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Egypt is at present within the midst of establishing the New Administrative Capital, a visionary city improvement mission poised to herald a transformative chapter within the nation’s historical past. Envisioned as an financial powerhouse and an emblem of up to date progress, this new metropolis represents a nationwide mission that boasts a monumental funding of EGP 40 billion (USD 1.29 billion).
Nonetheless, earlier than Egypt launched into this bold endeavor, and even predating the founding of its iconic capital, Cairo, the nation has had its justifiable share of historic capital cities all through its wealthy historical past.
From historical Egypt by means of Hellenic and Roman rule to the Arab conquest and the shaping of recent Egypt, the nation’s historical past is intertwined with the ascent and decline of quite a few empires. Every has left its personal mark on Egypt’s historical past and tradition, together with by means of the development of capital cities. Right here is among the historical past behind the nation’s older capitals and the monuments that outline them.
Memphis
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Positioned 24 kilometers away from fashionable Cairo, Egyptologists consider that Memphis was based round 2925 BCE by King Menes, the Pharaoh who united Higher and Decrease Egypt. The title Memphis comes from the Greek model of Males-nefer, which implies White Partitions, referring to a palace product of whitewashed bricks.
Memphis was Egypt’s capital throughout the Early Dynastic and Previous Kingdom intervals and a middle for the god Ptah’s worship. Even the phrase Egypt originates from the temple’s historical title, Hikuptah, which means “The Temple of the soul of Ptah.”
Owing to Memphis’ monumental significance, it was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Web site in 1979.
The traditional metropolis’s historic significance is clear in close by cemeteries like Abu Rawash, Giza Plateau, Zawyet Al Aryan, Abu Ghurab, Abusir, Saqqara, Mit Rahina, and Dahshur. These places home quite a lot of funerary rock tombs, mastabas, temples, and pyramids, together with the world-renowned Pyramids of Giza.
Thebes
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The traditional metropolis of Thebes, at present fashionable Luxor within the south of Egypt, was one of the necessary cities from the Center Kingdom onwards. The overwhelming majority of the traditional Egyptian monuments that may nonetheless be visited there as we speak had been constructed throughout the New Kingdom.
Historic Thebes and its necropolis, or burial areas, had been named a UNESCO’s World Heritage Web site in 1979. The monuments of the traditional capital embrace the Karnak temple complicated and Luxor Temple on the east financial institution of the Nile, and people on the west financial institution embrace the temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu; the Ramesseum of Ramesses II; Amenhotep III’s Colossi of Memnon; the temple of Hatshepsut in Deir al-Bahari; the tombs within the Valley of the Kings, the place Tutankhamun was buried; the tombs within the Valley of the Queens; and the city and tombs of the workmen of the royal tombs in Deir al-Medina.
Sphinx Avenue is among the most vital archaeological elements of the traditional metropolis of Thebes. The avenue is round 2,700 meters lengthy, connecting Karnak Temples within the north with Luxor Temple within the south.
The Avenue was constructed by historical Egyptian kings between the Eighteenth Dynasty and Thirtieth Dynasty as a processional means for sacred ceremonies and festivals. Alongside the Avenue, unparalleled Sphinxes line up alongside the traditional highway from Karnak Temples to Luxor Temple.
Inform Al Amarna
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Inform Al Amarna is the archaeological web site of the traditional Egyptian metropolis of Akhetaton, situated in Higher Egypt about 71 kilometers north of present-day Assyut. Constructed round 1348 BCE by Akhenaten, previously named Amenhotep IV, it served as his capital after he deserted the worship of Amon in favor of the Aton deity. Nonetheless, roughly 4 years after Akhenaten’s dying, round 1332 BCE, the royal court docket returned to Thebes, resulting in the abandonment of town.
Regardless of its short-lived existence, Akhetaton is among the few historical Egyptian cities that has been extensively excavated. Town’s distinctive location and comparatively transient occupation allowed archaeologists to reconstruct its structure with outstanding precision.
Alexandria
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Alexandria is a distinguished metropolis and governorate in Egypt. It was as soon as a number one metropolis within the Mediterranean world, famend for its cultural significance and scientific developments. Based by Alexander the Nice in 332 BCE, Alexandria served as Egypt’s capital till its conquest by Arab forces led by Amr Ibn Al As in 642 CE. At the moment, Alexandria stands as certainly one of Egypt’s largest cities, serving as a serious seaport and industrial hub. It’s located on the Mediterranean Sea on the western fringe of the Nile River delta, roughly 183 kilometers northwest of Cairo in Decrease Egypt, overlaying an space of 300 sq. kilometers.
