Egypt’s New Administrative Capital Through the Lens of Manuel Álvarez Diestro

Published on November 11, 2026

Egypt's New Administrative Capital (NAC), located about 45 kilometers east of Cairo, is one of two major urban development projects under construction near the Egyptian capital, along with New Cairo, a satellite city east of Cairo's Ring Road that dates back to the 2000s. To date, Cairo remains the official capital of the country, but various government functions have been moved to the purpose-built city. The new capital in Egypt's Eastern Desert recalls the iconic modernist initiative of Brasília and adds to similar recent projects in countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia and South Korea. Manuel Álvarez Diestro's photographic work offers a glimpse of this endeavor from the perspective of a pedestrian approaching the urban landscape.

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The project for the new capital was announced in 2015 as a "natural extension of the city of Cairo," with the aim of easing congestion and overpopulation in Cairo over the next 40 years. The new development sits about halfway between Cairo and the city of Suez, and 55 to 60 kilometers from the Red Sea coast (Ain Sokhna) and the Gulf of Suez, a position that is strategic for administrative and economic functions. The first phase of the project is now largely complete, and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi formally inaugurated the State Strategic Command Headquarters in the New Capital on July 4, 2026. According to official sources, the city now has close to 30,000 residents, with 60,000 expected by the end of the year, while occupancy remains limited compared to the governmental presence.

In this context, cityscape photographer Manuel Álvarez Diestro took on the task of documenting the city through his project "The Conquest." Specializing in new developments, his work looks for movement and expectation in the urban landscape, revealing the relationship between a new building and the geography of its surroundings, as well as the journey of discovery. In Álvarez Diestro's analysis, Cairo is understood through its historical proximity to the Nile. These new cities in the middle of the desert mark a reinvention, expanding horizontally and indefinitely toward the vastness of the desert.

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As seen in this photo series, he presents architecture as much "a force for destruction as it is for improvement." The images show the sprawling suburban development, still unfolding, as a massive conquest of the desert. The journey begins in eastern Cairo, passing a giant billboard that illustrates ZHA's Stone Towers project, the structures of future villas, and rocks and discarded objects across a vast lowland area. In addition to ZHA's project, the photographer notes the presence of luxury housing and public installations by international firms such as Legorreta and Machado Silvetti, an initiative set to bring an urban development built from the ground up into contemporary architectural guides.

As he continues down the road, Álvarez Diestro notes the first gated communities of diverse architectural styles, which he describes as "neo-classic, pharaonic, South-American hacienda, not forgetting the Mediterranean, even copying elements from Chinese temples." Once in the city, he continues on foot through the horizontal extension of the new development, which differs from denser projects of its kind. Drawing on his experience of similar scenarios, he finds that the images evoke the marinas of Dubai, a new town development in Chongqing and a new commercial center in Guangzhou on the Pearl River.