Cairo the city

Cairo’s official name is al-Qāhirah, which means literally: “Place or Camp of Mars“, in reference to the fact that the planet was rising at the time of the city’s foundation as well as, “the Vanquisher“; “the Conqueror“; “the Victorious” or, “the Strong” (al-Qahira) in reference to the much awaited Caliph Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah who arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in 973 AD to the city.

 Cairo / القاهرة‎, is the capital and largest city of Egypt. The Cairo metropolitan area, with a population of 21.3 million,is the largest metropolitan area in the Arab world, the second largest in Africa, and the sixth largest in the world.

The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, which was the old capital of Pharaonic Egypt, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, was the nucleus of the Roman and then the Byzantine city and is the oldest structure in the city today.

It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine churches in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church,  are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. 

                                                          

Coptic Hanging Church

Ruins of Babylon Fortress 

Following the Muslim conquest in AD 640, the conqueror Amr Ibn El-As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area that became known as El-Fustat.

Originally a tented camp (Fustat signifies "Tents") Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt.

 In 750, following the overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar (the city of sections, or cantonments) as it was laid out like a military camp.

 A rebellion in 869 by Ahmad Ebn Tulum led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government.

This was El-Qatta'i ("the Quarters"), to the north of Fustat and closer to the river. El Qatta'i was centered around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of Ibn Tulum.

 

In 905, the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their governor returned to Fustat, razing al-Qatta'i to the ground.

In 969, the Fatimid empire ruled over Egypt with an army of Kutamas, and under the rule of Jawhar Al Saqili, a new fortified city northeast of Fustat was established. It took four years to build the city, initially known as El-Manṣūriyyah, which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, the construction of the El-Azhar Mosque was commissioned by order of the Caliph, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world.

    Al-Azhar University & Mosque

Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph El-Mu'izz li Din Allah arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in Tunisia in 973, he gave the city its present name, Qāhirat al-Mu'izz ("The Vanquisher of El-Mu'izz").

For nearly 200 years after Cairo was established, the administrative centre of Egypt remained in Fustat. However, in 1168 the Fatimid vizier Shawar set fire to Fustat to prevent its capture by Amalric, the Crusader king of Jerusalem. Egypt's capital was permanently moved to Cairo, which was eventually expanded to include the ruins of Fustat and the previous capitals of al-Askar and al-Qatta'i. As al Qahira expanded these earlier settlements were encompassed, and have since become part of the city of Cairo as it expanded and spread; they are now collectively known as "Old Cairo".

While the Fustat fire successfully protected the city of Cairo, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and the Zengid general Shirkuh led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment.

In 1169, Saladin was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt by the Fatimids and two years later he seized power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, al-'Āḍid. As the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad. During his reign, Saladin constructed the Cairo Citadel, which served as the seat of the Egyptian government until the mid-19th century.

A multi-domed mosque dominates the walled Citadel, with ruined tombs and a lone minaret in front.

The Cairo Citadel, seen above in the late 19th century, was commissioned by Saladin between 1176 and 1183.

The Cairo Citadel today.

In 1250, slave soldiers, known as the Mamluks, seized control of Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital of their new dynasty. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings. Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city. Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre of Islamic scholarship and a crossroads on the spice trade route among the civilizations in Afro-Eurasia. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west of China.

When the traveler Ibn Battuta first came to Cairo in 1326, he described it as the principal district of Egypt. When he passed through the area again on his return journey in 1348 the Black Death was ravaging most major cities. He cited reports of thousands of deaths per day in Cairo.

 

                                             Muhammad Ali's seizure of power

Although Cairo avoided Europe's stagnation during the Late Middle Ages, it could not escape the Black Death, which struck the city more than fifty times between 1348 and 1517. During its initial, and most deadly waves, approximately 200,000 people were killed by the plague, and, by the 15th century, Cairo's population had been reduced to between 150,000 and 300,000.

The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope between 1497 and 1499, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo. Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the Ottomans supplanted Mamluk power over Egypt in 1517. Ruling from Constantinople, Sultan Selim I relegated Egypt to a province, with Cairo as its capital. For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods.

However, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of Yemeni coffee and Indian textiles, primarily to Anatolia, North Africa, and the Balkans. Cairo merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren Hejaz, especially during the annual hajj to Mecca. It was during this same period that El-Azhar University reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today; pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of Islamic scholars.

By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants.

