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The city was founded in 969 as the royal precinct of the Fatimid caliphs, but the administrative and economic capital was in Fustat. After the destruction of Fustat in 1168/1169 to avoid its capture by Crusaders, the administrative capital of Egypt was transferred to Cairo, where it has remained since then. It took four years in its construction led by General Jawhar Al Sikilli (the Sicilian) and transferred from the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz, who left his old Mahdia in Tunisia and settled in the new Fatimid capital.



After Memphis, Heliopolis, Giza and the Byzantine fortress of Babylon, Fustat was a new city built as a military garrison for the Arab troops, as it was the nearest center of Arabia accessible by the Nile. Fustat was a regional center of the Islamic world during the Omeya period and where the leader Omeya Marwan II held the last opposition against the Abbasids. Later, during the Fatimid era, Al-Qahira (Cairo) was officially founded in 969 as the imperial capital just north of Fustat. Over the centuries, Cairo has grown to absorb other cities of the area as Fustat, but in the year 969 is considered the "year of foundation" of the modern city.



Cairo is the capital of Egypt. It is the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the Egyptians often denominate it simply with the name of the country in the local language, pronounced Misr in the classic Arabic and Masr in the Egyptian Arab.



The city was founded in the year 116 a. , In which today it is known like Old Cairo, when the Romans reconstructed an old Persian fortress next to the River Nile. Before its foundation, Memphis was the capital of the Pharaonic empire.

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