The capital of Egypt is Cairo. It lies on the Nile in northern Egypt, about 165 kilometres south of the Mediterranean, just upstream of where the river splits to form the Nile Delta. Egypt's 2017 census counted 9,539,673 people in the city, and Greater Cairo has more than 22 million, which makes it the largest urban area in Africa and the Arab world. The city was founded in 969 as the walled royal city of the Fatimid caliphs, and its historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Cairo is still the capital, but since April 2024 a new planned city 45 kilometres to the east has officially served as the seat of government. The best way to understand Cairo is on foot, working north from its oldest core.
Old Cairo and the Babylon Fortress
Start in the south, in Old Cairo, where the city began before it had its present name. Around the turn of the fourth century the Roman emperor Diocletian built a fortress here on the east bank of the Nile, at the mouth of a canal that linked the river to the Red Sea. The fortress was called Babylon. Parts of its walls still stand, and inside them are Cairo's oldest surviving churches, including Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the Church of Saint Barbara. This area, now called Coptic Cairo, is still the centre of Egypt's Coptic Christian community.
Arab armies under Amr ibn al-As besieged Babylon in September 640, and it fell in April 641. Next to it Amr founded Fustat, a garrison town that became Egypt's administrative capital instead of Alexandria on the coast. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, which he founded at the same time, is counted as the oldest mosque in Egypt and in Africa, although its present structure comes from later rebuilding. Just to the west is Roda Island, where a Nilometer ordered by the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil in 861 still survives. It is one of the oldest original structures in Cairo. It was used to measure the height of the annual flood, which mattered for both farming and administration.
Ibn Tulun's Mosque and Saladin's Citadel on the Muqattam
Heading north-east, the walk passes through the site of al-Qata'i, a capital built in 870 by Ahmad ibn Tulun, the Abbasid governor who made himself effectively independent. The Abbasids razed the city in 905 but spared his great mosque, built between 876 and 879 in the style of Samarra in Iraq. It is the oldest mosque in Cairo that keeps its original form, and one of the largest in the city.
From there the ground rises towards a spur of the Muqattam Hills. In 1176 Saladin, the first Ayyubid sultan, began building the Citadel there. It was part of a defensive scheme that included a wall about 20 kilometres long, joining Cairo and Fustat. For nearly seven centuries the Citadel was the seat of Egypt's rulers, until Khedive Isma'il moved to Abdeen Palace in 1874. Its best-known building today is the Ottoman-style Mosque of Muhammad Ali from the 19th century, whose domes and pencil minarets dominate the eastern skyline. Directly below the Citadel is the Madrasa-Mosque of Sultan Hasan, the largest religious monument of the Mamluk era. It was built in the 14th century, when plague had cut Cairo's population sharply.
Bab Zuweila and al-Mu'izz Street: Inside the City of 969
Walk north from the Citadel and you come to the walls of Cairo itself. In 969 the Fatimid Caliphate conquered Egypt, and its general Jawhar al-Siqilli laid out a new walled palace city north-east of Fustat. When Caliph al-Mu'izz arrived from Tunisia in 973, he named it al-Qahira al-Mu'izziyya, "the Vanquisher of al-Mu'izz". That name became "Cairo". For most of the Fatimid era it stayed a largely exclusive royal city. Restrictions were first loosened under the vizier Badr al-Jamali (1073–1094), when richer families from Fustat were allowed to move in, and he also rebuilt the walls in stone between 1087 and 1092. Three of his gates still stand: Bab Zuweila in the south, and Bab al-Futuh and Bab al-Nasr in the north.
The twin minarets over Bab Zuweila belong to the Mosque of Sultan al-Mu'ayyad. They are a good example of how the Mamluks built on top of Fatimid Cairo. Go through the gate and the old main street, al-Mu'izz, runs north through the heart of the Fatimid city. Along it are some of Cairo's densest groups of monuments. At Bayn al-Qasrayn, "between the two palaces", where the Fatimid palaces once stood, three Mamluk buildings stand side by side: the complex of Sultan Qalawun, the madrasa of al-Nasir Muhammad and the madrasa of Sultan Barquq. Under al-Nasir Muhammad in the early 1300s, Cairo was at its peak. By 1340 it had close to half a million people, which made it the largest city west of China.
Al-Azhar and Khan el-Khalili, Just East of the Old Street
A few steps east of al-Mu'izz is al-Azhar, a mosque founded in 970 that became a centre of learning and is now al-Azhar University. It is one of the oldest universities in the world. Next to it is Khan el-Khalili, a bazaar that began in 1385 as a caravanserai built by Amir Jarkas al-Khalili. Sultan al-Ghuri rebuilt it as a commercial complex in the early 16th century. Many of the lanes around it are still closed-off neighbourhoods called harat, which once had gates that could be shut at night.
