Cairo Governorate (Arabic: محافظة القاهرة) is Egypt’s capital governorate and the core of the Greater Cairo region. Its capital is Cairo, and CAPMAS put the population of 10,203,693 in January 2023 across roughly 3,085 km². Unlike most Egyptian governorates it has no rural markaz at all: its territory is divided into 49 fully urban kism districts, so it registers no villages.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Capital | Cairo |
| Population | 10,203,693 (CAPMAS estimate, January 2023) |
| Area | about 3,085 km² |
| Density | about 3,300 per km² |
| Divisions | 49 kism districts, no markaz, no villages |
| Postal code | central Cairo postal code is 11511 |
| Phone code | 02 |
Towns and Villages in Cairo Governorate
Cairo registers no villages. Every part of the governorate sits inside a kism, the fully urban district unit, and CAPMAS reports population only to that level. The 49 kisms are grouped below by the part of the city they cover, with January 2023 population estimates. A gazetteer list of named neighbourhoods and quarters follows.
Central and historic Cairo
These 14 kisms cover the Fatimid and Ottoman core, the 19th-century downtown, and the Nile islands.
- Old Cairo (Misr al-Qadimah) — 267,746
- El Sayeda Zeinab — 145,805
- El Khalifa — 112,568
- El Weili — 84,843
- El Zaher — 76,898
- El Darb El Ahmar — 62,563
- Bulaq — 51,515
- Bab El Sharia — 49,923
- Abdeen — 40,450
- El Gamaliya — 38,908
- Azbakeya — 21,148
- El Muski — 16,715
- Zamalek — 14,993
- Qasr El Nil — 10,596
Northern Cairo
The northern kisms run from Shubra along the railway to Ain Shams, El Matareya and El Marg. El Marg is the single most populous district in the governorate.
- El Marg — 854,284
- Ain Shams — 657,226
- El Matareya — 644,436
- El Salam 1 — 514,187
- El Zawya El Hamra — 340,371
- El Sahel — 338,488
- Hadayek El Qobbah — 338,126
- El Sharabiya — 200,272
- Zeitoun — 186,357
- El Salam 2 — 164,465
- Amreya — 163,206
- Rod El Farag — 155,817
- Shubra — 82,061
Eastern Cairo
Heliopolis, Nasr City and Mokattam sit on the desert shelf east of the old city. Manshiyat Naser climbs the Mokattam cliff face.
- Nasr City 1 — 678,970
- Manshiyat Naser — 276,366
- El Nozha — 247,377
- El Mokattam — 239,750
- Heliopolis — 143,475
- Nasr City 2 — 77,191
Southern Cairo
The southern kisms follow the east bank towards Helwan, the governorate’s industrial belt, and end at El Tebbin.
- Dar El Salam — 562,222
- Helwan — 557,620
- El Basatin — 529,875
- El Masara — 288,880
- Tura — 245,644
- 15 May City — 100,074
- Maadi — 94,777
- El Tebbin — 77,075
New towns and desert extensions
Eight kisms cover the satellite cities built east of the Ring Road since the 1980s. The New Administrative Capital, still being handed over, lies beyond them.
- 5th Settlement — 145,286
- New Cairo 1 — 136,271
- 1st Settlement — 96,996
- El Shorouk — 93,349
- New Cairo 2 — 90,960
- Al Qatamia — 75,810
- New Cairo 3 — 71,112
- Badr City — 33,456
Neighbourhoods and quarters (A–Z)
The 148 named neighbourhoods, quarters and housing estates below are recorded in the GeoNames gazetteer for Cairo Governorate. They are informal names, not administrative units, and several sit inside a single kism.
