From Wikitravel

So, can someone more familiar than I am with Cairo make sure that Pyramids of Giza, Egyptian Museum, and other attractions really fit in with our idea of Wikitravel:What is an article?? I'm inclined to unlink them. --Evan 09:09, 21 Dec 2003 (PST)

I'm not familiar with Cairo, but what I'd do in this case is unlink them for now and see how the article evolves. If some of the sites are really that big (comparable to, say, the Louvre or Angkor Wat) they can be linked again and continue their lives as separate articles. DhDh 09:19, 21 Dec 2003 (PST)

The Pyramids of Giza, both administratively and geographically speaking, do indeed reside within the City of Cairo. -- estr4ng3d

[edit] Main Photograph

This is by no means a "view of Islamic Cairo!" The Citadel does appear in the background, but the rest is simply a view of SLUMS surrounding medieval Cairo.

It doesn't say it's medieval Cairo, it says it's Islamic Cairo — which happens to contain slums. Jpatokal 12:20, 31 May 2008 (EDT)

[edit] Districts

I think the current list of districts is pretty bizarre. I know Cairo is huge, but most tourists only visit a small portion and there isn't enough content to justify so many sections yet. How about...

• Central Cairo (Midan Tahrir, Midan Talaat Harb, Midan Ramses and everything in between, basically the east bank)
• Islamic Cairo (Khan al-Khalili)
• Coptic Cairo
• Dokki (incl. the rest of the west bank of the Nile)
• Zamalek (incl. Gezira)
• Giza (and the Pyramids)

Comments? Jpatokal 10:26, 10 Oct 2004 (EDT)

Well, as someone who has lived on and off in Cairo for long periods of time, I reckon we have a fairly good breakup already..... There should be some fine tuning, I guess, but the basic system holds good. No way can we subsume all of the central districts into one Central listing, for starters! This would be a real disservice to travellers, I believe. Also, Islamic Cairo is far more than just the Khan al-Khalili (which could easily have a page all by itself). I'll try to get around to adding some more info so that Cairo doesn't look so bare (although I do have a PhD to write!) - I have deliberately not started some pages to avoid this.... Pjamescowie 10:56, 10 Oct 2004 (EDT)

Fine. I would still suggest four changes: Jpatokal 22:45, 10 Oct 2004 (EDT)

• merge Gezira and Zamalek
• rename Downtown as Midan Talaat Harb
• add Dokki (Doqqi?) district
• remove Midan Ataba (any reason this is particularly notable?)

[edit] The same problems on the German site

Now I am discussing the same problem on the German Cairo page proposing the following:

• In the District section (German Stadtteile) I will mention only some important districts and their situation in Cairo at a glance. I will not use this section to distinguish between these districts. Cairo is huge and complex (for instance Islamic Cairo is spread over Cairo entirely), so I decided to mainly use two other chapters: Main sights (See) and Sights classified by categories (pharaonic, coptic, islamic and modern Cairo), this is similarly done by English and German guidebooks. If necessary their will be district pages but they should not describing sights and highlights.
• Their is no sense for Cairo, to mention Eating, buying sites etc. separately for several districts; most sites are concentrated in Downtown and the Pyramid Area.
• I will distiguish between Cairo/Giza (this is the area on the Nile westbank south of Dokki) and Giza, the Old Kingdom cemetery.
• Of course, it is not possible to make such a good-working separations in all cases; but I think it should be possible to modify the rules which are stronger than necessary. Cairo is the first town with such problems, but I think other towns like Beijing and New York will follow.

Maybe, we can find a common solution.

(Roland)

[edit] Appearance

So, I reverted the article back to my version of the 23 May 2005 for a few reasons.... 1. It doesn't hurt to have an extra paragraph briefly capturing the essence of what the city offers and represents in the immediate intro (this is something that can be expanded in the Understand section, for sure...); 2. Having only a small intro paragraph above the Contents section means that the page is largely dominated by white space (horror vacuii!); 3. for the same reason, I moved the picture of the Pyramids and Sphinx back to the top alongside that of Islamic Cairo - this way, the two main traveller-centred aspects of Cairo as a destination are neatly illustrated in the very first screen view....

These are issues that I believe we could well address on any number of article pages.... Now that Content is filling up nicely, we should start thinking about issues of presentation and functional appearance - everything from Contents Menus to Summary Bars, images, maps and beyond.... Pjamescowie 06:35, 24 May 2005 (EDT)

Yeah, I was thinking if this should be raised on the template discussion pages. My personal preference is for a very short intro paragraph — "X is the Y of Z" is enough in my book — and a single pic that gives some idea of what the city looks like. Otherwise the intro para will tend to grow into rambling monster... Jpatokal 07:07, 24 May 2005 (EDT)

[edit] external links

Saving these for a future redit, if ex links are ever re-incorporated...

• Yallabina.com is the most extensive guide to what's on in Cairo.

• The politically oppositional blog manaala.net offers a list of events, including concerts and shows.

Cacahuate 00:14, 2 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] districtify

So I moved all but one of the hotels to district pages, hopefully the correct ones  ;) not sure where the last one goes, if anyone knows where 'Hussein Square' is, please move that, and then also the Khan El-Khalili bazaar (in the buy section - and expand if you know more about it!), as their in the same place. Cacahuate 02:12, 2 December 2006 (EST)

Found it, they both are in Cairo/Islamic Cairo Cacahuate 02:43, 2 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Money

Is LE and EP the same? If so, there should only be one form used.

Egyptians usually use "LE" (livres egyptiennes), which is French for "Egyptian pounds" (EP). I'd suggest standardizing on LE or, better yet, the £ sign. Jpatokal 03:45, 20 December 2006 (EST)