The satellite cities
were meant to tackle these problems: New jobs and services
would be created in them so that people would not have to
move to Cairo. They would relieve the crowding in the Nile
Valley and not consume farmland, and they would offer
people cleaner air and greater quality of life than Cairo does.
The problem has been that not enough people want to live in
these new desert cities. Despite the lower costs of living and
their other amenities in the desert, Egyptians prefer to live in
the Nile area—and especially in Cairo—where the action is.
Egyptian distaste for the desert goes back to Pharaonic times,
and it is a deep-seated cultural preference that has been hard
to change.