Q 01/05

Roughly how many people live in the Greater Cairo metropolitan area?

A) 22 million

B) 14 million

C) 18 million

D) 10 million

Answer · why

A) 22 million

The city proper alone holds more than 9.8 million; the agglomeration is the largest in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East.

Q 02/05

Cairo's Arabic name, al-Qāhirah, means what?

A) The Radiant

B) The Vanquisher

C) The Mother of Cities

D) The Gate of the Nile

Answer · why

B) The Vanquisher

The Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz gave the name; one story says the planet Mars, 'the Conquering Star', was rising when the city was founded.

Q 03/05

Egyptians often refer to Cairo by which name, which is also the Egyptian Arabic word for Egypt itself?

A) Iskandariya

B) Fustat

C) Maṣr

D) Qahira

Answer · why

C) Maṣr

The habit underlines how completely the capital stands for the country in everyday speech.

Q 04/05

Cairo was founded in 969 by which dynasty as its new capital?

A) The Abbasids

B) The Mamluks

C) The Ayyubids

D) The Fatimids

Answer · why

D) The Fatimids

General Jawhar al-Saqili laid out the walled palace-city northeast of the older settlement; it took four years to build.

Q 05/05

Which earlier settlement, founded in 641 beside the Roman Babylon Fortress, was Cairo's predecessor?

A) Memphis

B) Heliopolis

C) Fustat

D) Al-Askar

Answer · why

C) Fustat

Its name means 'the tent'; it was burned in 1168 to keep it out of Crusader hands, and Cairo took over as the economic centre.