sin-city! However, in that sense, I can't seem to think of a city that cannot be holly! Cairo is no one's holly city, perhaps apart from 63.87.74.235 (talk · contribs). Maysara 16:28, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cairo the city and Cairo the Governorate

ar:محافظة القاهرةis Cairo the Governorate ar: القاهرة redirects to ar:قاهرة (the city. --The Brain 15:34, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Districts of Cairo

Alot of the Districts of Cairo list are actually Districts of Giza. There should be a huge contrast that Giza and Cairo and two different cities.--Ahmed 10:45, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Giza and Cairo are, from an administrative perspective, two cities but Giza is often bundled when speaking of the "Greater Cairo Area". All in all, there are several other districts in both Cairo and Giza that are not listed. In local terms (e.g. asking for directions) "Giza" refers to the southern stretch of buildings on the West bank of the Nile (south of the Cairo Sheraton).

But it's extremely confusing how the district section is laid out. If you want to include all of Giza districts with Cairo, the box should at least be split to specify. Also, why do so many of the links in the Districts of Cairo just redirect to the Cairo article? It seems like there should be enough information that we should be able to get seperate articles instead of including them in the large article. It's also a waste of time on the user's part and false advertising. Meateatingvegan 17:09, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Empty sections

I'm commenting out the empty sections. First time I've seen such in a WP article... --LodeRunner 02:05, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Governorate

Should the redirect of Al Qahirah be turned into a stub about the governorate, like all of the other arab-language areas (i.e. Al Iskandariyah is the article for Alexandria governorate)? --Golbez 08:41, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. - SimonP 15:22, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive

Architecture of Africa is currently nominated on Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive. Come to this page and support it with your vote. Help us improve this article to featured status.--Fenice 08:46, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should not have been moved

This article should not have been moved. The city in Egypt is the overwhelmingly most common usage of the term. - SimonP 14:16, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree—compare Paris, London, Moscow, not Paris (France), London (England), Moscow (Russia)—and have moved the page back. —Charles P._(Mirv) 16:14, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First mosque in Africa

The article claims that the first is in Cairo in 632 AD, but I was under the impression that Negash had the first mosque in Africa (before the Saudi Arabian peninsula was under Islamic control). Can someone provide a citation, please? Yom 22:59, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

  • Hello there -- take a look here and pick your citation. (the date seems to be wrong though, or something!). Best, __Maysara 16:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
  • yo man I found something that the first mosque was in Ethiopia in the Tigre region plus it had to be because it was the first African country to be conquered by the Muslims around 615 A.D so they probable build a mosque there at list by 620 A.D. that is way before the first mosque in Egypt was built.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22first+mosque+in+Africa%22+Ethiopia&btnG=Search http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Ethiopia.html http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/arabic.html

[edit] ElBaradei

ElBaradei is claimed to be a Cairene. I thought I once heard he was born in the Delta (North of Cairo) and the IAEA is Vienna. Anybody?

[edit] Education

"Cairo has long been the hub of education and educational services not only for Egypt but also for the whole world." This statement needs a citation, or else it should be changed.

[edit] POV!

  • Jeez! Look at the culture section! 69.214.139.240 06:50, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Huge copyvio problem

It looks like everything added by Realman has been copied from various internet sources. And I mean EVERYTHING. I'll try to revert just what he added... but yecch.

  • I tried to remove his stuff, but I might have taken out a few legit edits with it... please readd them if I did. Also, many of the images I reverted were uploaded by Realman, who (based on his talk page) already has a bad rap for uploading copyrighted material.

[edit] 15.2 million?

