©
NASA
Winter 2018/19
EXKURSION Visiting Cairo - A Mega-Urban Landscape
Visiting Cairo means visiting a true Megacity. More than 20 million people call its metropolitan area their home. Cairo is the capital of Egypt, the largest urban settlement in Africa, as well as the largest one in the Middle East and the Arab world. The traditional nickname of this fast growing urban Moloch today features a euphemistic aspect—but it is still beautiful: Mother of the World. Not only seen through the eyes of a landscape architect does Egypt represent a mere extreme. 95% of the land area of Egypt are desert. Only where the River Nile renders farming possible, which is on 3,8% of the land area, Egypt‘s population of 95 million people hitherto built, and continues to build their settle- ments. Every year the population grows of about 2%, which makes the fertile land increasingly contested.
Our central excursion focus will be on Cairo‘s recent city growth—its expansion into agricultural land as well as the surrounding desert. While seeing the pyramids every day—our accommodation will be close to the pyramids in Gizeh—we might not visit Cairo the same way millions of tourists do. Instead, we will try to absorb everyday Cairo by conducting collective fieldwork in the city, the delta, and the desert. Browsing the urban terrain without a perfectly specified route will characterize our method. Surprises have to be expected and will, most probably, be manifold.
Exkursion: 01. -10. Oktober 2018
Betreuung: Dr. Jörg Rekittke
