Cairo

the capital city of Egypt. It is situated on the east or right bank of the Nile, a few miles above the apex of the Great Delta. Cairo is an Arabian city. The name is Arabian, meaning victory or the conqueror. The exact site of the city is determined by a range of hills, approaching from the direction of the Red Sea. The spur nearest the river is a position of natural military strength. In 640 an Arabic commander, a lieutenant of Caliph Omar, established a town between this spur and the river. This he called the Tent. It is now known as Old Cairo. In 970 a new city was founded a little farther to the north. It was surrounded with a stone wall and a citadel was built. Later the citadel was greatly strengthened, and a well, known as Joseph's Well, was sunk in the solid rock to the level of the Nile.

The present city consists, therefore, of Old Cairo, the New Town, and suburbs. A boulevard runs northwest from the citadel to the heart of the European quarters. This is the chief business street of Cairo. The European quarters contain the consulates, hotels, a fine opera house, theaters, English and German churches, and offices. Old Cairo is strictly oriental. The streets are narrow; many of them are filthy, and are lined with mud hovels. The northwest portion of the city lying on the river, rather below the rest of Cairo, forms the port of the city. A railway and wagon bridge crosses the river here.

Across the river from Old Cairo lies the suburb, Gizeh. The government buildings are here. There is also a fine zoological garden and museum of Egyptian antiquities. The pyramids of Gizeh lie in plain sight to the southwest. They may be reached by a tramway.

The Nilometer, a building sheltering a graduated post, used officially to note the height of the Nile, stands on a little island in the Nile.

The Mohammedan mosque is the prominent architectural feature of Cairo. There are over 500 in various states of repair. The finest mosque of all is that of Sultan Hassan. It dates from 1357. It is celebrated for the "grandeur of its porch and cornice and the delicate honey-comb tracery which adorns them." It is surmounted by a lofty minaret. From an educational point of view, Cairo is the center of the Moslem world. The chief theological school of the Moslem world is attached to the Azhar Mosque. In 1906 there were 317 professors and 9,758 Moslem students. The Moslem burying ground, just without the city, is adorned with numerous mosques. Cairo is the seat of a patriarch of the Coptic Church and of a patriarch of the Greek Church as well. It is interesting to know that the Copts use a calendar differing by 284 years from the calendar we use.

Cairo is connected with Alexandria, near one of the mouths of the Nile, by a railway 150 miles in length. There is railway communication also with Suez and with upper Egypt. A fresh-water canal leaves the Nile at this point and cuts across country to Suez. Cairo does a large business in gold and silver ornaments, in rugs, carpets, saddles, swords, daggers, boots and shoes, and clothing. The city is headquarters for a large trade with the natives of the upper Nile, and the Bedouin people of the Sudan. Large parties are organized at Cairo to visit Mecca. The population of Cairo and its suburbs in 1907 was 654,476. It is the largest city, not only in Egypt, but in all Africa.

See Nile; Nilometer; Alexandria; Pyramids