 

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean. Still, when Napoleon arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mameluke influence in the mid-14th century.

Bab Zouela

The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801.

A British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801 besieged Cairo itself. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the weakened Mamluk jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and appointed himself the ottoman “Wali” governor of Egypt and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment, he became viceroy of Egypt in 1805.

Mohamed Ali is regarded as the father and founder of modern Egypt due to the extensive reforms to the economic, military, and cultural aspects of Egypt. He used his leadership skills, political intelligence, and cunning to bring peace, prosperity, law, and order to Egypt that was transformed into a true superpower and great influences all over the world at the time.

Al Moezz Street

He used his support of the general public and the religious establishment to work on taking more control and charger of the country and to eliminate the Mamluks who controlled Egypt for more than 600 years. On the First of March in 1181, the Mamluks gathered in the Cairo citadel and Muhammad Ali’s troops began killing all the sixty-four Mamluks, including twenty-four commanders, he then dispatched his troops through Egypt to destroy any remaining traces of the Mamluk forces. He had a dream of creating his own dynasty and his own kingdom away from the decaying Ottoman Empire, that’s why he transformed Egypt into a regional power and declared himself the rightful successor. His dynasty ruled Egypt from its date of foundation in 1805 until 1952 AD following the Egyptian Revolution.

He developed a strategy based on agriculture as he planted crops for the sole purpose of exportation like rice, sugarcane, and especially cotton. All the income from agricultural production and export was used to develop public work and national projects like irrigation, canals, dams, and barrages. He also disbanded his foreign army and created a fleet and an army of pure Egyptians who was commanded by the Turks and trained by French commanders in the art of warfare. He also started an educational revolution as he constructed Western-style schools and universities to produce doctors, engineers, veterinarians, and other specialists. He sent educational expeditions to Europeans who were trained in modern techniques to complete his bureaucrats.

Bulak before draining              

Muhammad Ali and his successors figured out how to drain the swamp, using technology that was introduced by the French and improved on by them. They drained the Nile Delta, turning it into farmland, and drained the land west of the medieval city of Cairo. Building a new city along the Nile that would serve as a business center, with factories and warehouses and ports so that the new Egypt would be able to manufacture its own products. He named the city Bulaq. A French name given to the then the lake “Beau Lac”

He launched an industrial age in Egypt as he built factories to produce sugar, glass, and textile that competed with the European product, and build ships, weapons for the new army, and navy. There was also a dark side to his master plan as he added excessive taxation to pay for all his expensive projects which led him to lose a great deal of his public support. His over control on agriculture expanded his monopolization of world trade, which led to a bad relationship with Britain, which saw Egypt as a threat to their economical influence. .

                    Ismailia / Tahrir square

Mohammed Ali's successor, Ismail drained the area to the south of Bulaq. The new land was turned into a European style city with wide boulevards and public squares and parks and gardens. They also figured out how to fix the borders of the Nile by reinforcing the riverbed, and they built floodgates to keep the city from flooding every year. They built two vast squares in the new city: Midan Sulayman Pasha, or Sulayman Pasha Square, which was the center the new residential area, and Midan Ismailia, or "Ismail's Square" that was the center of the new business area. Just south of Midan Ismailia and the Nile, the Egyptians built a great army barracks called the Qasr el-Nil (Palace of the Nile). Some of the administrative offices of these barracks are now the main buildings of the American University in Cairo.

Ismail Pasha Palace / now Marriott Zamalek

In the late 1800s more squares were added throughout the city to reflect the new "European-ness" of the city. And in the early 1900s, Cairo jumped the river to two small islands in the Nile. Two upper class neighborhoods were built - Manial on Roda, and Zamalek on Gezira - so that the wealthy of Cairo could escape the crowded city. Also in the early 1900s, Europeans built the first satellite city around Cairo - called Heliopolis.

Also built for the wealthy citizens of Cairo, Heliopolis was built in the desert to the northeast of the city, and connected to Cairo by tram. A spa was built at the springs of Helwan to the south of the city, also connected by tram to the city center.

 

The village of Helwan, once an elegant spa of “Sulfuric  Waters” nearly twenty miles distant from the city center at the southern end of Cairo, has now become a center of heavy industry in Egypt.

Helouan Sulfuric Source

Pictures and articles collected from Internet

 

 

 

Egyptian capital Cairo (Al-Qahira)

Known as Al-Qahira or El-Fustat or Memphis.

