Ring Road (Cairo)

The Cairo Ring Road is a 100km long ring road that encircles most of the contiguous metropolitan area of the cities of Cairo, Giza and Shubra Al-Kheima, in the Greater Cairo region in Egypt. Construction began in the late 1980s. It was originally planned to surround the Greater Cairo region from three of its four sides, but part of the road remains unbuilt because the original route took it very near the Giza pyramids, an area which has been on the UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1979. It had two purposes: stopping the urbanization of arable lands, and reducing Cairo's traffic. In the early 2000s, planning for a regional ring road commenced, enclosing the larger metropolitan area including El Shorouk, New Cairo and Helwan in the Cairo Governorate, Obour in the Qalyubiyya Governorate and 6th of October in the Giza Governorate, which was completed in 2018.