Cairo is a city of extremes. On its chaotic streets BMWs driven by
sharp-suited businessmen compete for road space with donkey carts
laden with farm produce; in its mosques the wealthy and the
destitute pray next to each other. The largest conurbation in
Africa since the Middle Ages, it was in Ibn Battutah's words "the
mother of cities". With a present-day population of around eighteen
million, this sprawling metropolis is home to one thousand new
migrants every day, drawn to the seething intensity of a modern,
cosmopolitan capital that blends together the cultures of the
Middle East and Europe. The fabled city on the banks of the River
Nile, once home to pharaohs and emperors, now forms a focal point
of the Islamic faith and of the Arab world. Andrew Beattie explores
the turbulent past and vibrant present of this city where the
enduring legacies of the ancient Egyptians, the early Coptic
Church, British colonial rule and the modernist zeal of the
post-independence era have all left their mark. THE CITY OF
WRITERS, CONQUERORS AND REVOLUTIONARIES: From Mark Twain and
Thackeray to Paul Theroux and Naguib Mahfouz, Alexander the Great
to Napoleon, and Lawrence of Arabia to Colonel Nasser. THE CITY OF
MONUMENTS AND SPECTACLE: From the Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara to
the Mosque of Mohammed Ali, dominating the Cairo skyline; from the
teeming bazaars of the muski to Coptic and Islamic festivals. THE
CITY OF ANCIENT AND MODERN: Where ancient churches and mosques sit
cheek-by-jowl with modern skyscrapers and busy highways; where
prosperous suburbs lie close to areas of third world poverty and
deprivation.
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