- Al Abājīyah
- Al ‘Abbāsīyah
- `Ābdīn
- Abū as Su‘ūd
- Ad Darb al Aḩmar
- Ad Darrāsah
- Ad Dimirdāsh
- Aghā Khān
- Almāz̧ah
- al-Muski
- Al Amīrīyah
- ‘Arab Abū Ţawīlah
- ‘Arab al Ma‘‘āzah
- ‘Arab aş Şaff
- ‘Arab ash Shaykh Zāyid
- Al ‘Atabah
- Athar an Nabī
- ‘Ayn aş Şīrah
- ‘Ayn Shams
- ‘Ayn Shams ash Sharqīyah
- Al Azbakīyah
- Bab al Khalq
- Bāb al Lūq
- Bāb ash Sha‘rīyah
- Badr
- Al Banafsaj
- Al Basātīn
- Al Birkah
- Birkat al Fīl
- Būlāq Abū al ‘Ilā
- Coptic Cairo
- Dar El Salam
- El-Bostan
- El-Ga‘farîya
- El-Sayeddah
- Ezbet El Haggana
- Al Fārūqīyah
- Ghamrah
- Al Ghūrīyah
- Al Haḑabah al Wusţá
- Ḩadā’iq al Qubbah
- Ḩadā’iq az Zaytūn
- Ḩalwān
- Harat Baha al-Din
- Ḩayy Abū Laylah
- Ḩayy as Sifārāt
- Ḩayy az Zuhūr
- Heliopolis
- Al Ḩilmīyah
- Al Ḩişār
- Al Ikhşāş al Qiblīyah
- Al Imām ash Shāfi‘ī
- ‘Imārāt al Bitrūl
- ‘Imārāt an Naşr
- ‘Imārāt Imtidād Ramsīs
- ‘Imārāt Rāmū
- Iskān al Ḩirafīyīn
- Iskān al Marwah liḑ Ḑubbāţ
- Iskān al Quḑāh
- Iskān ash Sharārah
- Iskān ‘Ayn aş Şīrah
- Iskān Rābi‘ah al ‘Adawīyah al Istithmārī
- Iskān Shirkat Mişr lit Ta‘mīr
- Iskān Zahrā’ Madīnat Naşr
- Al Jabal al Akhḑar
- Al Jamālīyah
- Jārdin Sītī
- Al Jazīrah
- Al Jazīrah ash Shaqrā’
- Jazīrat Badrān
- Kafr ash Sharā‘inah
- Kafr ash Shurafā’ ash Sharqī
- Kafr az Zahrā’
- Kafr Fârouqî
- Kafr Ḩamzah
- Kafr Qandīl
- Al Khalīfah
- Khān al Khalīlī
- Kūbrī al Qubbah
- Al Kūrbah
- Maadi
- Ma‘ādī al Khabīrī
- Maadi Cornish
- Al Madābigh
- Madīnat al Aḩlām
- Madīnat al Amal
- Madīnat al Ashrāf
- Madīnat al Bu‘ūth al Islāmīyah
- Madīnat al Fusţāţ
- Madīnat al Fusţāţ al Jadīdah
- Madīnat al Hāykstib
- Madīnat al Ḩirafīyīn
- Madīnat al Īmān
- Madīnat al Marwah
- Madīnat al Muqaţţam
- Madīnat an Nūr
- Madīnat at Tawfīq
- Madīnat at Tijārīyīn
- Madīnat Naşr
- Madīnat Zāhir
- Madinaty
- Maḩmashah
- Manshīyat al Bakrī
- Manshīyat as Sadd al ‘Ālī
- Manshīyat Nāşir
- Al Marj
- Al Ma‘şarah
- Al Ma‘şarah al Maḩaţţah
- Al Maţarīyah
- 15 May City
- Minţaqat al Bāţanīyah
- Minţaqat az Zarāyib
- Minyat as Sīrij
- Mirage City
- Mişr al Qadīmah
- Musţurud
- Nazlat Sallām
- Nazlat Tall al Ḩişn
- New Cairo
- An Nuzhah
- An Nuzhah al Jadīdah
- Al Qal‘ah
- Qaryat al Aţfāl
- Rābi‘ah al ‘Adawīyah
- Rawḑ al Faraj
- As Sabtīyah
- As Sakākīnī
- Şaqr Quraysh
- As Sayyidah Zaynab
- El Sharabia
- Ash Shawbak ash Sharq
- Ash Shaykh ‘Uthmān
- El Shorouk
- Shubrā
- 1st Settlement
- As Suyūfīyah
- El Tebbin
- Ţurá
- Ţurá al Asmant
- Ţurá al Ḩajjārah
- Al Wāylī
- Al Wāylī al Kabīr
- Al Yāsmīn
- Az̧ Z̧āhir
- Zahrā’ Madīnat Naşr
- Az Zahwīyīn
- Az Zāwiyah al Ḩamrā’
- Az Zaytūn
Geography
Cairo Governorate lies at the head of the Nile Delta, mostly on the east bank of the river. It holds the Nile islands of Gezira and Roda, then runs east across open desert towards the Suez road. The inhabited strip is narrow; more than half the governorate’s area is uninhabited desert.