Downtown and Tahrir Square: Isma'il's Paris on the Nile
West of the old walls, the streets turn straight and wide. This is Downtown, built under Khedive Isma'il (ruled 1863–1879), who wanted a city of squares and boulevards modelled on Haussmann's Paris, and its launch coincided with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The debts he ran up gave Britain a reason to step in, and after the British invasion of 1882 Cairo's economic centre moved west towards the river and these European-style blocks. Talaat Harb Street and its square, Café Riche (opened 1908) and Groppi (founded 1909) belong to this part of the city.
At the centre is Tahrir Square. It was first called Ismailia Square, became known as Tahrir ("Liberation") after the 1919 revolution, and was officially renamed after the 1952 revolution ended the monarchy. More than 50,000 protesters occupied it on 25 January 2011, and it was the centre of the uprising that made President Hosni Mubarak resign on 11 February. The Arab League headquarters and the Egyptian Museum stand on the square. The museum's Tutankhamun collection has since moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids, which officially opened on 1 November 2025.
In 2020 the government put up a new monument in the middle of the square: an obelisk of Ramesses II that had been dug up at Tanis in 2019, surrounded by four ram-headed sphinxes brought from Karnak. On its west side the square opens onto the Qasr al-Nil Bridge, an Art Deco crossing completed in 1933. It still has the four bronze lions that stood on the 19th-century bridge it replaced.
Gezira and Zamalek: Islands the Nile Left Behind
Cross the bridge and you reach land that did not exist when Fustat was founded. For centuries the Nile at Cairo kept moving west, leaving new ground on its east bank. The site of Fatimid Cairo was underwater only about three hundred years before 969. Low floods around 1300 created the island that is now Gezira and Zamalek. The Baehler Company developed northern Gezira into the Zamalek district between 1905 and 1907, and it is still one of the city's most upscale districts. The 187-metre Cairo Tower rises from the island. It is 44 metres taller than the Great Pyramid, which stands about 15 kilometres to the south-west.
From the top of the tower you can see how Cairo is laid out. The city proper, 453 square kilometres, lies on the east bank and two islands. Giza, across the river, is officially a separate city in a separate governorate. The riverside districts of Garden City, Downtown and Zamalek are the newest land and hold most of the embassies. Older Cairo surrounds them to the north, east and south. North of the centre is Bulaq, which rose on land the shifting Nile left behind and became Cairo's main river port under the Mamluk sultan Barsbay in the 15th century. It is now a dense working-class district of small workshops.
Madinat Nasr to the New Capital: Where Government Is Moving
Past the Citadel, the last part of the walk heads east into the desert. The population of Greater Cairo rose from about 3 million in 1947 to 16.3 million in 2006. Most of that growth went into informal neighbourhoods, and by 2009 they housed over 63 per cent of Greater Cairo's people on just 17 per cent of its land. Madinat Nasr, officially begun in 1959, was built as a formal extension to the east. From 1979 the New Urban Communities Authority went on to build desert towns such as New Cairo, Shorouk and Badr City.
The largest of these projects was announced on 13 March 2015. The New Administrative Capital is about 45 kilometres east of central Cairo, halfway to Suez. By May 2023, 14 ministries and government bodies had moved there. On 2 April 2024 President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took his oath for a third term there, which officially inaugurated it as the seat of government. It was renamed The New Capital in November 2025. Cairo nonetheless remains Egypt's official capital, while the new city serves as the working seat of government. The Arab League, al-Azhar and the Cairo Metro all remain in the old city. The metro opened in 1987 as Africa's first and now carries over a billion passenger journeys a year.
To find out where the city's name comes from, read our explainer on the origin of the name Cairo. Our guide to Historic Cairo's World Heritage listing covers the old walled city in more depth. For the farmland that begins just north of the city, follow the river into the Nile Delta.
Quick Facts About Cairo
- Country: Egypt
- Continent: Africa (North Africa)
- Country population: approximately 120.1 million
- Capital city status: Cairo is the capital of Egypt, the seat of national government, and the location of foreign embassies, parliament, and the head of state's official residence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the capital of Egypt?
The capital of Egypt is Cairo. Cairo is the seat of national government, hosts most foreign embassies and consulates, and is typically where the head of state and parliament are located.
What continent is Cairo in?
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is located in Africa, in the North Africa region. As Egypt's capital, Cairo serves as the country's primary connection to the broader African political, economic, and cultural sphere.
Why is Cairo the capital of Egypt?
Cairo was chosen as the capital of Egypt for reasons that typically combine geography, history, and politics. Capital city selections often reflect a desire for centrality (being accessible from across the country), historical importance (being a longstanding seat of government or culture), or neutrality (being acceptable to multiple regions or ethnic groups within the country). The specific reasons for Cairo's designation are detailed in the city's history above.
What is Cairo known for?
As the capital of Egypt, Cairo is best known for housing the country's central government institutions — parliament, presidential or royal residences, supreme court, and key ministries. It is also typically a major cultural and economic center within Egypt, hosting national museums, embassies, and signature monuments. The introduction and history sections above provide detailed coverage of the city's specific notable institutions and landmarks.
Related Pages
- Egypt Country Guide — full geography, climate, economy, and culture overview
- Flag of Egypt — meaning, history, and design of Egypt's national flag