Memphis

Ramses II statue in Memphis

Memphis located close the Sakara Pyramids in now Gizeh became the capital of Ancient Egypt for over eight consecutive dynasties during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC). The city reached a peak of prestige under the 6th dynasty as a centre for the worship of Ptah, the god of creation and artworks. The alabaster sphinx that guards the Temple of Ptah serves as a memorial of the city's former power and prestige. The Memphis triad, consisting of the creator god Ptah, his consort Sekhmet, and their son Nefertem, formed the main focus of worship in the city.

Alabaster Sphinx of Memphis

Memphis declined briefly after the 18th dynasty with the rise of (1549/1550 BC to 1292 BC.) Thebes and the New Kingdom, and was revived under the Persians before falling firmly into second place following the foundation of Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire, Alexandria remained the most important Egyptian City. Memphis remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of Fustat (or Fostat) in 641 CE. It was then largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the 12th century but soon became a little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone.

Babylon Fortress's remains in old Cairo

The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the East bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, was the nucleus of the Roman and then the Byzantine City and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine churches in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo.

Fustat

Rendering of Fustat landscape

El-Fustat (Arabic: الفسطاط), was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule. It was built by the Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As immediately after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, and featured the Mosque of Amr, the first mosque built in Egypt and in all of Africa.

The city reached its peak in the 12th century, with a population of approximately 200,000. It was the centre of administrative power in Egypt, until it was ordered burnt in 1168 by its own vizier, Shawar, to keep its wealth out of the hands of the invading Crusaders. The remains of the city were eventually absorbed by nearby Cairo, which had been built to the north of Fustat in 969 when the Fatimid’s (descents from Fatimah, the daughter of Islamic prophet Mohammed) conquered the region and created a new city as a royal enclosure for the Caliph. The area fell into disrepair for hundreds of years and was used as a rubbish dump.

Ben Ezra Synagogue in old Cairo (1892)

Today, Fustat is part of Old Cairo, with few buildings remaining from its days as a capital. Many archaeological digs have revealed the wealth of buried material in the area. Many ancient items recovered from the site are on display in Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art.

Fustat was the capital of Egypt for approximately 500 years. After the city was founded in 641, its authority was uninterrupted until 750, when the Abbasid dynasty (descendents of El-Abas Ebn Abbi El-Moutalib uncle of prophet Mohammed) staged a revolt against the Umayyad (Umayya Ibn Shams from Syria). This conflict was focused not in Egypt, but elsewhere in the Arab world. When the Abbasids gained power, they moved various capitals to more controllable areas.

Rendering of Ibn Toulum mosque

They had established the centre of their caliphate in Baghdad, moving the capital from its previous Umayyad location at Damascus. Similar moves were made throughout the new dynasty. In Egypt, they moved the capital from Fustat slightly north to the Abbasid city of al-Askar (city of the solders مدينة العسكري ), which remained the capital until 868. When the Tulunid dynasty (from Turkish origins) took control in 868, the Egyptian capital moved briefly to another nearby northern city, Al-Qatta'I build by “Ahmed Ebn Tulun”. This lasted only until 905, when Al-Qatta'i was destroyed and the capital was returned to Fustat. The city again lost its status as capital city when its own vizier, Shawar, ordered it's burning in 1168. The capital of Egypt was ultimately moved to Cairo.

According to legend, the location of Fustat was chosen by a bird: A dove laid an egg in the tent of 'Amr ibn al-'As (585–664), the Muslim conqueror of Egypt, just before he was to march against Alexandria in 646. His camp at that time was just north of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Amr declared the dove's nest as a sign from God, and the tent was left untouched as he and his troops went off to battle. When they returned victorious, Amr told his soldiers to pitch their tents around his, giving his new capital city its name, Miṣr al-Fusṭāṭ, or Fusṭāṭ Miṣr, popularly translated as "City of the tents", though this is not an exact translation.

Late 1800 picture Old Cairo

The word Miṣr was an ancient Semitic root designating Egypt, but in Arabic also has the meaning of a large city or metropolis (or, as a verb, "to civilize"), so the name Miṣr al-Fusṭāṭ could mean "Metropolis of the Tent". Fusṭāṭ Miṣr would mean "The Pavilion of Egypt". Egyptians to this day call Cairo "Miṣr", or, colloquially, Maṣr, even though this is properly the name of the whole country of Egypt. The country's first mosque, the Mosque of Amr, was later built in 642 on the same site of the commander's tent.

