Cairo, Egypt, 25 March 2005 - Inauguration of the 30-hectare (74-acre) Al Azhar Park in the presence of Her Excellency Madame Suzanne Mubarak and His Highness the Aga Khan. The Al-Azhar Park Project is a catalyst for social, economic and cultural renewal and improvement and will have far reaching consequences for the 200,000 residents of the neighbouring Darb al-Ahmar district. The 500-year-old accumulation of fill and debris has been transformed into much-needed leisure and recreational space while functioning as a "green lung" for Cairo - a city with a population of 17 million and one of the lowest ratios of green space to urban population in the world - an area the size of a footprint per inhabitant, according to one estimate.