Listing All Instances of the Cairo Tiling in Print

The criteria for the listing is of diagrammatic form, in which I list all instances of the Cairo tiling, as of the ‘standard model’ whose parameters can vary with basic features of a Cairo tiling, i.e. a symmetrical pentagon, with two right angles, whether attributed or not. The list is shown in different ways, as according to various filters:

1. A simple listing of attributed references i.e. mentioned in association with Cairo, arranged as according to chronology, without referral to the quote/diagram in question, in effect a simple bibliographic listing.
2. References of all instances of the Cairo tiling, attributed or not, with quotes and comments thereof where appropriate.

Can anyone add to this list, with either other references (the earlier the better) or of any additional further information?

1. A simple listing of references, arranged as according to chronology, without referral to the quote/diagram in question, in effect a simple bibliographic listing

1. 1971 Dunn, J. A. ‘Tessellations with Pentagons’. The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 55, No. 394 December, pages 366-369

2. 1975 Gardner, M. Scientific American. Mathematical Games, July. ‘On tessellating the plane with convex polygon tiles’, pages 112-117 (pages 114, 116 re Cairo aspect)

3. 1978 Schattschneider, D. Mathematics Magazine, January. ‘Tiling the Plane with Congruent Pentagons’, pages 29-44 (page 30 re Cairo aspect).

4. 1979 Macmillan, R.H. Mathematical Gazette, 1979. ‘Pyramids and Pavements: some thoughts from Cairo’, pages 251-255.

5. 1982 Martin, George E. Transformation Geometry: An Introduction to Symmetry, page 119.

6. 1986 McGregor, James and Watt, J. The Art of Graphics for the IBM PC, pages 196-197.

7. 1986 Ehud, Bar-On. Computers and Education. Elsevier

8. 1989 Chorbachi, W. K. Computers and Mathematics with Applications. ‘In the Tower of Babel: Beyond Symmetry In Islamic Design’. Vol. 17, No. 4-6, pp 751-789 (Cairo aspects 783-794), 1989 (reprinted in I. Hargittai, ed. Symmetry 2: Unifying Human Understanding, Pergamon, New York, 1989 page 783.

9. 1990 Hill, Francis S. Computer Graphics. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, page 145.

10. 1991 Fetter, Ann E et al. The Platonic Solids Activity Book. Key Curriculum Press/Visual Geometry Project. Backline Masters, pages 21, 97

11. 1991 Wells, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry. Penguin Books, pages 23, 61, 177.

12. 1998 Singer, David A. Geometry Plane and Fancy, 1998, pages 34 and 37.

13. 1997 Serra, Michael. Discovering Geometry: An Inductive Approach. Key Curriculum Press, page 404

14. 2003 Teacher’s Guide: Tessellations and Tile Patterns, page 30 (Cabri) Geometric investigations on the VoyageTM 200 with Cabri. Texas Instruments Incorporated

15. 2003 Gorini, Catherine A. The Facts on File Geometry Handbook. 2003, 2009 revised edition. Facts on File Inc, and imprint of Infobase publishing, page 22.

16. 2003 Pritchard, Chris. The Changing Shape of Geometry: Celebrating a Century of Geometry and Geometry Teaching, page 421.

17. 2005 Mitchell, David. Sticky note origami: 25 designs to make at your desk, Sterling Publication Company, pages 58-61.

18. 2005 Phillips, George McArtney. Mathematics is Not a Spectator Sport

19. 2005 Wilder, Johnston-Sue; John Mason, Developing Thinking in Geometry, page 182.

20. 2007 B. G. Thomas and M. A. Hann. In Sarhangi, Reza (Ed). Bridges. Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science. (Ninth) Conference Proceedings 2007. Donostia, Spain. Patterned Polyhedra: Tiling the Platonic Solids

21. 2008 Anon. Key Curriculum Press. PDF Chapter 7 Transformations and Tessellations, page 396.

