Why Egypt's New Capital is Bankrupting the Country

something incredible is rising out of

what used to be the middle of nowhere in

the Sahara Desert 28 M or 45 km east of

Egypt's current capital city Cairo the

Egyptian government is busy building a

massive and exorbitantly expensive brand

new capital city from scratch an

official new name for this new capital

city has not yet been chosen and so it

so far has only been referred to by its

placeholder name the new administrative

Capital once it's completed the Egyptian

government plans to fully relocate all

of its offices and Personnel from the

old capital in Cairo and the government

willing encourage every foreign country

who has an embassy in Egypt to relocate

their own staff to the new capital as

well the government hopes that the new

capital will one day be home to 62

million residents after it's finished

being built which will almost certainly

make it the largest new settlement

founded anywhere in the world in the

21st century if it all goes according to

plan but for now despite all of the

Grandeur and scale this massive glittery

New Capital City rising out of the empty

desert remains about as empty as the aid

environment that surrounds it welc

construction has gotten itself far

behind schedule and enormously over

budget when the new capital was

initially proposed back in 2015 the

Egyptian government claimed that it

would all be constructed for only $45

billion and largely finished by 2022 but

now in 2024 only a handful of government

Ministries have been moved in no foreign

embassies have relocated at all and

construction is still ongoing while the

cost for only phase one of the new

capital has already ballooned to more

than $58 billion 13 billion dollars over

budget there are many reasons why but a

big part of it is simply because of the

sheer scale and opulence that's being

put on display by the government here

phase one of the new capital has

included the development of multiple

different districts within the new city

that will serve various different

purposes and many of them include some

of the most outrageous and absurd

buildings ever conceived of in human

history one of these districts arising

from the Sands is the government

District that will become the Egyptian

State's brand new nerve center once

completed this district is intended to

become the new headquarters for 34 of

Egypt's government Ministries in

addition to the country's two chambers

of parliament the House of

Representatives and the Senate at 550

acres in size this government district

will be Approximately 80% larger than

the National Mall is within America's

capital Washington DC and it'll contain

several more imposing buildings than are

present in Washington including the

world's tallest flag pole dubbed the

Cairo flag pole it was already raised in

2021 and stands 27 M or 680 ft High

considerably taller than the Washington

Monument is in DC while the flag it

flies is roughly the same size as two

standard basketball courts placed side

by side just to the north of this

sprawling government district is another

District of about equivalent size but

which is fully dedicated to only housing

the new presidential Palace complex

which will become the new home residence

of Egypt's President the building that

encompasses the presidential Palace

itself is enormous at around 50,000

square m of total floor space which for

perspective is roughly 10 times larger

than the White House in Washington DC

that serves as the American president's

residence and leaked photos of the

inside of the Egyptian Palace have

revealed what appears to be an ornate

Throne Hall that resembles the opulent

palaces of Islamic Sultans from

centuries past that has allegedly been

decorated with solid gold and then the

walls that surround the palace complex

will include a series of gardens that

Sproul across an estate more than two

square kilometers in area that's roughly

four times as large as the waloff

Vatican City is that's the home of the

Pope the new presidential Palace complex

alone has reportedly cost the Egyptian

State somewhere around $3 billion to

construct which puts it on a scale of

opulence comparable to Buckingham Palace

in London that's the home of the British

monarch and which has independently been

valued by appraisers to be worth

approximately $5

billion over on the opposite southern

end of the government district is

Egypt's new Islamic cultural Center a

mega mosque that is also sometimes

officially referred to as the Egyptian

Grand Mosque inaugurated only last year

in 2023 the Grand Mosque was a huge

undertaking drawing from traditional

medieval Egyptian mamalu Islamic

architecture it covers an area of

250,000 square m and can accommodate

more than 131,000 worshippers at a given

time which not only makes it the largest

mosque in Egypt but the largest mosque

on the entire African continent and the

largest mosque in in the Middle East

outside of Saudi Arabia's holiest

mosques in Mecca and Medina the Egyptian

Grand Mosque broke multiple World

Records when it was completed including

the heaviest and largest chandelier in

the world this more than 53,000 lb or

24,000 kg in weight with a diameter of

72 ft or 22 M and the highest pulpit in

the world it's nearly 17 M or 55 ft tall

and it's not even the only Mega

religious building to have been

constructed in the new capital there's

also the newly built Nativity of Christ

Cathedral nearby a mega church that's

the biggest church to have ever been

constructed in the Middle East the

church is a cathedral dedicated to

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox community and

the construction of the cathedral so

close to the Grand Mosque within the new

capital was deliberately designed as a

