After five thousand years of continual habitation Cairo remains the greatest metropolis in its quarter of the globe. The seat of the pharaohs and sultans, the prize of conquerors from Alexander to Napoleon, the city has never stopped reinventing itself. 'The Victorious' is what the Arabs call Cairo, and the indomitable spirit of the place still merits the name.
This book traces the life of Cairo from birth - the Ancient Egyptians believed Creation itself took place there - through the heights of medieval splendour and down to present day.
Rodenbeck shows modern Cairo to be a place of stark contrasts. Skyscrapers abut ancient tombs and genteel colonial mansions. Pulled between the cultural poles of Paris and Mecca, the city's population struggle under a double load as they cope with the burden of an uncomparably rich past and challanges the future.
