Case Study: Cairo

25 min

More than 22 million people lived in Greater Cairo in 2023, an estimate based on UN projections, making it the largest urban area in Africa and the Arab world (Wikipedia). It stands where the Nile, after crossing more than a thousand kilometres of desert, divides into the branches of its delta. Cairo shows both sides of rapid urban growth: a great centre of government, trade, learning and industry, and a city struggling with crowding, traffic and informal housing.

Figure 3: the site and situation of Cairo.

Definition

Site: the land on which a town is built (e.g. Cairo: the east bank of the Nile, at the head of the delta). Situation: a town's position in relation to the surrounding area and routes (e.g. Cairo: between Upper and Lower Egypt, and between Africa and Asia). Primate city: a city much larger and more important than any other in its country.

Why Cairo grew here

Water and food: the Nile and the fertile delta and valley in an otherwise desert country.
A natural meeting point: the head of the delta, where routes from Upper Egypt, the delta, the Red Sea and Asia meet. The ancient capital of Memphis and the pyramids of Giza lie close by; the city of Cairo itself was founded in 969.
Government: capital of Egypt for over a thousand years, so it gathered ministries, universities and religious institutions such as al-Azhar.
Industry and trade: factories, the Nile waterway, railways and, later, the nearby Suez Canal.

Functions today

Cairo is Egypt's administrative capital, its largest commercial and industrial centre, a centre of education and religion, and a major tourist city: its historic centre has been a World Heritage Site since 1979. It is a primate city: no other Egyptian city comes close to it in size.

Problems of rapid growth

Problem	Details
Overcrowding	In 2012 the density of Cairo Governorate was estimated at about 45,000 people per km² (Wikipedia)
Informal settlements	Large areas built without permits on farmland at the city's edge, with poor water, sewerage and roads; some families live in the old cemeteries known as the City of the Dead
Traffic congestion and air pollution	Millions of vehicles; dust from the desert adds to the haze
Loss of farmland	Building spreads over the fertile land of the delta and valley, which Egypt needs for food
Waste	Huge volumes of rubbish; much is collected and recycled informally by the Zabbaleen community
Unemployment	Not enough formal jobs for the young; many work in the informal sector

Solutions

New towns in the desert: 6th of October City, New Cairo and others take people and industry off the farmland; a New Administrative Capital is being built to the east.
Public transport: the Cairo Metro, opened in 1987, was the first metro in Africa; new lines and ring roads have been added.
Upgrading informal areas with water, sewerage and paved roads, and building social housing.
Protecting farmland by banning building on it, though this is hard to enforce.

Mr James Geography: Cairo urban problems. A short revision of Cairo's problems; compare his list with the table above and note one solution for each.

Worked example

Worked example 1: share of a country in one city. Egypt had about 114.5 million people in 2023 (Our World in Data, UN 2024), and Greater Cairo about 22.2 million. What share of Egyptians lived in Greater Cairo?

$\frac{22.2}{114.5} \times 100 \approx 19.4\%$
So roughly one Egyptian in five lived in one urban area: a sign of a primate city.

Worked example

Worked example 2: evaluating new towns. Are desert new towns a good solution to Cairo's problems?

For: they protect the delta's farmland, offer planned housing and industrial land, and reduce crowding in the centre.
Against: many are far from jobs and families, transport links are slow or costly, and housing is often too expensive for poorer families, so some stand half-empty while informal areas keep growing.
Judgement: new towns help only when they come with affordable housing, jobs and fast public transport to the old city.

Warning

Site and situation are different. Cairo's site is the riverbank at the head of the delta; its situation is its position between the delta and the valley, and between Africa and Asia. Exam questions often ask for one or the other.

Tip

A case study in four boxes: location (site and situation), functions, problems, solutions. Learn two facts with numbers for each box.

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Practice

Describe the site and the situation of Cairo.
Give three factors that favoured the growth of Cairo.
State four functions of Cairo.
Describe three problems caused by Cairo's rapid growth.
Why is building on the farmland of the delta a serious problem for Egypt?
Explain how the Cairo Metro helps to reduce urban problems.
Compare the problems of Cairo with those of a growing town in Rwanda.

Show answersHide answers

Site: the east bank of the Nile at the head of the delta. Situation: where the Nile valley meets the delta, on routes between Upper and Lower Egypt and between Africa and Asia, near the Suez Canal.
Any three: the Nile's water; fertile land of the delta and valley; a natural route centre; capital for over a thousand years; industry and trade.
Administrative (capital); commercial; industrial; educational and religious (e.g. al-Azhar); tourist.
Any three: overcrowding; informal settlements without services; traffic and air pollution; loss of farmland; waste; unemployment.
Egypt is almost all desert; the delta and valley are the only large areas of fertile land, so every hectare built on reduces the land that feeds a large and growing population.
It moves many people quickly and cheaply without cars, which reduces traffic congestion and air pollution and links homes to jobs.
Similar: rural–urban migration, housing shortages, informal settlements, pressure on services. Different: Cairo's scale is far larger (over 22 million), it is surrounded by desert and builds on scarce farmland, while Rwandan towns face steep slopes and wetlands; Rwanda's towns are planning ahead with master plans while Cairo is repairing a city that grew without them. A good answer gives named examples.

Sources and credits

Cairo, Greater Cairo, Cairo Metro, New Administrative Capital and Zabbaleen: Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted by Ganzaa.
Photo: Cairo skyline, Panoramic view, Egypt, Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Population of Egypt, 2023: Population, Our World in Data, based on UN World Population Prospects 2024, CC BY 4.0.
Video: Cairo urban problems LEDC, Mr James Geography, embedded from YouTube.
Figure 3: drawn by Ganzaa; outlines, rivers and Lake Nasser from Natural Earth, public domain.
Explanations, worked examples and exercises: written by Ganzaa.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1Why Cairo grew here

2Functions today

3Problems of rapid growth

4Solutions

Why Cairo grew here

Functions today

Problems of rapid growth

Solutions