Today, Cairo has the oldest and largest Arab film and music industry, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Cairo is considered a World City with a 'Beta +' classification according to GaWC. Cairo's historic center was awarded World Heritage Site-status in 1979.

Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled 'the city of a thousand minarets' for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Located near the Nile Delta, Cairo was developed in 969 AD during the Fatimid dynasty, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of Ancient National Capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is associated with ancient Egypt, as the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are located in its geographical area. The Greater Cairo metropolitan area, with a population of 21.3 million, is the second largest urban agglomeration in Africa (behind Lagos), the largest in the Arab world and the Middle East, and the sixth-largest in the world. Cairo ( / ˈ k aɪ r oʊ/ KY-roh Arabic: القاهرة, romanized: al-Qāhirah, pronounced ( listen), Coptic: ϯⲕⲉϣⲣⲱⲙⲓ) is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world.

North babylon weather