symbol of peaceful coexistence between

Egypt's two largest religious

communities well it's estimated that

around 90% of Egypt's contemporary

population are followers of Sunni Islam

the remaining 10% of the population

rested to be Coptic Orthodox Christians

which makes them by far Egypt's largest

religious minority group and with a

population of around 11 million in Egypt

they're also by far the largest

Christian Community in the Middle East

as well further west to these new

religious buildings in the government

district is going to be the new Capitol

Central business district with some

highly ambitious projects of its own

among them is the already completed

iconic Tower which was built with the

help of the China State construction

Engineering Corporation with a total of

79 floors coming out to

1,293 Ft or 394 m in height the iconic

Tower is already the tallest building in

Africa with an exterior shell designed

to resemble the crown worn by the

ancient Egyptian godam moon as depicted

in Egyptian hieroglyphics but apparently

not satisfied with merely having the

tallest building in Africa the new

capitals planners are evidently still

plotting to construct the tallest

building in the entire world within the

new Central business district as well

that'll be called the oblisco copy

taking its design inspiration from an

ancient Obelisk of fonic Egypt this Mega

tall skyscraper is currently planned to

have a total of 165 floors and a total

architectural height of 1,000 M or an

entire kilometer construction on the

building is currently expected to begin

sometime this year in 2024 and if

completed by its Target finishing date

of 2030 it will seize the title of the

tallest structure in the world from the

current record holder the bur Khalifa in

Dubai which would only stand 170 m

shorter than the oblisco copy Tall might

but the cost of this massive building

will carry with it an equally massive

price tag currently estimated to be at

least another $3.2 billion and even that

is probably a big underestimation and

since Egypt is already beginning to

encounter some pretty serious financial

difficulties it remains to be seen

whether or not this part of the project

will actually end up getting built or

not then there's also the brand new

Olympic City complex with than the new

capital which is being specifically

built to enable Egypt to be competitive

when they submit bids to host major

worldwide sporting events in the future

like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup

more than 22 separate sporting

facilities are being constructed within

the complex including a major Neo

association football stadium that will

have a seating capacity for 94,000

people which will make it the second

largest football stadium in Africa and

the eighth largest one worldwide and

then in Phase one's southwest corner is

rising the single largest district and

building in the entire New Capital the

new headquarters for the Egyptian

Ministry of Defense known as the Octagon

considered far too important and large

to be mirely contained within the

regular government District of the new

capital that houses all of the 34 other

Egyptian government Ministries the

ministry of defense's new headquarters

here will consist of 10 new buildings in

an octagonal shape that will Sproul

across an area of more than 22,000 Acres

which is larger than the independent

nation of San Marino that's owned to

34,000 people the Octagon floor space

across these 10 buildings will include

approximately 505 million square ft of

area under roof which will make it by

far the biggest office building at

defense headquarters of any military in

the entire world coming in with nearly

eight times as much floor space as the

Pentagon near Washington DC that serves

as the headquarters for the US

Department of Defense this is despite

the fact that 1 of Egypt's defense

budget is provided as a grant by the

United States and even with that Grant

the Egyptian defense budget is currently

only the 35th largest in the world and

is lower than that of Belgium which

isn't exactly well known for being a

military Powerhouse deserving of the

largest military defense complex in the

world at any rate connecting all of

these districts together will be the

Green River Park flowing through the new

capital Center designed to symbolize the

flow of the Nile River itself through

Egypt in its first phase undergoing its

finishing touches right now the park

will be 6 M or about 10 km long which

will make it double the size of Central

Park in New York City and when it's

extended out to its fully intended size

in the future phases it's expected to

reach an almost comical length of 22 M

or 35 km which will make it roughly six

times larger than New York Central Park

by then eight fully residential

districts are also planned to be

constructed along the park perimeter

interspersed between wide Avenues and

highways that connect to the government

business religious and sports districts

with other smaller districts I didn't

even cover like an entirely separate

sports city a knowledge city intended to

be the site of foreign universities an

arts and culture City a banking District

a Medical Campus an expo City for

hosting major conventions and a brand

new big International Airport with all

of that being crammed together in here

it's fairly easy to see how it's gotten

to the point where the Egyptians have

already blown through more than $58

billion building this thing and it's all

coming at a time when Egypt's government

debt has soore to alltime highs

inflation is soore to all-time highs the

Egyptian currency is crashed to all-time

lows and the country is facing its worst

economic crisis in decades tens of

billions of dollars are being blown on

