Cairo

Located near the Nile Delta, the predecessor city was Fustat. Thereafter, Cairo was founded in 969. It later superseded Fustat as the main urban centre during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Cairo has since become a longstanding centre of political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo's historic center was awarded World Heritage Site status in 1979. The city is considered a regional center of finance and commerce, academics and the arts, and is home to the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and the Cairo Opera House, while the Academy of Arts provides visual arts education.