Moez Street in Al-Qahira

The Mosque of Amr ibn-al-As. Though none of the original structure remains was the first one built in Egypt, and it was around this location, at the site of the tent of the commander Amr ibn-al-As, that the city of Fustat was built.

For thousands of years, the capital of Egypt was moved with different cultures through multiple locations up and down the Nile, such as Thebes and Memphis, depending on which dynasty was in power. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt around 331 BC, the capital became the city named after him, Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast. This situation remained stable for nearly a thousand years. After the army of the Arabian Caliph Umar captured the region in the 7th century, shortly after the death of Muhammad, he wanted to establish a new capital. When Alexandria fell in September 641, Amr ibn-al-As, the commander of the conquering army, founded a new capital on the eastern bank of the river.

To the right the hanging church (2 bell towers)
To the left remains from Babylon fortress (round structure)

The early population of the city was composed almost entirely of soldiers and their families, and the layout of the city was similar to that of a garrison. Amr intended for Fustat to serve as a base from which to conquer North Africa, as well as to launch further campaigns against Byzantium. It remained the primary base for Arab expansion in Africa until Qayrawan was founded in Tunisia in 670.

Fustat developed as a series of tribal areas, khittas, around the central mosque and administrative buildings. The majority of the settlers came from Yemen, with the next largest grouping from western Arabia, along with some Jews and Roman mercenaries. Arabic was generally the primary spoken dialect in Egypt, and was the language of written communication. However Coptic was still spoken in Fustat in the 8th century.

Inside a very old building

Archaeological digs have found many kilns (high temperature ovens) and ceramic fragments in Fustat, and it was likely an important production location for Islamic ceramics during the Fatimid period.

Fustat was the centre of power in Egypt under the Umayyad dynasty, which had started with the rule of Muawiyah I, and headed the Islamic caliphate from 660 to 750. However, Egypt was considered only a province of larger powers, and was ruled by governors who were appointed from other Muslim centres such as Damascus, Medina, and Baghdad.

Fustat was a major city, and in the 9th century, it had a population of approximately 120,000.

Al Qahira

Entrance to the Hanging Church

When General Gawhar (Fatimit General) captured the region, he founded a new city just north of Fustat on August 8, 969, naming it Al Qahira (Cairo) "the Vanquisher" or "the Conqueror", supposedly due to the fact that the planet Mars, an-Najm al-Qāhir "the Conquering Star", was rising at the time when the city was founded, and in 971, the Fatimid Caliph al-Mo'ezz moved his court from al-Mansuriya in Tunisia to Al Qahira in Egypt. Al Qahira was not intended as a center of government at the time, it was used primarily as the royal enclosure for the Caliph and his court and army, while Fustat remained the capital in terms of economic and administrative power. The City thrived and grew, and in 987, the geographer Ibn Hawkal wrote that al-Fustat was approximately one-third the size of Baghdad. By 1168, it had a population of 200,000.

During that time, Jawhar also commissioned the construction of the al-Azhar Mosque by order of the Caliph, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world. Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning.

The city was known for its prosperity, with shaded streets, gardens, and markets. It contained high-rise residential buildings, some seven storey’s tall, which could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. Al-Muqaddasi in the 10th century described them as Minarets, while Nasir Khusraw in the early 11th century described some of them rising up to 14 stories, with roof gardens on the top storey complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigation.

The Persian traveller, Nasir-i-Khusron, wrote of the exotic and beautiful wares in the Fustat markets: iridescent pottery, crystal, and many fruits and flowers, even during the winter months. From 975 to 1075, Fustat was a major production centre for Islamic art and ceramics, and one of the wealthiest cities in the world.  Modern archaeological digs have turned up trade artifacts from as far away as Spain, China, and Vietnam. Excavations have also revealed intricate house and street plans; a basic unit consisted of rooms built around a central courtyard, with an arcade of arches on one side of the courtyard being the principal means of access.

Destruction and decline

Sabil (water fountain) in old Cairo

In the mid-12th century, the caliph of Egypt was the teenager Athid, but his position was primarily ceremonial. The true power in Egypt was that of the vizier, Shawar. He had been involved in extensive political intrigue for years, working to repel the advances of both the Christian Crusaders, and the forces of the Nur al-Din from Syria. Shawar managed this by constantly shifting alliances between the two, playing them against each other, and in effect keeping them in a stalemate where neither army could successfully attack Egypt without being blocked by the other.

