Old Cairo

Old Cairo is the extensive district of southern from the southern boundary of down to the precinct commonly known as Coptic Cairo.
cairo.gov.eg
Wikivoyage
Wikipedia
Photo: Baldiri, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Photo: Blago Tebi, CC BY 3.0.
  • Type: Neighborhood with 270,000 residents
  • Description: historic area in Cairo, Egypt
  • Also known as: “El Fostat”, “El Fustat”, “Fostat”, “Masr al-Qadimah”, “Maṣr al-ʿAtīkaẗ”, “Misr al Qadimah”, “Mişr al Qadīmah”, “Misr al-qadima”, “Miṣr al-qadīmaẗ”, and “Misr El Qadima”

Places of Interest

Highlights include Rhoda Island and Fustat.

Island
Photo: Michael Botros, CC BY 4.0.
Roda Island is an island neighbourhood on the Nile in central , alternatively known as Manial al-Roda, or , referring to the main village that existed on the island before it was urbanised, and is part of the Old Cairo district.

Protected area
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Fusṭāṭ was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, nowadays part of . It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by the Rashidun Muslim general ʿAmr ibn ul-ʿĀṣ immediately after the Muslim conquest of in AD 641, and featured the Mosque of ʿAmr, the first built in Egypt.

Photo: Buyoof, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Amr ibn al-As Mosque is a , located in the neighbourhood of Old Cairo, . Named in honour of the Arab Muslim commander Amr ibn al-As, the mosque was built in c. 642 CE as the centre of the newly founded capital of Egypt, .

Places in the Area

Nearby places include Garden City and Sayyidah Zainab District.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.
is a well-planned and leafy district of central , immediately south of the very centre of the modern city at Midan Tahrir. In 1905 the agricultural architect Jose Lamba was asked by the owners of the Nile Land and Agricultural Company to design a new city.

Suburb
Photo: Motazhesham2, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sayyidah Zainab is one of the old traditional districts of , . Its name is based on the presence of the Sayyidah Zainab Mosque. It is known for its traditional restaurants, it also has the Qal'at al-Kabsh neighbourhood, which is one of the famous areas in the district, and the Ibn Tulun Mosque.

Old Cairo

Latitude
30.0174° or 30° 1′ 3″ north
Longitude
31.2332° or 31° 13′ 60″ east
Population
270,000
Elevation
25 metres (82 feet)
Open location code
8G2H268M+X7
Open­Street­Map ID
node 768552664
Open­Street­Map feature
place=­neighbourhood
Geo­Names ID
352261
Wiki­data ID
Q2993461
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover Old Cairo from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Arabic to Western Panjabi—“Old Cairo” goes by many names.
  • Arabic: “الفسطاط” (historical)
  • Arabic: “القاهرة القديمة”
  • Arabic: “حي مصر القديمة”
  • Arabic: “قسم مصر القديمة”
  • Arabic: “مصر العتيقة”
  • Arabic: “مصر العتيكة”
  • Arabic: “مصر القديمة”
  • Arabic: “مصر القديمه”
  • Armenian: “Հին Կահիրե”
  • Asturian: “Old Cairo”
  • Catalan: “Caire Vell”
  • Czech: “Stará Káhira”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “حى مصر القديمه”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “مصر القديمة”
  • Esperanto: “Malnova Kairo”
  • French: “Fostat”
  • French: “le vieux Caire”
  • French: “Vieux Caire”
  • French: “Vieux-Caire”
  • French: “Vieux Kaire” (historical)
  • German: “Alt-Kairo”
  • German: “Altkairo”
  • German: “Fustat”
  • Greek: “Παλαιό Κάιρο”
  • Hausa: “Tsohuwar Alkahira”
  • Hebrew: “העיר העתיקה של קהיר”
  • Indonesian: “Kairo Lama”
  • Irish: “Masr el Adima”
  • Irish: “Sean Caireo”
  • Italian: “Al-Fustat”
  • Italian: “Cairo Vecchia”
  • Italian: “Cairo Vecchio”
  • Japanese: “オールド・カイロ”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Gamle Kairo”
  • Norwegian: “Gamle Kairo”
  • Persian: “مصر القدیمه”
  • Polish: “Kair koptyjski”
  • Polish: “Stary Kair”
  • Portuguese: “Cairo Velho”
  • Portuguese: “Cairo/Cairo Velho”
  • Russian: “Старый город”
  • Russian: “Старый Каир”
  • Scots: “Auld Cairo”
  • Slovenian: “Stari Kairo”
  • Spanish: “Miṣr al-Qadīmah”
  • Swedish: “Gamla Kairo”
  • Tamil: “பழைய கெய்ரோ”
  • Ukrainian: “Старий Каїр”
  • Urdu: “قدیم قاہرہ”
  • Western Panjabi: “قدیم قاہرہ”

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