If the population of the metropolitan area is really 15.2 million, please provide a reputable source, with the year and the name of the agency. Otherwise, I'll just use the 11.2 million figure from List of metropolitan areas by population which is based on U.N. data. Ufwuct 03:11, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

OKay, A little piece of information that again need citation , cairo population at day is diffrent that it's night ,i think it grows about 4 or 5 million more during day ,why's that? , cuz people travel from all the citties and town around cairo to cairo ,either to work or to finish some papers that need the central governmental services that are all located in the country's capital cairo --80.6.123.105 18:35, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Usually, though, the population is given in terms of residents, that is, people who live there. What you're talking about appears to be a different statistic. It could be added to the article (if properly sourced), but it wouldn't be the "population". Plus, while I can envision the size of the central business district or even the entire city proper increasing by a measurable amount by day, I have a hard time seeing how a metropolitan area would increase so much by day because most people probably live and work in the same metro area and probably just travel within it. Let me know if you find a source. Thanks. Ufwuct 04:02, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
I have noticed the confusion about the population of Cairo and the main reason for the mixed results from different sources is probably the following:
There exists three different definitions of what roughly can be called "Cairo with suburbs". First we have the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Region (GCMR) which only includes the three cities of Cairo, Giza and Shubra al Khaymah. These three cities together had 11 562 300 inhabitants (2005) according to CAPMAS [[1]] population estimates. The second definition is slightly wider and is probably the best definition for "Cairo with suburbs". It includes the GCMR area plus some additional villages and districts, and is called Greater Cairo Region (GCR). The 1996 Census result was 11 459 860 inhabitants; my source is however a very old webpage that I've had saved for years on my computer and can't find on the web anymore. The work is titled "Le Caire: Une Métropole en Mouvement" and is written by someone named Galial el Kadi. I tried to make an updated calculation for the population and the result was about 13,3 million inhabitants for the year 2005, based on CAPMAS population estimates for the administrative divisions involved for the definition. The third and widest definition is also called Greater Cairo Region and includes the three governorates of Cairo, Giza and Kalyoubia. The total population of the three governorates is 17 601 939 (2005) according to CAPMAS population estimates. This definition includes some large parts of rural/desert areas (especially within the governorate of Giza) and is to my point of view not a good definition for Cairo with suburbs. But, it's probably the most commonly used definition as it's easier for researchers to find updated population statistics for governorates than for smaller administrative units.
I have tried to find more official sources for the exact definitions, but so far no luck. I remember from back in the late '80:s that I found both the GCMR and (1st) GCR definitions mentioned in some kind of official statistical handbook from Egypt, but it's impossible for me to remember the title now :-(.
Hope this information helped! --Pjred 01:30, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Relevant information?

Two photographers show original pictures and reports about Cairo :

I don't know if the above text belongs anywhere in the article, but it certainly doesn't belong anywhere in the introduction. Ufwuct 03:20, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] the history section is very strange

I was expecting to find the history of Cairo on this page. Instead, the history section appears to be a history of every capital Egypt has ever had, some of it not told very accurately. Why is the history of Memphis on this page? Shouldn't it begin instead with Cairo's founding, perhaps after an only brief mention that Egypt had previous capitals, and a link to separate articles for their histories? But instead of beginning with Cairo's founding, the article at present doesn't even mention it in the history section! (It was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in 969.) --Delirium 02:21, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I was just wondering about that myself. Not to mention the unencyclopedic tone of "Let us stop here for a while and elaborate on the status of slavery in the Islamic Empire." —Angr 16:54, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Same here! What's the deal with that? The history part is completely unrelated. Can we shorten it perhaps, "wikify" it?
I agree that the History section of this article should be shortened, to focus on the city of Cairo, instead of Egypt as a whole. Cairo was founded in AD 969. Though a few sentences of context about previous capitals are probably worthwhile, the rest of the earlier information should probably be merged to History of Egypt. --Elonka 17:03, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ciaro?

Am I the only one who has never heard of a Ciaro? Is Cairo called Ciaro, in English of course? - Anas Talk? 12:11, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I have removed the name and fixed everything. It must've been vandalism. - Anas Talk? 17:26, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Population/Area/Density

How can Cairo have a density of over 90,000 people per square mile when a place like Manhattan doesn't even have that density? Does it just have a lot of overcrowding or more than 2-3 people per dwelling? --KCMODevin 02:21, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

A place like Manhattan has a lot more of office and administration buildings covering the area, more parking spaces etc.. And, things like an own room for each kid in the family is probably rare in Cairo - the living space for each person is less than in Manhattan. I wouldn't be surprised (without having specific numbers) if some areas in Cairo is having a population density of more than 3 times its average. --Pjred 06:10, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Sister Cities Just a precision concerning sister cities, Cairo may have a partnership with Paris and Rome, but they are not sister cities since those two are only linked one to the other as sisters cities. Indeed, only Paris deserves Rome, only Rome deserves Paris.

