By the mid-twentieth century, Cairo’s rapid urban expansion gave rise to a distinctive pentagonal paving pattern now known internationally as “Cairo tiling.” Long familiar to Cairenes as part of the city’s everyday landscape, it achieved global mathematical fame for its unusual geometric properties, even as its local origins remained largely overlooked.

An excerpt from Beth Baron’s forthcoming book tells the story of pioneering Egyptian physician Hilana Sidarus and women entering medicine.

Much more than simple body adornments, traditional Egyptian tattoos incorporate complex meanings and evoke tales of knights, seductresses and animals in a multicolour world of the imagination.