this extravagant New Capital City while

onethird of the Egyptian population

continues to live in poverty and the

people are dealing with all-time high

inflation in an all-time low valued

currency and so perhaps understandably

there's a genuine concern among many

that this flashy New Capital arising in

the desert is contributing to the

bankruptcy of the entire country and few

believe that Egypt can actually afford

this scale of extravagance in the desert

and so that then begs the question why

is the Egyptian government apparently so

willing to bankrupt itself to build this

massive new capital city in the first

place officially the Egyptian government

has stated that this new administrative

Capital project is primarily necessary

to relieve congestion and reduce

overpopulation in Cairo itself which is

a very big and crippling issue that the

country is actually struggling to

address Egypt's true shape isn't really

what you see it as on maps because most

of the country is dominated by the

inhospitable Sahara Desert where

Agriculture and life are each

practically impossible where it not for

the seemingly endless supplies of water

in the N River that carves across this

Barren landscape and fans out in the

north across a Delta region that empties

out into the Mediterranean Egypt would

likely be as sparsely populated and

Barren as neighboring Libya which only

has a population of fewer than 7 million

people but Egypt does have the Nile and

the Nile has brought Egypt life for

thousands of years it carves out what is

the largest Oasis in the entire world

and even today provides an overwhelming

97% of Egypt's entire supply of freshwat

the Nile Valley and the Nile Delta

regions of Egypt are therefore the true

cores of the country and everything else

around it to the west and to the East

are basically empty deserts that are

largely only useful for serving as

protective buffer zones of the core and

while the Nile River is very long it is

also very narrow which makes the valley

in the delta regions combined only about

the same area as Slovakia and Europe but

95% of Egypt's entire contemporary

population lives within either the small

Valley or the small Delta regions and

with a total estimated population in

2024 of 107 million people that's about

102 million Egyptians who are all

crammed up into a space that's only

about the same size as Slovakia which is

roughly equivalent to the combined

populations of all of Spain and Italy

this makes Egypt's core area within the

Nile Valley and Delta among the most

densely populated and overcrowded places

in the entire world with an average

population density across the region of

at least 2,000 people per square

kilometer this is Egypt's true shape and

so if Egypt's population density was

more accurately measured as being just

the density within the Nile Valley and

Delta it would be ranked as the third

most densely populated country in the

world remaining only behind the tiny

city states of Monaco and Singapore and

Egypt's population has been growing

rapidly for decades now now 74 years ago

now back in 1950 the entire Egyptian

population Nationwide was only a little

more than 21 million people and within a

single lifetime since then the country's

population has exploded more than five

times over again to the current

estimated population of around 107

million the largest population in the

Middle East and it's only expected to

continue growing even further from here

for several more decades to come as of

2023 the fertility rate in Egypt has

remained well above the world average

and continues to sit at around 2.8

children per woman and though it has

been decreasing with time Egypt's

population is still projected to climb

up to 160 million people by the middle

of the century in 2050 which will only

add further population strains on an

already very overcrowded country for an

American perspective Egypt's projected

population density in the Nile Valley

and Delta by 2050 would be almost like

cramming the entire combined populations

of California Texas Florida New York

York Pennsylvania Illinois and Ohio all

simply into the state of West Virginia

Cairo alone the current capital and

largest city has swelled almost to the

Breaking Point with people having more

than nine times its population since

1950 to the point where today the city's

Metropolitan region is home to more than

22.6 million people more people than

were even alive across all of Egypt back

in 1950 and which makes Cairo the most

populous Metropolis in Africa and the

fifth most populous Metropolis Worldwide

having just recent recently surpassed

Mexico City to clinge the number five

spot and it will climb up several more

spots further in the near future at the

current projected levels of growth in

Cairo if nothing is done about it the

city's Metropolitan region is expected

to soar up to around 38 million people

by 2050 about the same population as

Tokyo has today by then Cairo will

likely be the second largest

metropolitan area in the world remaining

only behind the un's projections for

Mumbai in India which is likely to by

then become the number one largest City

Cairo has ever since become almost

synonymous with brutal traffic and

congestion to the point where Cairo

sometimes hardly even functions the

government's Ministries were built

spread out across the city back when it

was much much smaller and less congested

decades or even centuries ago and around

cairo's Central taher Square are many of

the government's most important

buildings such as the parliament the

ministry of the Interior the ministerial

cabinet the United States Embassy the

Supreme Court and the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs since security arounded