However, in 1168, the Christian King Amalric I of Jerusalem, who had been trying for years to launch a successful attack on Egypt in order to expand the Crusader territories, had finally achieved a certain amount of success. He and his army entered Egypt, sacked the city of Bilbeis, slaughtered nearly all of its inhabitants, and then continued on towards Fustat. Amalric and his troops camped just south of the city, and then sent a message to the young Egyptian caliph Athid, only 18 years old, to surrender the city or suffer the same fate as Bilbeis.

According to the Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi (1346–1442):

Seeing that Amalric's attack was imminent, Shawar ordered Fustat City burned, to keep it out of Amalric's hands.

Mosaic found in Fustat ruins

Shawar ordered that Fustat be evacuated. He forced [the citizens] to leave their money and property behind and flee for their lives with their children. In the panic and chaos of the exodus, the fleeing crowd looked like a massive army of ghosts.... Some took refuge in the mosques and bathhouses...awaiting a Christian onslaught similar to the one in Bilbeis. Shawar sent 20,000 naphtha pots and 10,000 lighting bombs [mish'al] and distributed them throughout the city. Flames and smoke engulfed the city and rose to the sky in a terrifying scene. The blaze raged for 54 days.....

After the destruction of Fustat, the Syrian forces arrived and successfully repelled Amalric's forces. Then with the Christians gone, the Syrians were able to conquer Egypt themselves. The untrustworthy Shawar was put to death, and the reign of the Fatimids was effectively over. The Syrian general Shirkuh was placed in power, but died due to ill health just a few months later, after which his nephew Saladin became vizier of Egypt on March 2, 1169, launching the Ayyubid dynasty.

With Fustat no more than a dying suburb, the center of government moved permanently to nearby El-Qahira (Cairo). Saladin later attempted to unite Cairo and Fustat into one city by enclosing them in massive walls, although this proved to be largely unsuccessful.

While the Mamluks were in power from the 13th century to the 16th century, the area of Fustat was used as a rubbish dump, though it still maintained a population of thousands, with the primary crafts being those of pottery and trash collecting. The layers of garbage accumulated over hundreds of years, and gradually the population decreased, leaving what had once been a thriving city as an effective wasteland.

Today, little remains of the grandeur of the old city. The three capitals, Fustat, Al-Askar and Al-Qatta'i were absorbed into the growing city of Cairo. Some of the old buildings remain visible in the region known as "Old Cairo", but much of the rest has fallen into disrepair, overgrows with weeds or used as garbage dumps.

Courtyard of old house

The oldest-remaining building from the area is probably the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, from the 9th century, which was built while the capital was in Al-Qatta'i. The first mosque ever built in Egypt (and by extension, the first mosque built in Africa), the Mosque of Amr, is still in use, but has been extensively rebuilt over the centuries, and nothing remains of the original structure. In February 2017 the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization was inaugurated on a site adjacent to the mosque.

It is believed that further archaeological digs could yield substantial rewards, considering that the remains of the original city are still preserved under hundreds of years of rubbish. Some archaeological excavations have taken place, the paths of streets are still visible, and some buildings have been partially reconstructed to waist-height. But the site is difficult and dangerous to access because of the nearby slums. However, some artifacts that have been recovered so far can be seen in Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art.

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city became the second largest in the empire, behind Constantinople,

When Napoleon arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000 forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mamluk influence in the mid-14th century.

Saladin / Mohamed Ali  Citadel

The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801. Cairo itself was besieged by a British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the long-weakened Mamluks jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian officer named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment, viceroy of Egypt in 1805.

The opera house of Egypt (before burning)

Until his death in 1848, Muhammad Ali Pasha instituted a number of social and economic reforms that earned him the title of founder of modern Egypt. However, while Muhammad Ali initiated the construction of public buildings in the city, those reforms had minimal effect on Cairo's landscape. Bigger changes came to Cairo later under Ismail Pasha (r. 1863–1879), who continued the modernization processes started by his grandfather. 

Midan Talaat Harb / Soliman Pacha

Drawing inspiration from Paris, Ismail envisioned a city of maidans (roundabout) and wide avenues; due to financial constraints, only some of them, in the area now composing Downtown Cairo, came to fruition. Ismail also sought to modernize the city, which was merging with neighbouring settlements, by establishing a public works ministry, bringing gas and lighting to the city, and opening a theater and opera house.

