New Cairo, Smart Village, and the New Administrative Capital are just some of the satellite cities popping up in the countryside around Cairo, but why is this happening? Let’s find out together.
Cairo’s Overpopulation, a Chronic Egyptian Problem
To understand the origins of the many satellite cities surrounding Cairo, we must take a step back in the history of the city, the de facto capital of Egypt since Ancient Egypt. While it is true that Cairo was officially founded with the Arab conquest of the country, it is also true that, with the exception of Alexandria and Luxor (ancient Thebes), all Egyptian capitals have always arisen around the present-day city, transforming it since antiquity into the absolute center of Egypt and much of North Africa.
With the arrival of Mehmed Ali and the industrial revolution he sought, this connotation became increasingly strong and evident, pushing a large portion of the population to find homes in the great capital. Demographically, this phenomenon is more evident than ever, with the population rising from 350,000 in 1884 to over 7 million just 100 years later, a growth since 2000. This extraordinary increase has continued to the present day, so much so that, according to some 2019 surveys, Cairo’s population now reaches 20 million; the same as Greece and Portugal combined.
New cities, a practical (and convenient) solution for governments
This led various Egyptian presidents throughout the 20th century to develop various approaches to address this objective problem, many of which revolved around the construction of new peripheral towns to reduce the influx of residents into the cities. This solution is often the most astute and convenient for governments, as it can effectively solve the problem and, on the other, the construction sector can easily be contracted out to private individuals, thus reducing state spending and potentially gaining both money and consensus.
It is no coincidence that in 1979 the Egyptian government created the “Authority for New Urban Communities” (in Arabic: هيئة المجتمعات العمرانية الجديدة), a public agency responsible for developing the 2.3 million feddan (acres) of state-owned land. It is no coincidence that since then the number of new satellite cities (excluding the older Giza, Banha and Shubra El Kheima) has increased more and more.
The City of the Tenth Ramadan
First on the list was the “City of the Tenth Ramadan,” designated by Presidential Decree No. 249 of 1977 and located northeast of the capital in the Sharqia Governorate. The name derives from the fact that the Ramadan War (also known as the Yom Kippur War), fought in 1973 against the Israeli army, began on the 10th day of Ramadan.
The peculiarity of this city is that it immediately aimed to relocate industries rather than inhabitants and it is no coincidence that, despite having just 260,000 inhabitants in 2023, it is one of the most industrialized in the country.
The city of May 15th
Founded in 1978, again at the behest of then President Anwar Sadat, May 15 City represents something completely different from its predecessor, being located in the south between Cairo and Helwan, a city whose economy is based on heavy industry.
Designed primarily as a place of residence for workers, its name is linked to Sadat’s “Corrective Revolution” that began on May 15, 1971, a few months after Nasser’s death. While the City of the Tenth Ramadan has succeeded over the years, the City of May 15 may prove to be a failure for the Egyptian government, as it was designed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, yet over 40 years after its founding, it has barely 100,000 residents.
The City of October 6th
The third and final satellite city founded by Anwar Sadat was October 6th City, undoubtedly the most interesting construction project conceived by the Egyptian government up to that point. While the first two were conceived as either industrial or residential hubs, this one represents a successful middle ground, combining the two while also adding a key aspect: education.
Located southwest of Cairo, it is characterized by the presence of numerous universities and study centers that over the decades have attracted an ever-increasing number of students and workers. Another notable feature of October 6th City is the presence of large empty spaces, desired since its founding to allow for growth and expansion. This expansion was not immediate, but will develop over the decades until it reaches (at least according to forecasts) over 1 million inhabitants. In 2023, it had over 350,000 permanent residents, but an even larger population works or gravitates towards it.
This city is also the first ever created by the Authority for New Urban Communities, which from then on will also take care of the previous two and all subsequent ones.
Obour
Obour represents the last of the four cities designed by Anwar Sadat, but, unlike the first three, its creator did not live to see it built as he was assassinated in 1981, a few months before its official inauguration, which de facto represented the first of the new president, Hosni Mubarak.
Located northeast of Cairo, Obour was born primarily as a residential city, effectively absorbing part of Cairo’s population over the decades (data speak of around 150,000 residents and almost half a million people linked to this city). Unlike the other cities, however, it has never managed to express a strong and decisive soul, limiting its cultural impact and its recognisability.
Sheikh Zayed City
Sheikh Zayed City, located to the west, not far from October 6th City, was officially founded in 1995 and is the first to be fully conceived under Hosni Mubarak, but with the financial support of the United Arab Emirates, so much so that it was named after Sheikh Zayed, the first Grand Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. This latter development is particularly interesting because it represents a marked departure from the policies of Sadat, who, despite modifying Nasser’s trajectory, had always conceived of new cities as social hubs, designed primarily to absorb the Cairo population.
From this perspective, Sheikh Zayed City takes a completely different approach, focusing not on the number of people it can accommodate, but on their quality of life and the surroundings. Many workers live in the City of October 6th, but actually live there. Needless to say, it’s a place primarily associated with the wealthiest segment of Cairo’s population.
El Shorouk and Haram City
Following the successes achieved with the previous cities, new ones were constantly built under the government, but the ideological approach of the previous governments was almost completely lost, giving rise to projects that were perhaps even efficient and practical, but without the ambition and vision of those built under the Sadat period (the cities of El Shorouk and Haram City are perfect examples of this period).
Furthermore, under Mubarak’s administration, there was a veritable boom in districts created by private individuals and designed primarily to satisfy the needs of the upper-middle and ruling classes, who increasingly shunned the chaos of Cairo in favor of a more tranquil and comfortable solution (perfect examples are Dreamland and Smart Village).
New Cairo
The New Cairo project (which isn’t the New Capital; we’ll get to that later) began around 2000 and was conceived in a completely different way than, for example, October 6th City, representing a completely new experiment in Egyptian history. While until then the focus had been on designing a city, in this case the state simply merged three planned settlements (First, Third, and Fifth Settlements), which were gradually assigned a new role, strongly oriented toward the upper-middle class and the private real estate market.
Built east of Old Cairo, New Cairo is not a city designed to provide everything in a single center, but rather a place in flux, fragmented into districts and residential compounds. Here, the wealthiest can live on par with those in Sheikh Zayed, but at the same time, developers have more land on which to build and generate profits. Precisely because of these characteristics, population density remains low, yet it manages to attract thousands of permanent and official residents.
The New Capital
Officially announced on March 13, 2015, the New Capital represents the first project conceived and implemented by current President Al Sisi and is located east of New Cairo. The substantial difference from all the others seen thus far lies in its purpose: the New Capital is not intended to “solve urban problems” but to break with the previous history and create a new one.
The city is currently under construction, but by 2023 it will already be home to 14 ministries, and the plan is to increase its population to 5-6 million. The New Capital is considered one of the most ambitious projects of the current administration, so much so that in 2016 it was included in Egypt Vision 2030, a national program launched by Al Sisi himself.
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