Talk:Cairo/Archive

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 Project:What is an article?? I'm inclined to unlink them. --(WT-en) 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. (WT-en) 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

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. (WT-en) Jpatokal 12:20, 31 May 2008 (EDT)

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? (WT-en) 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.... (WT-en) Pjamescowie 10:56, 10 Oct 2004 (EDT)

Fine. I would still suggest four changes: (WT-en) 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?)

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)

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.... (WT-en) 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... (WT-en) Jpatokal 07:07, 24 May 2005 (EDT)

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.

(WT-en) Cacahuate 00:14, 2 December 2006 (EST)

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. (WT-en) Cacahuate 02:12, 2 December 2006 (EST)

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

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. (WT-en) Jpatokal 03:45, 20 December 2006 (EST)

Stad El-Qahira El-Dawly (Cairo International Stadium)

I noticed that the football stadium for Al Ahly/Zamalek is not mentioned in the article. Is this a safe place for a tourist to visit?

Wikivoyage Cairo Book

I am just curious to know how Wikivoyage has a book about Cairo yet the actual Cairo articles on Wikivoyage are currently lacking a lot of content? Do the books have any connection to Wikivoyage content? The Chicago book seems to make sense, because the Chicago articles could actually be used for a trip to the city. Just curious about exactly how Cairo has a book? (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 22:08, 27 June 2009 (EDT)

Simple answer: Wikimania 2008. And a string of bad luck with recruiting and keeping editors... (WT-en) Jpatokal 04:29, 18 July 2009 (EDT)

As a late response, how does that work with this statement:

• Do you contribute information back to the Wikivoyage Web site?
• Where guidebook content is compatible with the Wikivoyage manual of style, it is contributed back to the Wikivoyage site.

I have not seen the Cairo book, but I assume it has more content and much better content and organization than the Wikivoyage guide. If this is the case, isn't WTP obligated to "contribut it back to the site"? Am I missing something? (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 11:53, 27 October 2009 (EDT)

avoid non-essential travel?

That seems a bit strong -- I've been in Cairo for 4 days, and Sinai for 3 weeks before that -- I am met with warm welcomes everywhere I go. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Pbrouwer (talk • contribs)

Most western foreign ministries, including the US State dept., still advices against non essential travel. As soon as they and the FCO lift their warnings, it should/will be removed here as well. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 04:50, 15 February 2011 (EST)

UK and Germany are not advising against travel to Cairo anymore. See UK Foreign Office. (WT-en) JochenvW 05:10, 3 March 2011 (EST)

Meter taxis in Cairo. They're white and numerous, not yellow and rare, right?

Here is says there's some yellow metered taxis. However when there last summer - I saw *white* natural gas powered metered taxis, and only white (no yellow). Additionally there were enough of them that I could always hail them from the street, and thus avoid negotiating with the black & white taxis completely.

I'm hesitant to delete and re-write so much though - I'm not crazy, right? White meter taxis not yellow, and there are a ton of them in Cairo, yes? (WT-en) bbb0777 March 3rd, 2011

yes, white and a lot, even at the airport... (WT-en) JochenvW 05:11, 3 March 2011 (EST)

Great, did a re-write of that section then. (WT-en) bbb0777 March 19th, 2011

Do solid-yellow taxis exist in Cairo?

Mentioned in article, but I didn't see any. Can anyone else chime in with whether or not they've seen them? Perhaps this was a failed venture and as such is outdated info? Or they're by reservation only, or I just didn't see them...I'm unclear. (WT-en) Bbb0777 22:08, 22 March 2011 (EDT)

They exist. They are not in great number but somtimes they are around. Usually the same types as the white taxis. They should be by reservation only but drives somtimes pick up fares while on route. I know of at least two companies, one operating out of Maadi. Should I add their info? --(WT-en) JochenvW 03:59, 23 March 2011 (EDT)

Ah OK - Yes please do add their info. I'll edit things to include that they're theoretically only by reservation, but not always. Thanks (WT-en) Bbb0777 07:49, 23 March 2011 (EDT)