the modern capital of Egypt, occupies the natural centre of the country, situated on the east bank of the Nile, 12 miles above the apex of its delta, 112 miles S.E. of Alexandria, and 75 miles west from Suez. N. Lat. 30° 2' 4.; E. Long. 31° 15' 36'. It is built partly on the plain and partly on the lower slopes of the rocky range of Mokattam, on a spur of which stands the citadel, in a most advantageous position to command the town.

Cairo occupies a site of about 7 miles in circumference, and is surrounded by a wall strongly built and fortified with lofty towers. The prospect from the ramparts of the citadel is one of great magnificence and beauty. Below lies the city, its gardens, squares, palaces, and mosques, in all the beauty of their delicately carved domes, and minarets covered with fantastic tracery,—the port of Bulak,—the gardens and palace of Shubra,—the broad river studded with islands,—the valley of the Nile dotted with groups of trees,—with the pyramids on the north horizon,—the fields, gardens, and villas on the west,—and on the east the barren cliffs, backed by an ocean of sand. The interior of the city, however, is far from presenting so pleasant an aspect. It is little better than a labyrinth of tortuous lanes, narrow, unpaved, and continually swept with clouds of dust blown from huge mounds of rubbish outside the walls. The most of the houses of the poorer classes consist of miserable mud hovels, with filthy courts, dilapidated windows, and tattered awnings. In marked contrast to these are the houses of the wealthier citizens, built generally in a style of elaborate arabesque, the windows shaded with projecting cornices of graceful woodwork, and ornamented with stained glass. A winding passage leads through the ornamented doorway into the court, in the centre of which is a fountain shaded with palm-trees. The principal apartment is generally paved with marble; in the centre a decorated lantern is suspended over a fountain, whilst round the sides are richly inlaid cabinets, and windows of stained glass; and in a recess is the dican, a low narrow cushioned seat running round the walls. The basement story is generally built of the soft calcareous stone of the neighbouring hills, and the upper story, which contains the harem, of painted brick. The town is walled off into quarters, deriving their names from the character or condition of their occupants, and is intersected in its whole breadth by a canal which conveys the waters of the Nile from Old Cairo to the different parts of the city. The most prominent object in Cairo is the citadel, standing on an eminence 250 feet above the level of the town. It contains the pasha's palace, a mosque of oriental alabaster built on the site of Joseph's Hall, and the pasha's harem. In the centre is a famous well called Joseph's well, sunk in the solid rock to the level of the Nile—a work generally attributed to Saladin. The citadel also contains an arsenal, a cannon foundry, and a manufactory of fire-arms. Next to the citadel in importance are the mosques, 400 in number, including, however, many that are falling to ruins. The most magnificent is the mosque of Sultan Hasan, standing in the immediate vicinity to the fort, celebrated for the grandeur of its porch and cornice, and the delicate honeycomb tracery which adorns them. Besides it there is the mosque of Tulun (founded A.D. 879), exhibiting very ancient specimens of the pointed arch; the mosque of Sultan el Hakem, the fanatical patron of the Druzes, founded A.D. 1003; the mosque of Ezher, the seat of the Mohammedan college where gratuitous instruction is given in the Koran, and where a number of blind paupers find a secure asylum. Attached to the mosque of Sultan Kalaon is the Morostan or asylum for the insane. But the highest style of architectural magnificence is to be seen in the tombs, which are mostly outside the walls. On the east are what are known to Europeans as the tombs of the caliphs, although the graves of the Abbassides and Omniades are not to be found in Egypt. They are the tombs of the Circassian or Borgite mamelukes—a race extinguished by Mehemet Ali. Their lofty gilt domes and fanciful network of arabesque tracery are fast falling to ruins, and the mosques attached to them are the haunts of a few solitary sheikhs, and of hordes of Arab beggars.

The gates of Cairo are built in the prevailing Saracenic style, round-headed, with cornices and towers. The principal square in the city is the Uzbekeeh, once covered by the Nile, but now drained and planted. Emerging from this square we come to Bulak, the port of Cairo, formerly an island, but now joined to the bank of the river. In it are several of the pasha's factories for spinning, weaving, dyeing and printing cotton, for casting and making arms. Here too is the government printing-press established by the late pasha, from which there have issued many oriental and numerous translations of French scientific works.

Three miles south of Cairo stands the Coptic village Musr el Ateekeh, originally called Fostat, or Old Cairo. It occupies part of the site of the ancient Egyptian Babylon, and still gives indications, from the style of its masonry and the character of its ruins, of having been a Roman station. It contains the celebrated depot called Joseph's granary, still used as a storehouse for the troops, and the mosque of Amer. Opposite it is the beautiful island of Rhoda and the Nilometer. Four miles north of Bulak, and about the same distance from Cairo, stands the palace of Shubra, a pile of low narrow buildings, deeply imbedded in groups of walnut, orange, and cypress trees.

Except public buildings there is very little worthy of special notice in Cairo. The scheme of public instruction here, as in Alexandria, is that which was organized by the late pasha, and embraces primary, preparatory, and polytechnic schools. During the lifetime of Mehemet Ali, their founder, there were no fewer than 800 pupils attending the four primary and 1500 attending the two preparatory schools of Cairo; but as this result was obtained partly by compulsion and partly by bribery, it remains to be seen whether or not from the violence of the effort it will not be followed by a powerful reaction.

The commerce of Cairo, although still depressed, is considerable. Being the rendezvous of one of the great caravans to Mecca, it is still the centre in which the slaves, gum, and gold-dust of the interior, and the oils and flannels of the north of Africa, with the European merchandise from Alexandria, are exchanged for the coffee, perfumes, spices, and shawls of Arabia and India. As the residence of the learned and wealthy of Egypt, it affords a market for the agricultural produce of the surrounding districts; and in addition to the making of arms already alluded to, it contains manufactories of sal-ammoniac, saltpetre, coarse gunpowder, glass lamps, and linen cloths.

From the central situation of Cairo, and its proximity to the hot sandy deserts, its temperature is much higher than near the coast; but the diseases which infest it, such as the plague, ophthalmia, and malignant fevers, seem to originate in its "stifled filth," and other local causes which advancing civilization will greatly remove, rather than in the unhealthiness of its situation. Pop. estimated at about 200,000, comprising about 121,000 Mohammedans, 60,000 Copts, 4000 Jews, and the rest Franks, Greeks, and Armenians. Cairo is said to have been founded by El-Muez, the first of the Fatemite rulers of Egypt, about A.D. 969. It was partly burnt in 1171 by the Saracens, to check the progress of the invaders, but was rebuilt by Saladin, and shared the fortunes of the various Egyptian dynasties, till it fell into the hands of the Turkish Selim I. in 1517. It was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1754. It was taken by the French in 1798, but retaken by the British in 1801.