To hold back the great flood of people which ruches into on Cairo, the government undertook since 1978 the construction of 7 new cities in edge of the desert, equipped with running water and sewers, of schools and dispensaries. The demographic growth accelerates: 4 million inhabitants in 1967, 16 million today. In some popular districts, the density reaches more than 150 000 inhabitants per km2. The expressways multiply while the pyramids of Giza disappear little by little behind a hedge of buildings.