Cairo Hotels Review
Hotels in the city of Cairo are often required for tourists who require short or long term accommodation in the city. Some tourists may to see the culture, the history and the tourist attractions of the city. Many tourists may want to see the scenic views of the city. Some tourists may want to see the major historical landmarks of the city or near the city.
Some tourists may want to get a review of the hotel options available in Cairo are so they can see which hotels are the best, where in, or near the city they are and how good their status is. Some may want to get a cheap hotel and find which hotels are cheap according the the reviews. Some may want the best hotels.
Cairo is located on the banks and islands of the Nile River in the north of Egypt, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and breaks into two branches into the low lying Nile Delta region.
The
oldest part of the city is east of the river. The city gradually spreads west,
engulfing the agricultural lands next to the Nile. These western areas, built
on the model of Paris by Khedive Ismail in the mid 19th century, are marked by
wide boulevards, public gardens, and open spaces. The older eastern section of
the city is very different: having grown up haphazardly over the centuries, it
is filled with small lanes and crowded tenements. While western Cairo is dominated
by tater government buildings and modern architecture, the eastern half is filled
with hundreds of ancient mosques.
Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. It is the Arab World's largest and Africa's most populous city. While Al-Qahirah is the official name of the city, in Egyptian Arabic it is called by the dialect's name for the country, Masr. (Egypt's first Arab capital, Fustat, was known as Misr al-Fustat, City of the Tents.)
Cairo was founded by the Fatimid caliphs as a royal enclosure. It replaced Fustat as the seat of the government. It later came under the Mamluks, was ruled by the Ottomans 1517 to 1798, and briefly occupied by Napoleon. Muhammad Ali of Egypt made Cairo the capital of his independent empire from 1805 to 1882, after which the British took control of it until Egypt attained independence in 1922.
Today, Greater Cairo homes various historic towns and modern districts. A journey through Cairo is virtual time travel: from the Pyramids, the Hanging Church, Saladin's Citadel, the Virgin Mary's Tree, the Sphinx, and Heliopolis, to Al-Azhar, the Mosque of Amr ibn al-A'as, Saqqara, the Cairo Tower, and the Old City. It is nicknamed "The City of A Thousand Minarets". It is near the site of the first capital of unified Egypt, Memphis.
Cairo was founded in 969 AD as the royal enclosure for the Fatimid caliphs, while the actual economic and administrative capital was in nearby Fustat. Modern Cairo encompasses Fustat, as well as other previous capitals — Al-Askar and Al-Qatta'i. Fustat was established by Arab military commander 'Amr ibn al-'As following the conquest of Egypt in 641, and took over as the capital which previously was located in Alexandria. Al-Askar, located in what is now Old Cairo, was the capital of Egypt from 750 to 868. Ahmad ibn Tulun established Al-Qatta'i as the new capital of Egypt, and remained the capital until 905, when the Fustat once again became the capital. After Fustat was destroyed in 1168/1169 to prevent its capture by the Crusaders, the administrative capital of Egypt moved to Cairo, where it has remained ever since. It took four years for the General Jawhar Al Sikilli (the Sicilian) to build Cairo and for the Fatimid Calif Al Muizz to leave his old Mahdia in Tunisia and settle in the new Capital of Fatimids in Egypt.
After Memphis, Heliopolis, Giza and the Byzantine fortress of Babylon-in-Egypt, Fustat was a new city built as a military garrison for Arab troops. It was the closest central location to Arabia that was accessible to the Nile. Fustat became a regional center of Islam during the Umayyad period. It was where the Umayyad ruler, Marwan II, made his last stand against the Abbasids.
Later, during the Fatimid era, Al-Qahira (Cairo) was officially founded in 969 as an imperial capital just to the north of Fustat. Over the centuries, Cairo grew to absorb other local cities such as Fustat, but the year 969 is considered the "founding year" of the modern city.
In 1250, the slave soldiers or Mamluks seized Egypt and ruled from their capital at Cairo until 1517, when they were defeated by the Ottomans. Napoleon's French army briefly occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801, after which an Ottoman officer named Muhammmead Tsar Ali made Cairo the capital of an independent empire that lasted from 1805 to 1882. The city then came under British control until Egypt attained independence in 1922.
Football is the most popular sport in Egypt, and Cairo has a number of sporting teams that compete in national and regional leagues. The best known teams are Al Zamalek and Al Ahly, whose annual football mathces are perhaps amongst the most watched sports events in Egypt as well as the African and Arabian World. Both teams are known as the "rivals" of Egyptian football. Both teams have played their home games at Cairo International Stadium or Naser Stadium , which has been one of Cairo's, Egypt's, Africa's and the Middle East's largest stadiums in the world.
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt (Lower Egypt) where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas, from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline, and is a rich agricultural region. From north to south the delta is approximately 160 km in length. The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo.
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