Cairo - City of Extremes

How can I attempt to sum up the unique qualities of a city like Cairo within the confines of a short review? Well the answer is I can't, not to the degree that I would like, but if this brief snap shot gives you some idea of the glorious diversity of this wonderful city then that is a worthy enough goal. It is a city that sits with one foot in the modern cosmopolitan world and the other in a timeless past and the two seem to co-exist and merge in a truly remarkable way. It is heaving with life, volatile, polluted and boisterous, with an intensity that both exhausts and invigorates the visitor. As I spent only a few days in the city I can only attempt to whet your appetite with a small selection of the delights that I encountered, these however will give you a flavour of this place.

A Short History.
The cities western name is derived from the Arabic Al Qahirah, it is Egypt's capital and is situated in the northern delta region of the river Nile at a location that marks the boundary of the ancient upper and lower kingdoms. It is a port city of around eighteen million inhabitants and due to the inhospitable nature of the country this constitutes a large percentage of the countries population. Cairo is the largest population centre in the Middle East, as well as the largest in the whole of Africa, Egypt being a country that overlaps two cultural and geographical zones. It is the administrative centre of the country and along with Alexandria is the cornerstone of the economy, which is based around textiles, food and tobacco products, chemicals, plastics, metals, and automobiles as well as tourism. Cairo is a melting pot of cultures all of which have left their mark on the architecture and spirit of the place. After the marvels of ancient structures left by the pharoahs, the Greeks and Romans both carved their passing in its stone, but the majority of the city is the legacy of the Arab invasions that that swept North Africa in the seventh century and the European influence of the later imperial age.

A City of Extremes.
The city centre which sprawls along the banks of the majestic Nile is a modern urban environment and but for the telling Arabic writing on the billboards and shop fronts, could be almost anywhere in the world. As you move towards the outskirts of the city the place changes, some of it moves back in time and some of it remains modern so that you end up seeing timeless coffee bars and artisans nestled in between mobile

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