Cairo Governorate, Egypt — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Cairo Governorate known for?

Cairo is known as the seat of Egypt's capital. The governorate holds the city of Cairo, capital of the whole country, along with a ring of newer satellite cities that spread out from it. Government sits here.

Around the old capital rise planned towns such as New Cairo and the New Capital, part of the vast Greater Cairo built out across the desert, so the province joins an ancient centre to a spread of planned new towns.

Where is Cairo Governorate?

Cairo Governorate is one of Egypt's smaller provinces, defined less by its size than by what it contains. Its ground is dry and subtropical, edged by the desert that surrounds the capital. It is essentially a city and its edges.

The old city of Cairo forms the core, and around it the governorate reaches out across dry ground toward a ring of planned satellite towns rather than open countryside. Desert frames the built-up land on its outer sides, and the province spreads where the capital spreads. Beyond the historic centre lies newer ground.

Cairo Governorate takes in a string of satellite cities, New Cairo, El Shorouk, Badr, Capital Gardens, the New Capital, and 15th of May, laid out on the desert around the old capital as part of the wider Greater Cairo. Each was planned and built on empty desert. These planned towns extend the province far past the limits of the historic city.

Together they make the governorate a spread of urban ground on the edge of the desert. Old Cairo and its new satellites share the same dry setting.

What is Cairo Governorate like?

Cairo carries the cultural weight of a national capital. As the seat of Egypt's government and its foremost urban centre, the governorate gathers the offices, institutions, and daily life of the country in one place. Arabic is the language of it all.

The old city holds mosques, markets, and quarters layered over many centuries, and that dense, historic core still sets the character of the province more than any of its newer edges. The province speaks with the country's voice. Two Cairos sit side by side.

The historic capital, founded in 969, keeps its crowded streets and old skyline, while the planned satellite towns, New Cairo and the New Capital among them, offer a newer, wider-spaced way of living on the desert. That contrast defines daily life. The New Capital was built to carry the work of national government out beyond the crowded old city.

Government and business have spread out to the new cities, even as the old centre keeps the markets, the mosques, and the pull of the past. The result is one governorate holding two very different Egypts.

What is the history of Cairo Governorate?

Cairo was founded in 969 as the capital, and the governorate grew from that single city. For a thousand years the old capital stood as the heart of Egyptian power, gathering rulers, mosques, and markets within its bounds. Then the city outgrew itself.

In the 2000s the province pushed into the desert, raising satellite cities such as New Cairo and then the New Capital, so a foundation of the tenth century anchors a ring of brand-new towns.

What is the climate of Cairo Governorate?

Cairo has a hot desert climate. Inland on the edge of the desert, the governorate sees fierce, rainless summers and mild, dry winters, with little of the sea's softening that reaches the Egyptian coast. Rain is scarce all year.

Dust and heat mark the long summer, while the short winter brings cooler nights and clear skies over the capital. The desert sets the terms here.

How do you get to Cairo Governorate?

Cairo is the transport hub of the whole country. As Egypt's capital, the city draws the main airport, the rail lines, and the roads that reach the province and the nation beyond it. Most arrivals land at Cairo.

From the capital, expressways run out to New Cairo, the New Capital, and the other satellite towns of Greater Cairo, tying the ring of new cities back to the centre. The province is built to move between them.