22. 2008 Goos, Merrilyn et al. Teaching Secondary School Mathematics: Research and Practice for the 21^st Century.

23. 2008 B. G. Thomas and M. A. Hann in Sarhangi, Reza (Ed). Bridges. Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science. (Tenth) Conference Proceedings 2008. Leeuwarden, Netherlands page 102 in ‘Patterning by Projection: Tiling the Dodecahedron and other Solids’

24. 2008 Fathauer, Robert. Designing and Drawing Tessellations, 2008, page 2.

25. 2008 B. G. Thomas and M. A. Hann. In Sarhangi, Reza (Ed). Bridges. Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science, page 101.

26. 2009 Kaplan, Craig. S. Introductory Tiling Theory for Computer Graphics. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, page 33.

27. 2010 Alsina, Claudi and Roger B. Nelsen. Charming Proofs: A Journey Into Elegant Mathematics. Dolciani Mathematical Expositions, page 163.

28. 2010 Elwes, Richard. Maths 1001: Absolutely Everything You Need to know about Mathematics in 1001 Bite-Sized Explanations. Quercus, page 109

2. References of all instances of the Cairo tiling, in chronological order, attributed or not, with quotes and comments where appropriate

To aid in discerning immediately the Cairo attribute or not, colour coding is used as to author, where the author’s name in blue shows attribution i.e. direct references to Cairo.

Also, the type of pentagon described, with red is for equilateral, violet for dual/Laves.

1921 MacMahon, P.A. New Mathematical Pastimes. Cambridge University Press 1921 and 1930. (Reprinted by Tarquin Books 2004)
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) page 101, the first (1921) recorded instance? This reference seems amazingly late given the tilings sheer simplicity. That said, perhaps the reason for this is that such simplicity is why it was neglected. The only possible precursor to this in Schattschneider’s list is Haag (1911), as the others i.e. Laves et al are all after 1921.

1923 Haag, F. "Die regelmässigen Planteilungen und Punktsysteme." Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie 58 (1923): 478-488.
Schattschneider told me in her reply to my Tiling Listserv posting that it is of Figure 13 of this article. Not seen.

1933 Bradley, Amos Day. The Geometry of Repeating Design and Geometry of Design for High Schools. Bureau of Publications Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, and 1972 reprint. Book as oft quoted by Schattschneider, but no one else.
Page 123 Cairo-like diagram, dual of the 3. 3. 4. 3. 4

1951 Cundy H. Martyn; Rollett, A.P. Mathematical Models. Oxford University Press (I have the second edition, of 1961).
‘We have space for one of his; [MacMahon’s] it consists of equal-sided (but not regular) [equilateral] pentagons, but has the appearance of interlocking hexagons (Fig. 58)’
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) page 63 (picture) and 65 (text). The diagram is derived from MacMahon’s book, as Cundy freely credits.

1963 Coxeter, H. S. M. Regular Polytopes second edition. Dover Publications Inc., New York.
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) on the cover. Interestingly, this is likely the first instance of utilising different coloured subsidiary hexagons to better feature the overlapping hexagon aspect.
The type of pentagon is not clear due to the nature of the drawing, with somewhat thick lines, but it would appear to be equilateral.

1969? Critchlow, Keith. Order in Space. A Design Source Book. Thames & Hudson. A date of 1969 is given in the book but it is unclear if this was when first published. The published date is apparently given as 1987. 2000 reprint
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) page 49, but no text. This also has an interesting series of diagrams page 83, best described as ‘variations’ with Cairo-like properties, with ‘par hexagon pentagons’ combined in tilings with regular hexagons.

1970 Ranucci, Ernest R. Tessellation and Dissection. J. Weston Walch
Cairo-like diagram (but not attributed) page 36 (picture and text).The inclusion of this Cairo of Ranucci’s is somewhat open to question, given that the diagram consists of two pentagons, rather than the given one. Nonetheless, it is of interest due to the first example of this type.

