Egypt Flights. Book Cheap Flights to Cairo – Egypt

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If you are looking for passionate journeys, lifetime stories, adventurous experiences, luxurious treatment or even peace of mind, then Egypt is your aim. Egypt

offers the full bouquet: Red Sea, Mediterranean, diving, water sports, white desert safari, golf, Thalassa, Nile cruises, historical sughtseeing, tailor-made packages, shopping and more.

In the fifth century BC Herodotus wrote of Egypt that 'nowhere are there so many marvelous things...nor in the world besides are to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness' - and not too much has changed. The Sphinx, the Nile, ancient Luxor, the pyramids - Egypt's scope is glorious.

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt (and previously the United Arab Republic) and has a metropolitan area population of approximately 15.2 million people, the largest in Africa. There are, however, millions of homeless and undocumented citizens. With these factored in, some population estimates reach as high as 25 million people. Cairo is the sixteenth most populous metropolitan area in the world (the 10th according to 2004 statistics). Cairo is located at 30°2' North, 31°13' East (30.03333, 31.21667).

While al-Qāhirah is the official name of the city, in local speech it is typically called simply by the name of the country, Mişr pronounced Maşr in the local dialect.

The name Al-Qahirah literally means "The Subduer," though it's often translated as "The Victorious." The origin of the name is said to come from the appearance of the planet Mars during the founding of the city. The planet Mars, associated with destruction was called "Al Najm Al Qahir" in Arabic, from which the name of the city was derived. However the legacy of the name evolved into the title "Qahirat Al Adaa" meaning "subduer of the enemies". This title was given to the city as many armies were destroyed in attempts to invade Cairo or defeated elsewhere by troops sent from Cairo (Mongols, Crusaders & Ottomans are examples.)

Cairo is located on the banks and islands of the Nile River in the north of Egypt, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and breaks into two branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region.

The oldest part of the city is somewhat east of the river. There, the city gradually spreads west, engulfing the agricultural lands next to the Nile. These western areas, built on the model of Paris by Ismail the Magnificent in the mid-19th century, are marked by wide boulevards, public gardens, and open spaces. The older eastern section of the city is very different: having grown up haphazardly over the centuries it is filled with small lanes and crowded tenaments. While western Cairo is dominated by the government buildings and modern architecture, the eastern half is filled with hundreds of ancient mosques that act as landmarks.

Extensive water systems have also allowed the city to expand east into the desert. Bridges link the Nile islands of Gezira and Roda, where many government buildings are located and government officials live. Bridges also cross the Nile attaching the city to the suburbs of Giza and Imbabah (part of the Cairo conurbation).

West of Giza, in the desert, is part of the ancient necropolis of Memphis on the Giza plateau, with its three large pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza Approximately 11 miles (18 km) to the south of modern Cairo is the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis and adjoining necropolis of Saqqara. These cities were Cairo's ancient predecessors, when Cairo was still in this approximate geographical location.

The current location of Cairo was too far from the ancient course of the Nile to support a city. Just to the south of the modern city's location are the ruins of Memphis, which was the capital of Ancient Egypt and was founded in around 3100 BC by Menes of Tanis after he had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, although the capital later moved to Heliopolis, further south to Thebes, and, under the Ptolemaic dynasty, Alexandria.

The first settlement on the location of modern Cairo was a Roman fort, known as Babylon Fort, built about AD 150, built near the settlement known as Babylon-in-Egypt, which lay close to an ancient Egyptian canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.

A small town mostly of Coptic Christians slowly grew around the fort. Arab invaders, lead by Amr Ibn-el-As, took the fort town in 642 and also established their army in the location, rebuilding its defenses. The Arab tented camp outside the fortress, known as Al-Fustat, slowly became the permanent base of the Arab forces in Egypt under the Umayyads and Abbasids, and contains the first mosque in Africa.

Slowly, the settlement grew into a small city. The North African Shiite Fatimid Dynasty conquered Egypt in 972 and built a new capital, Al-Mansureya, north of the old settlement. Their leader, Al-Muez Ledin-Ellah, renamed the city Al-Qahirah after the planet Mars which was rising on the day the city was founded.

The Al-Azhar mosque was founded the same year, and along with its accompanying university it made Cairo a centre of learning and philosophy. The school remains a major center for Islamic study today. The Seljuks captured Cairo in the mid 1100s, and Saladin and his successors expanded the city further, including the construction of its massive citadel.

The sack of Baghdad in 1258 heightened the importance of the city and it became the leading intellectual and artistic centre in the Middle East, and perhaps the world, for the next 250 years. It is believed that Cairo was the largest city in the world from 1315 to 1348 [2](year of the Black Death). But power was shifting from the Arab world north to the Turks and Europeans.

The city was taken by the Ottoman Empire under Selim I in 1517, but in the 17th and 18th centuries the ruling Mameluks returned to power as nominal vassals to the Ottoman Sultan.

The family of 26th Ottoman sultan Selim III died on the way to Medina. They have been buried in an impressive Ottoman mausoleum in the old quarter of Cairo. The mausoleum is still a favorite place to visit for Turkish tourists.

You will appreciate Cairo as it is a spectacular city to visit. Perhaps you may even wish to return as many do to once again appreciate Cairo and all that it has to offer.