Parts of the article and the pictures from Internet sources.

Bonus 

سيد درويش - طلعت يا محلا نورها

GROPPI OF CAIRO

                

Picture of Groppi (2002) Photo Y. Sharobim

GROPPI, once the most celebrated tearoom this side of the Mediterranean was the creation of Giacomo Groppi (1863-1947) a native of Lugano, Switzerland. In time Maison Groppi became chief purveyor of chocolate to monarchs and pashas throughout the MidEast. Whenever pashas, beys and resident-foreigners traveled to Europe they took with them cartons filled with Groppi chocolates. During WW-II King Farouk air freighted via Khartoum, Entebbe, Dakar, Lisbon, Dublin a lacquered box emblazoned with the royal arms of Egypt and Great Britain. Inside, to the delight of the then-princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of England, were 100 kilos of Groppi chocolates.

Groppi Stickers

After a short apprenticeship with an uncle in Lugano and a brief employment in Provence, south of France, Giacomo Groppi arrived in Egypt in the 1880s to take up employment at Maison Gianola, a popular Swiss pastry and teashop on Bawaki Street, Cairo. In 1890, Giacomo Groppi, now aged 27, bought out Gianola's interests in its Alexandria's Rue de France branch and proceeded to open his own pastry and dairy shop.

By 1900 Groppi was running a successful enterprise annually exporting 100,000 cartons of eggs to the United Kingdom.

At Maison Groppi's second Alexandrine branch, on Cherif Street, Giacomo introduced crème chantilly for the first time in Egypt. This was a new technological feat which he acquired while touring the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Groppi was also the first chocolatier in Egypt to employ a female staff. In 1906, he sold his company to a Frenchman, Auguste Baudrot, and retired. For the next 60 years, Baudrot was regarded first amongst equals whenever compared to Alexandria's other famous tea rooms: Pastroudis, Trianon and Athineos. All three were run by Greeks.

Having lost his entire savings during the economic depression of 1907 Giacomo Groppi was obliged to return to what he knew best: making chocolates, pastries and dairy products. But out of deference to Baudrot, Groppi moved his activities to Cairo's al-Maghrabi Street (later, Adly Pasha Street). With only "La Marquise de Sévigné" and "Maison Mathieu" (renamed Sault) pausing as competition, Maison Groppi was ensured success in the nation's capital.

Old picture of Groppi

The formal opening took place on 23 December 1909. By the time WW-I broke out, Groppi's Tea Garden had become a favorite with the British Army of Occupation. A deli was added enhancing Groppi's image as the purveyor of quality food products.

In 1922 Maison Groppi inaugurated its own cold storage company--Industrie du Froid--employing over 120 workers and producing a daily output of 2,400 blocs of ice.

Coffee

In 1928, Giacomo Groppi's son, Achille, launched his famous ice cream, a technology he imported from the United States. The names of his delicious specialties were as exceptional as they tasted: Sfogliatella, Morocco, Mau Mau, Peche Melba, Maruska, Comtesse Marie, Surprise Neapolitaine. Cairenes were grateful to Achille for yet another creation: the Groppi tearoom situated on Midan Soliman Pasha (now, Talaat Harb).

Decades later, Groppi of Cairo would open a terrace café in Heliopolis overlooking Avenue des Pyramides and the legendary Heliopolis Palace Hotel (now, Uruba Presidential Palace).

To accommodate the less privileged Maison Groppi launched a chain of pastry and coffee shops "A l'Americaine".

Groppi Heliopolis

Thankfully Groppi's two main branches miraculously escaped complete destruction during the anti-British Black Saturday riots of January 1952 which ended with the burning of Cairo. In March 1954 Egypt's emerging strongman Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the placing of a bomb in Groppi's patisserie. While the detonation caused widespread panic, thankfully no one was hurt. The objective of Nasser's macabre exercise was to promote a feeling of public insecurity. The power struggle among the Free Officers had reached a new climax and the vicious smear campaign against Egypt's first president General Mohammed Naguib had somehow made its way inside Groppi.

Groppi Gardens Adly Pacha St.

Forty years later, the legend of Groppi exists in name only. The rot and decay of the socialist 1960s had taken their heavy toll. By the time Egypt returned to the ways of an open economy, Groppi's descendants had already abandoned the trade and left Egypt.

The rest is history. 
Article contributed by: Aziz Matta