1971 Dunn, J. A. ‘Tessellations with Pentagons’. The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 55, No. 394 (December, 366-369)
Finally, if the sides are all equal and x = x’ =90°, the tessellation in Figure 5 becomes Figure 6 which is shown in Cundy and Rollett and is a favourite street-tiling in Cairo. The geometry of this basic pentagon is shown in Figure 7.
The first recorded attribution.

1972 Williams, Robert. The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure. A Source Book of Design. Dover Publications, Inc. 1979. Another edition, of another name, was of 1972. Cairo diagram (but not attributed) page 38 in the context of the Laves tilings.

1975 Gardner, M. Scientific American. Mathematical Games, July. ‘On tessellating the plane with convex polygon tiles’, pages 112-117 (114, 116 re Cairo pentagon)
Gardner Quote Scientific American 1975 ‘On Tessellating the Plane with Convex Tiles’, pages 112-117
Page 114:
The most remarkable of all the pentagonal patterns is a tessellation of equilateral pentagons [‘c’]. It belongs only to Type 1*. Observe how quadruplets of these pentagons can be grouped into oblong hexagons, each set tessellating the plane at right angles to the other. This beautiful tessellation [of equilateral pentagons] is frequently seen as a street tiling in Cairo, and occasionally on in the mosaics of Moorish buildings.
*errata (September 1975?) corrects this to Types 2 and 4
Gardner then gives the construction:
The equilateral pentagon is readily constructed with a compass and straightedge….
(What I refer to as the ‘45° construction’)
The second recorded attribution. Likely this is an independent account from Gardner (although it is indeed Dunn-like in description re ‘street tiling’), in that Gardner adds additional detail not in Dunn’s account.

1976 O’Daffer, Phares. G; Clemens, Stanley R. Geometry. An Investigative Approach 1^st edition, 2^nd edition 1992 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. (Note that I have the 2^nd edition, not the 1^st)
While a regular pentagon will not tessellate the plane, it is interesting to note that there is a pentagon (see region A in Fig. 4.15) with all sides congruent [i.e. equilateral] (but with different size angles) that will tessellate the plane. A portion of this tessellation is shown in Fig. 4. 15. If four of these pentagonal regions are considered together (see Region B), an interesting hexagonal shape results that will tessellate the plane.
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) 95 (text continues to page 96).

1977 Mottershead, Lorraine. Sources of Mathematical Discovery. Basil Blackwell.
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) 106-107 on a chapter on tessellations, and a subset of irregular pentagons.
Of note is the utilisation of the Cairo tiles as a letter puzzle; the first instance I am aware of. Although unstated, this is likely all based upon Gardner’s work of 1975, given the remarkably like appearance of diagrams of surrounding pages.
Unfortunately, the determination as to which types of pentagon are here is fraught with difficulty due to such a small scale drawings and the accuracy of the drawing is also in question, of which I am not prepared to be categorical as to the type of pentagon here. They could be equilateral, or near.

1977 Schattschneider, Doris; Walker, W. M. C. Escher Kaleidocycles. Tarquin Publications. First edition, 1977; I have the ‘special edition’ of 1982.
One of Escher’s favourite geometric patterns was the tiling by pentagons shown (Figure 35).These pentagons are not regular since their angles are not all equal.
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) page 26, also see page 34, in the context of a dodecahedron tiling decoration and Escher’s ‘Flower’, PD 132.
The type of Cairo tiling is not explicitly stated; certainly it is of a 4, 1 type, likely of the dual of the 3. 3. 4. 3. 4 type (90°, 120°), but Escher did not use this!