between all of these buildings is often

necessary and streets are often cordoned

off it's sometimes literally impossible

to travel between two separate points in

the city which makes government

operations and economic activity both

monstrously inefficient but the problem

is that Egypt doesn't really have very

much available space to build new

housing to pull the population away from

Cairo they have precious little

available Farmland to the north of Cairo

in the Nile Delta or further south

through the Nile Valley which eliminates

large scale Urban expansion into either

of those directions that leaves the

other unattractive choice of expanding

to the east or the west of Cairo into

the Sahara desert but since it's a less

terrible option than expanding north or

south and destroying preciously limited

agricultural land that's what the

Egyptians have tried doing for decades

the outskirts around Cairo are littered

with the attempts of previous

presidential administrations in Egypt to

build new cities to pull population away

from Cairo like the 6th of October City

to the West the 10th of Ramadan City to

the Northeast alabor City and the

biggest project before the recent New

Capital Project New Cairo City

established in 2000 that's today home to

1 and A2 million people but hardly any

public transportation was built linking

any of these new satellite cities in the

desert back to Cairo While most of the

housing Supply in them was dedicated

only to higher end housing so the only

Egyptians who could relocate themselves

out of Cairo into them were higher

income citizens who own cars which

aren't very many people which is why all

of these satellite Desert Cities are

only partially inhabited and have

considered fewer residents living in

them than they were originally designed

for but Egypt's current president Abdel

fatal CeCe has been repeatedly vocal

about his belief that Egypt's

overpopulation problem is the biggest

crisis the country is currently facing

in 2017 his government rolled out the

two is enough campaign in Cairo

encouraging Egyptian families to limit

themselves to only having two children

Eli has also praised China's Infamous

one child policy during speeches in the

past and he has tasked his own

government to reduce the nation wide

fertility rate down from the current

2.85 to just 2.11 by the early 2030s and

in addition to reducing the country's

fertility rate occe has also become the

latest in a long running line of

Egyptian presidents to try his hand at

building a new city Beyond Cairo to

relieve the city of some of its dense

population and congestion which is why

LC's government hopes that the new

administrative Capital project that

they're building out in the desert will

eventually be home to 62 million people

but relieving gestion and overpopulation

in Cairo is really just the publicly

stated reason for the whole big project

the other more quiet and less official

reason is to reduce the odds of Eli and

his authoritarian military regime from

getting overthrown during a revolution

or a couet while simultaneously

enriching himself and his supporters

along the way back in the early 2010s

Egypt was a pretty unstable Place

politically the country had been ruled

for nearly 30 years by a single longtime

strongman leader named hosy Mubarak who

had by 2011 for a variety of reasons

fallen out of favor with most of his

people protests against his continued

leadership gathered in Cairo Central tah

Square nearby to many of the Egyptian

government's most important offices and

the protest steadily evolved into a

full-blown Revolution that forced

mubaric from Power the Egyptian Armed

Forces then stepped in to temporarily

assume power in the country until a

democratic election could be hosted that

came the following Year in 2012 which

saw the Egyptian people democratically

elect an islamist to power from the

Muslim Brotherhood party known as

Muhammad morsey morsey then went on to

attempt and create a new islamist

leaning constitution in Egypt which

sparked further outrage in the country

and led to renewed Mass protests

erupting again just the following year

in 2013 that were finally taken

advantage of by Mor's then Minister of

Defense General Abdel fat CI Eli

initiated a military couet TI against

Mory and forcibly over through him from

power and then when fresh new elections

were hosted in 2014 they were boycotted

by all of the country opposition parties

occe emerged as Egypt's new president

part of what had made it so possible for

protesters and revolutionaries to

overthrow the Egyptian government twice

in 2011 and again in 2013 was their

ability to mass literally millions of

people into Cairo Central taher Square

that overwhelmed the narrow streets with

blockades that eliminated the

government's ability to access or even

defend its important offices nearby

which forced the government into

conceding to their demands it was how El

CC Rose to power in Egypt in the first

place and learning from the mistakes of

his predecessors it wasn't a coincidence

that within a year of him securing power

with the presidency in 2014 Eli

announced the plans for the brand new

capital city in 2015 by the time it's

eventually finished there will hardly be

any government power remaining within

Cairo at all all of the government's

Ministries the Parliament and LCC

himself will have all relocated

themselves 23 miles or 45 km east of

Cairo putting all of that distance

between themselves and the tens of

Millions ions of everyday Egyptians left

behind in order to replicate the

successful Revolutions of 2011 and 2013

millions of Egyptians would have to

travel out of their way from Cairo to

the new capital and since only around a

quarter of cairo's population even owns

a car that means that most of them are

going to have to travel by foot which

will take about 13 hours to walk across

the Sahara desert with likely multiple

military checkpoints placed all along

the way and then to complicate any

potential rebellion's odds of success in

the new cap Capital even further the new

capital is being designed in a way to

make any protest there as difficult as

possible all of the roads and avenues

are designed to be as wide as possible

to make barricading them as challenging

as possible a design that replicates

many other Capital Cities from around

the world more than 6,000 security

cameras are intended to be installed

within the new capital city that is

directly inspired from Chinese

government surveillance systems complete

with a similar Chinese fashioned Central

Command surveillance system that will

track everything going on in the capital

all times through the thousands of

cameras live broadcasts the city will

include hardly any public transportation

which will make moving the masses around

it challenging while the presence of the

military's massive new headquarters so

nearby at the Octagon complex will allow

the entire might of the Egyptian

Military to rapidly deploy a Crackdown

against any potential threats once

completed the new capital will firmly

separate the Egyptian government and