Inside only a century of its founding, Alexandria burgeoned into one of many Mediterranean’s most necessary cities and a hub of Greek scholarship and scientific inquiry. Nice thinkers corresponding to Euclid, Archimedes, Plotinus the thinker, and geographers Ptolemy and Eratosthenes pursued their research on the Mouseion, a prestigious analysis establishment based on the outset of the third century BCE by the Ptolemies. This famend establishment additionally encompassed the celebrated library of town, housing an unlimited assortment of texts, with nearly all of them composed in Greek.
Town is residence to quite a few distinctive points of interest, together with the ruins of an historical Hellenic metropolis submerged below the ocean, a Roman amphitheater, and as soon as, it used to boast one of many Seven Wonders of the Historic World, the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Alexandria’s distinctive geographical place, with its again to Egypt and its entrance to the Mediterranean, has given it a cultural complexity. All through its historical past, Alexandria has maintained a cosmopolitan character, usually figuring out extra with the broader Mediterranean world than its fast hinterland.
Al Fustat
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Following the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642, Caliph Omar Ibn Al Khattab sought a brand new capital for Egypt, forgoing Alexandria, which had served because the capital throughout the Ptolemaic and Roman intervals. Ibn Al As based Al Fustat, marking it as Egypt’s inaugural Islamic capital.
Town’s title, Al Fustat, originates from the Arabic phrase for “tent,” impressed by the camp arrange by Ibn Al As’ military on the future web site of the brand new capital. The primary construction in Al Fustat was the Mosque of Amr Ibn Al As, also referred to as Al Ateeq, which means “the Previous Mosque.”
At the moment, Al Fustat is part of the Previous Cairo District and stands as one of many metropolis’s oldest areas. It boasts quite a few archaeological websites, together with the Synagogue of Ben Ezra, over seven historic church buildings, the Nilometer on Al Roda island, the palace of Al Manesterley, and the Mohammad Ali Palace in Al Manyal.
Al Askar
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Al Askar was the capital of Egypt from 750 to 868, throughout the interval when Egypt was a province of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Following the Rashidun Caliphate, the attain of the Umayyads turned in depth, stretching from western Spain all the way in which to japanese China. Nonetheless, as time went on and the caliphate dwindled, they had been overthrown by the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the empire itself to Baghdad.
In Egypt, this shift in energy concerned transferring management from the Umayyad metropolis of Al Fustat to the Abbasid metropolis of Al Askar barely north. Its full title was Madinat Al Askari, which means the Metropolis of Sections. It was primarily designed to accommodate a military, specified by a grid sample that may very well be simply subdivided into separate sections for numerous teams, corresponding to retailers and officers.
Al Qata’i
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Al Qata’i used to be the short-lived capital of Egypt throughout the Tulunid interval, based by Ahmad ibn Tulun within the yr 868. It was located instantly to the northeast of the previous capital, Al Askar, making it adjoining to the outdated capital of Al Fustat. Finally, all three of those settlements had been merged into town of Cairo, established by the Fatimids in 969 CE. Sadly, Al Qata’i met its demise within the early tenth century and as we speak, the one remaining construction from that point is the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.
Cairo
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Cairo’s title in Arabic is Al Qahira, which interprets to the conqueress in English. It was established by the Fatimids below the management of Common Jawhar Al Siqilli, following the orders of the Fatimid Caliph Al Mo’ez Ledin Allah, to function the brand new capital for the Fatimid Dynasty. Initially, it was named Cairo, however it’s identified by a number of different names through the years, together with the Metropolis of a Thousand Minarets and Qahirat Al Mo’ez.
Within the eleventh century, Egypt got here below the rule of Salah Al Din, who reworked Cairo right into a metropolis of nice renown and constructed the formidable Cairo Citadel. Within the early nineteenth century, Muhammed Ali launched into a mission to construct fashionable Egypt. He constructed the Mohamed Ali Mosque, which stands as certainly one of Cairo’s most charming landmarks. His dynasty, the Alawites, continued the trouble, remodeling Cairo into the fashionable metropolitan that it’s as we speak.
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