Cairo (Arabic: القاهرة al-Qāhira) is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in North Africa and the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture.
Cairo has long been the center of the region's political and cultural life. Even before Cairo was established in the tenth century, the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. It is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids in adjacent Giza.
Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr (Arabic: مصر), the Egyptian Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence.
The city has the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University, and the Arab League has been based there for most of its existence.
With a population of 6.8 million, spread over 214 square kilometers (83 sq mi), Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. With an additional ten million inhabitants just outside the city, Cairo resides at the center of the largest metropolitan area in Africa and the eleventh-largest urban area in the world.