1978 Schattschneider, D. Mathematics Magazine, January. ‘Tiling the Plane with Congruent Pentagons’
Page 3
Three of the oldest known pentagonal tilings are shown in FIGURE 1. As Martin Gardner observed in [5], they possess ‘unusual symmetry’. This symmetry is no accident, for these three tilings are the duals of the only three Archimedean whose vertices are valence 5. The underlying Archimedean tilings are shown in dotted outline. Tiling (3) (dual of the 3. 3. 4. 3. 4) of FIGURE 1 has special aesthetic appeal. It is said to appear as a street paving in Cairo [likely referring to Martin Gardner or James Dunn’s quote; both authors are mentioned in the bibliography]; it is the cover illustration for Coxeter’s Regular Complex Polytopes [apparently equilateral], and was a favorite pattern of the Dutch artist, M.C. Escher [square based intersections]. Escher’s sketchbooks reveal that this tiling is the unobtrusive geometric network which underlies his beautiful; ‘shells and starfish’ pattern. He also chose this pentagonal tiling as the bold network of a periodic design which appears as a fragment in his 700 cm. Long print ‘Metamorphosis II’.

Tiling (3) can also be obtained in several other ways. Perhaps most obviously it is a grid of pentagons which is formed when two hexagonal tiles are superimposed at right angles to each other. F. Haag noted that this tiling can also be obtained by joining points of tangency in a circle packing of the plane [12]. It can also be obtained by dissecting a square into four congruent quadrilaterals and then joining the dissected squares together [26]. The importance of these observations is that by generalising these techniques, other pentagonal tiles can be discovered.

The third recorded attribution.

1978 Pearce, Peter and Pearce, Susan. Polyhedra Primer. Dale Seymour Publications
Cairo diagram (but not attributed) on page 35, and in the context of the Laves tilings, page 39.

1978 Lockwood, E.H; R.H. Macmillan. Geometric symmetry. Cambridge University Press (and 2008).
‘Indirect’ Cairo reference page 88
… are patterns [semi regular] of congruent pentagons such as are often used for street paving in Moslem countries.
The inclusion of this book is somewhat of a moot point, in that Cairo tiles are described very loosely here. However, as it is by Macmillan, this rather fragmentary account is worthy of note, as it does not strictly tally with his later Gazette article.

1979 Macmillan, R.H. Mathematical Gazette, 1979. ‘Pyramids and Pavements: some thoughts from Cairo’, pages 251-255
On a recent visit to Cairo I was struck by two matters [concerning the pyramids and pentagon tiling]…
and
Page 253
A pentagonal tessellation
Many of the streets of Cairo are paved with a traditional Islamic tessellation of pentagonal tiles, as shown in Fig. 4. The pentagons are all identical in size and shape, having four sides equal and two of their angles 90°, as shown in Fig. 5, where angles (* and *) and lengths (a and b) are marked. The tiles are often in two colours, as in Fig. 4, and their pattern can then be classified as belonging to the plane dichromatic symmetry group p4’ g’m. By making all those tiles with a particular orientation of a single colour a polychromatic symmetry pattern, of group p4⁽⁴⁾, would be achieved; by an alternative colouring it would be also be possible to produce a symmetry of group p4⁽⁴⁾mg ⁽⁴⁾, but I have never seen either of these actually used. (See [1], p.89, Fig. 13.12.)

It will be seen that the pattern formed by the tile edges can also be taken as two interlinked and identical meshes. The question of interest is what may be the possible variations in the shape of these pentagons and hexagons. We can see that the slope of line CD in Fig. 4 can be varied, provided that the other dimensions are altered suitably. The geometric conditions to be satisfied are seen from Fig. 5 to be as follows:…..

And

Page 255

(iv) If * is such that , in Fig. 4, AB and CD are collinear, the tessellation is particularly pleasing to the eye, and this is in fact the proportion (108. ) often adopted in Cairo…

The fourth recorded attribution. Of note as to the depth of detail Macmillan gives. Notably, he describes an in situ pentagon possessing of collinearity properties.

