The real reason Egypt is moving its capital

Cairo isn’t the problem.

In 2017, Egypt’s government announced it would build a new capital city 45 kilometers outside of Cairo, the current capital. It was a shocking announcement since Cairo, a city of more than 10,000,000 people, has been the capital of Egypt for decades.

The government claims that Cairo has become too overcrowded and that moving the capital will give both Cairo’s residents and government workers more space. But this excuse is not new. For decades, Egypt’s rulers have been building brand new cities in the desert. None of them have solved Cairo’s density issue. And based on how construction is going, this new capital won’t be a solution either.

So why does Egypt want a new capital? Well, it has a lot to do with the political revolution in 2011.

Watch this episode of Vox Atlas to understand the real reason behind Egypt’s giant new capital city.

Sources:

Mohamed Elshahed’s extensive expertise on architectural history and urbanism helped us understand why creating new cities and communities doesn’t actually improve livelihoods in Cairo:

Nasr City was once Egypt’s new capital, but things went wrong:
Revolutionary Modernism? Architecture and the Politics of Transition in Egypt 1936-1967:

For historical maps of Cairo, we mainly relied on these three books:

Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control by David Sims
Egypt’s Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster by David Sims
Cairo by André Raymond

We used this report by LSE cities to compare densities between major cities at 1:52:

For the map at 5:05, we used an updated informal cities map created by Ahmed Zaazaa, a researcher and urban designer. For the demolitions and displacement locations, we used press clippings from Egypt Today and maps from the Cairo 2050 plan. Not all locations are shown.

These three links helped us create the diagram at 6:42 that shows the population target gaps in Greater Cairo’s new cities:

These two pieces helped guide the direction of our video:

The Sinister Side of Sisi’s Urban Development by Maged Mandour
Why is Egypt building a new capital by Mustafa Menshaway

And a special thanks to the many others based in Cairo who helped us research for this video. Unfortunately, their names could not be listed due to safety concerns.

[Fusilier]

So basically, Egypt's new capital is the new Versailles, which was more than just the palace, it was the administrative capital of the Kingdom of France. The king was then followed by other aristocrats, who built their mansions away from Paris, some around Versailles, while others were in more remote locations, effectively abandoning the poor to squalour and neglect in Paris. Although the nobility could forget the poor, the poor never forgot the nobility, so when the revolution occurred, they marched all the way to Versailles, and laid siege to the estate, forcing the royals to surrender. If history is a guild, Egypt's new capital will not make long outstanding problems go away, there is no distance far enough for the oligarchy to escape revolutionaries, justice is patient.

[hugonordin]

How considerate of them to include a new revolution square.

[janeteholmes]

The creation of Versailles, 12 miles from Paris, was one of the factors leading to the French Revolution. It isolated the king from the people so he had no idea what was really happening in Paris. Ignoring the peasants is risky.

[rodrigodurco]

in Brasil we had a similar experience; they made Brasília a city with extremely wide streets and squares to make it harder (but not impossible, as we recently saw) to gather protesters; while in Rio, the old capital, the narrow streets surrounding Catete palace would be easily filled with people. it’s all about moving the power away from us.

[expandedhistory]

One of the worries for me in this plan is that they are bound to create another traffic nightmare: The seperation of residential areas from commercial areas. If you give people the opportunity to walk to work or walk to the shops, they will do it. That has been proven over and over again. But if you force people to drive by only offering flats/houses far away from their place of work, traffic will become a problem eventually. You can somewhat counteract that problem with good public transport, but even the best public transport will not fix bad city design.

[terramater]

There's another unknown ticking time-bomb in Cairo: water - or the lack thereof. We've spent a lot of time researching the Nile droughts, Middle Eastern water scarcity and solutions for it, while working on our Nile and desalination videos, and... it doesn't look good: artificial upscale urban developments in the desert mean diverting huge amounts of water away from the city where it is badly needed.

[douglasfariaxp]

It was one of the reasons that they built Brasilia city as a new capital in Brazil. Brasilia was designed for driving, not for walking.

[pliska]

I remember visiting Egypt with my family in the late 90s and remember that the economic situation of the country was pretty good. They had a quite strong pound (circa $1 = 3 EGP) and pretty calm atmosphere and remember the people were not that commercialised. The last time we went in 2018, we were pretty shocked how things have drastically changed. It became so overcrowded, polluted and chaotic. According to some random locals we spoke with, the current government is literally working against its own population and not to mention the opression and suffocation caused on a daily basis especially by the police.
Also why change Cairo, which is a city so full of history and character to a souless, artificial capital where all the elite will live? This will create nothing but social segregation and tensions, in my humble opinion. Of course, the choice is entirely theirs.
It's a pity how such a beautiful country with very rich history is being destroyed by the mafia politicians (similar to many Balkan countries for example).

[LouieGrind]

One of the rare cities where it's more affordable to live in the center of the city than outside. Extremely fascinating!

[thomperry]

It's simply the way for the ruling class to physically separate itself from the poor masses of Egypt with them paying for it.

[johanburet]

That was one of the main point of the palace of Versailles, being a bit removed from Paris. In the end, it prevented nothing.

[kenosabi]

You know the Iranian shah, French royalty, etc ... also lived in isolated palaces. It had the opposite effect that Sisi is looking for -- it angered the people even more. It acted as greater motivation and didn't deter the revolution, it fueled it. It made it easier for the serfs to look around and realize just how out of touch and how different royalties life is compared to the people.

[abdullaali]

There's a universal disdain for poor people amongst authoritarians.

[joeyjojojrshabadoo]

Historically if the capital city gets moved it's usually a bad sign. If it gets moved to middle of nowhere it's a usually a really bad sign.

This is the exactly same thing that happened here in Brazil. The government moved the capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, a "desert" like place that is harder for the majority of the people to reach and protest.

[mohammednasser]

Several times in the past couple of years, there were protest attempts but it was easily shut down by the law enforcement.
Tahrir Square now is crowded by police officers wearing civilian clothing and asking pedestrians about where are they going. And even search their phones and check social media for anti-government posts. Happened to me and alot of my friends. It's really inhumane.

[deeluve]

"The real reason Egypt is moving its capital"

Me: This is not just about making it harder for people to protest the government, is it?

***Watches video***

Me: Oh...it is.

[Aldo_raines]

The kings of France tried to relocate the capital and make Paris more difficult to barricade. And everyone lived happily ever after. The kings kept the crowns on their heads and their heads on their shoulders.

[strangeelement]

Egypt isn't the only country moving their capital city because of revolutions. Myanmar also did this.

[sararefaat]

Very accurate analysis of what’s currently happening in Egypt…very unfortunate but very true! Thank you for sharing and raising awareness!