It borders Qalyubia to the north, Giza to the west across the Nile, Sharqia to the north-east, Suez to the east and the Red Sea governorate to the south-east.
Demographics
The 2017 census counted 9,539,673 residents. The January 2023 estimate of 10,203,693 implies growth of about 1.1 percent a year, slower than Egypt as a whole because families keep moving out to Giza, Qalyubia and the new cities.
The population is 100 percent urban. Average density is about 3,300 people per km², but that figure is misleading: the desert half of the governorate is empty, and inner districts such as El Zawya El Hamra and Bulaq run well past 50,000 people per km².
Economy and Local Life
Cairo is the seat of national government, the courts, the central bank and most of Egypt’s banking and media companies. Tourism concentrates on the Egyptian Museum, Islamic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili, where the trade is in metalwork, textiles and spices.
Heavy industry sits in the south. Helwan has iron and steel and cement works, Tura has quarried limestone since the Old Kingdom, and El Tebbin holds coke and engineering plants. Shubra and El Sharabiya are older workshop districts. The eastern new towns are the growth area for offices, private universities and retail.
History
The Arab commander Amr ibn al-As founded Fustat in 641 AD, just south of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Two later capitals, Al-Askar and Al-Qata’i, grew beside it. The Fatimids founded Cairo itself in 969 AD as a walled palace city, and Saladin added the Citadel in 1176.
Khedive Ismail laid out the downtown grid in the 1860s on the Paris model. Heliopolis followed in 1905, Nasr City in the 1960s, and the desert satellite cities from 1979 onwards.
Getting There
Cairo International Airport sits in the north-east of the governorate, about 20 km from downtown. Ramses Station is the hub of the national rail network, with services to Alexandria, Aswan and the Delta.
Three metro lines run under the city, with a fourth under construction, and the Cairo Monorail links Nasr City to the New Administrative Capital. The Ring Road circles the built-up area and feeds the Cairo–Alexandria Desert Road, the Cairo–Suez Road and the Autostrad south towards Helwan.
FAQ
What is the capital of Cairo Governorate?
Cairo. The city and the governorate share a name, and the governor’s office sits in the Mogamma complex area of central Cairo.
How many villages are in Cairo Governorate?
None. Cairo is entirely urban and has no rural markaz, so no settlement in it is registered as a village. The equivalent unit is the kism, and there are 49 of them.
What is the population of Cairo Governorate?
10,203,693 in January 2023, on the CAPMAS estimate. The 2017 census figure was 9,539,673.
What is the postal code for Cairo?
Central Cairo uses 11511. Codes across the governorate start with 11, and each district has its own five-digit code.
Which governorates border Cairo?
Qalyubia, Giza, Sharqia, Suez and the Red Sea governorate.
Is Giza part of Cairo?
No. Giza is a separate governorate on the west bank, though Cairo, Giza and Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia form one continuous built-up area known as Greater Cairo.