1982 Martin, George E. Transformation Geometry: An Introduction to Symmetry, page 119
The beautiful Cairo tessellation with a convex equilateral pentagon as its prototile is illustrated in Fig. 12.3. The tessellation is so named because such tiles were used for many streets in Cairo.
Gives the ‘45°’ construction.
Not seen, Google Books reference

1982 Murphy, Patrick. Modern Mathematics Made Simple. Heinemann London Tessellations, Chapter 10, pages 194-205, 262.
Cairo diagram, of equilateral pentagons (but not attributed) page 200.

1986 McGregor, James and Watt, J. The Art of Graphics for the IBM PC, pages 196-197
The plane cannot be tesselated (sic) by regular pentagons, but there are an a number of irregular pentagons that will tessellate the plane. An example of a pentagon that will tesselate (sic) is the well-known Cairo tile, so called because many of the streets of Cairo were paved in this pattern (Fig. 5.2): The Cairo tile is equilateral but not regular because its angles are not all the same.
A minor part of a chapter on tessellations. Diagram page 197.

1986 Ehud, Bar-On. Computers and Education. Elsevier
… then the possible ways of tiling with pentagons are explored, especially the Cairo tiling
Google Scholar reference; I’ve not seen this paper.

1987 Grünbaum, Branko; Shephard, G.C. Tilings and Patterns. W. H. Freeman and Company
For an account of a street tiling with pentagonal tiles common in Cairo (Egypt) see Macmillan [1979]
Page 5, no discussion, just a reference to Macmillan’s article.

1989 Seymour, D; Britton, J. Introduction to Tessellations. Dale Seymour Publications Cairo tiling (but not attributed) page 39.
The exact pentagon not described, almost certainly the dual of the 3. 3. 4. 3. 4 (90°, 120° type).

1989 Chorbachi, W. K. In the Tower of Babel: Beyond Symmetry In Islamic Design. Computers and Mathematics with Applications. Vol. 17, No. 4-6, pp 751-789 (Cairo aspects 783-794), 1989 (reprinted in I. Hargittai, ed. Symmetry 2: Unifying Human Understanding, Pergamon, New York, 1989.
The pattern of a favorite street tiling in Cairo (US spelling of favourite, note that Chorbachi also omits the dash between favourite and street)
Has interesting Cairo tiling references, pages 783-784, and quotes James Dunn’s 1971 article, and beyond any reasonable doubt the quote given by Chorbachi is taken from him as well. Equilateral pentagons
Has references to ‘semi regular pentagons’ which is surely wrong terminology; I had a web search for this, but I couldn't find references.
Fig. 19.16c _2-3. Two different semiregular pentagons are drawn at the bottom of the page. On the right side is the Islamic pentagon, where * is the critical value in the design. on the left is the Western one given by J. A. Dunn in an article on ‘Tessellations with pentagons’ [30]. Dunn’s pentagon has an isosceles pentagon triangle that has a critical length * for the two equal sides while the third side is a or any given length. This tiling (Fig. 19.16c ₁) is referred to as the ‘favorite street tiling in Cairo’. In it, the tessellation is considered hexagonal, each hexagon being a combination of four semi regular pentagons. However, this tessellation is based on the 4-fold rotation of the semi regular pentagon, with sides equal to two units and two opposite right angles. The latter combination permits the 4-fold rotation of symmetry group 244 or p4g

1989 Hargittai, Istvan. Symmetry 2, Unifying Human Understanding. Volume 2, Source of Chorbachi article, see above
page 783.
Not seen, Google Books reference.

1990 Hill, Francis S. Jr. Computer Graphics. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York,
An equilateral pentagon can tile the plane, as shown in Figure 5.4. This is called a Cairo tiling because many streets in Cairo were paved with tiles using this pattern. Note that this figure can also be generated by drawing an arrangement of overlapping (irregular) hexagons.
Likely quoting from McGregor and Watt, given that the text is very much alike, and their work is quoted and illustrations are utilised in the book.
Page 145.

