Talk:Cairo
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Population
Here it says "around 16 million" and in the list of metropolitan areas by population it's 15,600,000. In the article of the week candidate list someone mentions 18+ million, and in some of the different language versions of this article the figure is as high as 20 million. (Also, brief googling gave anything from 12 to 19 million.) I wonder if anyone knows the real (approximate) population of the Cairo metropolitan area... Or should we just settle with a vague "about 16-20 million"? --Jonik 19:43, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- I've lived there and yes, the varying estimates one hears range consistantly from 16 to 20 million. Wikipedia should be secure in the uncertainty. An official figure for the population of the Greater Cairo region is 16.075 million. That's in an area of 86,369.3 km. (Egypt Almanac 2003). --[[User:HamYoyo|ك|هام يويو]] 22:55, Jul 8, 2004 (UTC)
Gezira/Zamalek
Are Gezira and Zamalek different names for the same place in Cairo? Gareth Hughes 19:26, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)
- My understanding is that Gezira is the island, while Zamalek is the up-market residential quarter on the northern end of that island. I'm more than willing to be corrected by someone who knows the city better than me, of course. –Hajor 04:57, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
- Thanks for that: I thought that Zamalek didn't cover all of Gezira. I'll see if I can alter the stub on Zamalek to make more sense. Gareth Hughes 10:35, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Is Cairo the largest city in Africa? If it isn't, I can only imagine Kinshasa would be bigger. Does anyone know? --Gareth Hughes 23:25, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Origin of the name "Cairo"
There seems to be some confusion about where the name of this city came from. As this article currently reads, the introductory section states that the city originally was named as "The Subduer" or after the planet Mars, from which the name Qahirat al-Adaa ("the Subduer of Enemies") was derived. However, thumbing thru Paul E. Walker's Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatamid History and its Sources, he states that the city was originally named al-Qahira al-Mu'izziya or "City of the Victory of al-Mu'izza"; this is the same explanation found at Fatimid.
Should I assume that Walker & the source for the Fatimid article are wrong? Or that the relationship to Mars is wrong? Or is correct to say that there are several competing etymologies for the name of this city, each of which has its own champions? (Since I know no Arabic, I can't research this issue for myself.) -- llywrch 03:35, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)