History of Cairo

The origins of the site of present-day Cairo can be traced back to the Egyptian capital of Memphis, which is believed to have been founded in the early 4th millennium bc near the head of the Nile delta, south of the present city.

The city spread to the north along the east bank of the Nile, and its location has commanded political power ever since. It was there that the Romans constructed their city called Babylon.

The site was later called Al Fustat by Muslim Arabs who immigrated there from the Arabian Peninsula in ad 641.

When a dissident branch of Muslims known as the Fatimids conquered Egypt in 969, they established their headquarters in the city and called it Al Qāhira (Cairo).

In the 12th century Christian Crusaders attacked Cairo, but they were defeated by a Muslim army from Syria, led by Saladin, who founded the Ayyubid dynasty in the city.

The Mamluks established their capital in Cairo in the 13th century, and the city became renowned throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Cairo declined after the mid-14th century, however, when the epidemic of bubonic plague known as the Black Death struck the city, decimating its population.

The Ottomans conquered Cairo in 1517, and ruled there until 1798, when the area was captured during an expedition led by Napoleon I of France.

Ottoman rule was restored in 1801, but by the middle of the 19th century Egypt's foreign debt and the weakness of the Ottoman Empire invited greater European influence in Cairo.

The viceroy Ismail Pasha, who ruled from 1863 to 1879, built many European-style structures in the city and used the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal northeast of Cairo in 1869 to showcase the city for the European powers.

However, much of the development that took place during this period was funded by foreign loans, which led to an increase in the national debt and left Cairo vulnerable to control by Great Britain.

The British effectively ruled Egypt from Cairo from the late 19th century through the period after World War I (1914-1918), when the foreign presence in Cairo began to diminish.

Cairo's population grew rapidly in the interwar years, reaching 2 million by the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Since that time the city has continued to boom in terms of both population and development.

Some of this population growth has resulted from the influx of refugees from cities along the Suez Canal that were damaged in the Arab-Israeli conflict of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Many new residential, commercial, and governmental structures have changed the city's landscape.

Tourist facilities have proven an important source of foreign revenue for Egypt, and have thus drawn heavy investment from the government. Cairo has also benefited from Egypt's growing international prominence.

The founding of the Arab League in 1945 made Cairo a political capital, as has Egypt's ongoing participation in the Middle East peace process.

However, in 1981 the city witnessed a tragic event when Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated at a military parade by Islamic fundamentalists within the Egyptian army.

In 1992 the city was shaken by an earthquake that killed more than 500 people and injured about 6500 others.

The United Nations' third International Conference on Population and Development, which brought an estimated 20,000 government officials, activists, and journalists to Cairo in September 1994, was considered a high point in the city's efforts to strengthen its economy.

At the same time, the conference addressed many of the issues that trouble Cairo, particularly poverty and rapid growth rates.

While the city has maintained its status within Egypt and the Arab world, many of its residents lack fundamental goods and services. Cairo's rapidly expanding population has also taxed the city's infrastructure.

Leaks in Cairo's pipes and sewers have caused the water table to rise, destabilizing the ground underneath the city, and causing a number of structures to collapse under their own weight.