[edit] Copyvio in History Section was readded

[2]

This was readded not too long after I had initially removed it. Unfortunately some of the section has been rewritten and so the copyvio information is difficult to cleave from the legitimate text. Just letting you guys know. Enoktalk 22:21, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Housing and water cannals information missing

This article doesn't say anything about unfinished houses that are already occupied. A BIG part of the city is build this way so that they wont have to pay taxes (from what i have heard). There is also no information about the state of water canals in the city - and its really bad. Garbage all all over the place including dead animals thrown into the water by their owners. I think its important since its the first thing that draws tourists attention once they enter the city. --sturm 21:10, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PYRAMIDS OF CAIRO??

im shocked that not one single discussion is going on around the Pyramids not being in Cairo...

people the Pyramids are in Giza and not Cairo, its like stating the Statue of Liberty in New Jersey rather then New York, the Pyramids part must be removed... Cairo had NOTHING to do with ancient Egypt's History, Cairo's History starts when Arabs Entered Egypt and built their First Capital called Al-Fustat, and cairo was built by the Fatimids...

--Arab League User 01:26, 4 September 2007 (UTC)



I think whoever wrote that meant the Great Cairo Area, which practically covers the area of some part of Giza, but this is very inaccurate. Hobapotter (talk) 18:15, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Need article on El-Quba

We need an article on the El-Quba district (in the Cairo neighborhoods template, it redirects to "Cairo"). Badagnani (talk) 01:35, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

This still needs to be done. Badagnani (talk) 20:31, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] External links of little usefulness

I've gone to External_links#Links_normally_to_be_avoided, and found problems with some of the links. Already deleted one [3], and I would your input about these other ones before deleting them:

  • Helpful guide for Cairo 4) Promotes a private website, 5) and 15) consists mostly of links to commercial services and includes no encyclopaedic info, 6) appears to be a site designed to get revenue from Google ads, 16) includes some illegible unusable small maps, but there is already a better link to google maps.
  • Photos, reports, books about Cairo and arabian countries by Pascal Meunier 1) not an unique resource (since the photos are small and out of context, books only have the info necessary to buy them, etc, etc) 4) intended to promote Mr. Meunier's website 5) non-free resource (photos must be bought) instead of being a free resource like the "cairo travel photos" link 8) uses flash for navigating the photos. Only reason that I can see for keeping it is if Pascal Meunier is a very notable photographer, notable enough to have his own page on wikipedia and also made photos of cairo city that are so notable that we feel they he must be linked to his page from the cairo article.
  • Video of the streets of Cairo and view of the Pyramids 1) Doesn't really apport anything to the article. It could be the street of any arab city, except for seeing the pyramids far away at the end of the video. 12) it's obviously a cool video to the person that recorded the video, but random wikipedia visitors will get no information from it (really, watch the video, you just see a lot of cars, houses and some street shop).

The other links either apport interesing photos with big resolution or additional info. --Enric Naval (talk) 14:12, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Since nobody commented, I'll just go ahead with the deletion --Enric Naval (talk) 08:49, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Azbakia needs to be added

Information about the Azbakia neighborhood needs to be added. Badagnani (talk) 20:32, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sakakini needs to be added

Information about the Sakakini neighborhood needs to be added. Badagnani (talk) 04:18, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Come on guys...

You were tipped off not once but twice about the copyright infringement in the history section, and kept it there? Era One (talk) 15:07, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] History section

How come the article has no history section? This city has a very rich history.Bless sins (talk) 13:38, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Orman

Is there a place in Cairo called Orman? Badagnani (talk) 18:02, 2 June 2008 (UTC)