An hour or so drive from the chaotic and congested streets of downtown Cairo is a very different world . Thousands of pristine new buildings -- many only half-built -- often within gated compounds are surrounded by miles of barren desert . New Cairo is one of a handful of `` satellite cities '' that are being developed in the desert about 40 kilometers from the city center . The landscape is far from conventionally beautiful , but attracted the attention of a British photographer Jason Larkin who spent two years chronicling the developments . Cairo 's satellite cities have been developed on-and-off for 30 years , but a recent building boom has slowed since the fall of president Hosni Mubarak in February . Larkin became interested after the American University of Cairo moved to a new campus in New Cairo in 2008 . `` I started to hear from students who were alarmed to find themselves in the middle of the desert , '' he said . `` I wanted to look for myself and was struck by the environment . `` They were pristine buildings but with completely barren surroundings . You ca n't get there by public transport . I realized it had so little of what a city needs . '' Larkin spent two years photographing Cairo 's satellite cities and their construction sites . He said : `` There were many projects I never saw any work on : Half-finished construction sites where people with big ideas had run out of money . `` Others have been halted because of disputes and allegations of corruption over the sale of the land . '' Larkin added : `` Of all the areas I photographed , I would say 80 % were not occupied . '' For centuries , the population of Cairo -- now 10.9 million , according to the CIA World Factbook -- was confined to a narrow strip of fertile land along the River Nile . In 1969 a development plan was launched to expand Greater Cairo into the surrounding deserts , according to a 2009 report by U.N. Habitat , the United Nations agency for human settlements . Mohamed Elshahed , a doctoral student who started a blog , Cairobserver , on the city 's architecture and urban planning , has also taken an interest in satellite cities . He said the gated compounds of villas for the wealthy currently being built were opposite to the initial intention of satellite cities . Elshahed said : `` The development of satellite cities has gone through several false starts . The initial idea in the 1970s was to respond to the housing crisis and create budget or social housing projects . The problem was that the poorest ca n't afford to live so far away without transport to bring them to work . `` This initial phase was a complete failure and mostly remained vacant . There were further attempts in the 1990s . Now we are seeing a reverse of the initial idea and they are exclusively high-end developments . '' Ehshahed said the gated compounds were being developed at the expense of preserving the historic city center . `` There 's no recognition of Cairo 's architectural heritage and history , '' he said . `` It 's as if we 're living in Dubai , but this is n't Dubai , it 's a city that 's been around for 1,000 years . '' Elshahed added : `` The center of the city is deteriorating and the rich do n't want to be there anymore . They can afford to live outside the city and cut themselves off . '' However , Elshahed said that despite having a combined population estimated at 1.5 million , the satellite cities had failed to ease the overcrowding of Cairo . He said : `` The satellite cities are not working for many reasons . The main reason is that a housing bubble was created in the last five-to-eight years without the demand to fill them , leaving a lot of empty homes in the desert . `` Plus a lot of people who can afford these types of houses , already have second or third homes , so they are empty most of the time and it does nothing to help the housing crisis . `` There has been a government policy that this type of development is a positive sign of progress and is to be encouraged , but that is very superficial because they are not really helping anyone . '' Elshahed said the main cities with names such as 6 October and 15 May , as well as New Cairo , were each made up of many individual developments , some a further 15 or 20 minutes drive into the desert . Working with the Cairo-based journalist Jack Shenker , Larkin produced a 6,000-word photo essay on satellite cities , called Cairo Divided , in English and Arabic , available for only the cost of postage and packing . `` We had 5,000 copies printed and have had phenomenal interest from people interested in urban development , Cairo itself , or global cities generally . ''
Cairo 's twin cities were first conceived more than 100 years ago to alleviate overcrowding . Recently they have become home to exclusive luxury compounds , often left empty . Photographer Jason Smith spent two years documenting the developments in a project called Cairo Divided .