Egypt’s New Capital-City Megaproject

First announced in 2015, Egypt’s new, as-yet-unnamed capital city has been under construction for years, at an estimated cost of more than $50 billion. Temporarily referred to as the New Administrative Capital, the massive development is just one of several megaprojects being built by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The new city, about 28 miles southeast of Cairo, is planned for more than six million residents, and is designed in part to relieve traffic and other stresses on the crumbling infrastructure in Cairo. The project, largely operated by Egypt’s Ministry of Defense, will consolidate and move government headquarters into a more controlled setting, monitored by more than 6,000 surveillance cameras. It is already home to the tallest building in Africa, a huge presidential palace, dozens of ministry buildings, schools, hospitals, mosques, and churches—with many more to come. Completion remains years away, and the Egyptian government has gone deeply into debt, but some people have begun moving in, even though many Cairo residents, according to Reuters, say they “cannot afford to live in the new city.”