1991 Fetter, Ann E et al. The Platonic Solids Activity Book. Key Curriculum Press/Visual Geometry Project. Backline Masters.
Regular pentagons don’t tile, but many equilateral (though not equiangular) pentagons do. [A Cairo tiling diagram is then shown.] This pattern is seen in street tiling in Cairo and in the mosaics of Moorish buildings. A similar tiling can be obtained of the dual of a semi regular tiling (see exercise 8)
Cairo tiling pages 21 and 97 (the latter of which repeats, as student activities)
Almost certainly this quote above is taken from Gardner, of which I repeat for reference: ‘is frequently seen as a street tiling in Cairo, and occasionally on in the mosaics of Moorish buildings’.

1991 Wells, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry. Penguin Books
Page 23: So called because it often appears in the streets of Cairo, and in Islamic decoration. It can be seen in many ways, for example as cross pieces rotated about the vertices of a square grid, their free ends joined by short segments, or as two identical tessellations of elongated hexagons, overlapping at right angles. Its dual tessellation, formed by joining the centre of each tile to the centre of every adjacent tile, is a semiregular tessellation of square and equilateral triangles.
Page 61: …Thus the dual of the tessellation of squares and equilateral triangles is the Cairo tessellation.
Page 177: The regular pentagon will not tessellate. Less regular pentagons may, as in the Cairo tessellation….
The first line of page 23 bears resemblance to Gardner's quote.

1997 Serra, Michael. Discovering Geometry: An Inductive Approach. Key Curriculum Press, page 404
The Cairo street tiling shown at right is a very beautiful tessellation that uses equilateral pentagons (the sides are congruent but not the angles). The pentagon is shown below right, with angle measures that will help you draw your ...
Not seen, Google Books reference.

1998 Singer, David A. Geometry Plane and Fancy, 1998, page 34. Springer-Verlag
One particularly elegant tiling of the plane by pentagons is known as the Cairo tessellation, because it can be seen as a street tiling in Cairo. The pentagon used for this tiling can be constructed using straight edge and compass… although it is not regular, it is equilateral…
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2003 Teacher’s Guide: Tessellations and Tile Patterns, page 30 (Cabri) Geometric investigations on the VoyageTM 200 with Cabri. Texas Instruments Incorporated
….Probably the most famous of these pentagonal patterns is the ‘Cairo Tessellation’ named after the Islamic decorations found on the streets of Cairo…Begins by quoting David Wells’ book … Curious… and likely the text is based on his reference. However, the ‘Teacher’s Guide’ gives a different tiling, interestingly a ‘collinear’ pentagon.

2003 Gorini, Catherine A. The Facts on File Geometry Handbook. 2003, 2009 revised edition. Facts on File Inc, and imprint of Infobase publishing
Cairo tiling illustrated page 22, equilateral. Gives the following definition: Cairo tessellation: A tessellation of the plane by congruent convex equilateral pentagons that have two nonadjacent right angles; so called because it can be found on streets in Cairo.
Oddly, Gorini shows an accompanying picture of a pentagon that is not equilateral, a 4, 1 type…

2003 Pritchard, Chris. The Changing Shape of Geometry: Celebrating a Century of Geometry and Geometry Teaching
Is a favourite street tiling in Cairo
Page 421-427. This is an anthology, and simply repeats Dunn’s article, and follow-up correspondence. Nothing original is shown
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2005 Mitchell, David. Sticky note origami: 25 designs to make at your desk, Sterling Publication Company
The Cairo Tessellation is an attractive and intriguing pattern of tiles named as a result of its frequent occurrence on the streets of Cairo and in other Islamic centers and sites. Cairo tiles are a special kind of pentagon that unlike ordinary regular pentagons will fit together without leaving gaps between them. Four of these slightly squashed pentagonal tiles will from a stretched hexagon in the final pattern, stretched hexagons laid in a vertical direction intersect other stretched hexagons laid horizontally across and through them. If you make the tiles in four different colours the resulting pattern is particularly interesting and attractive.
Mitchell doesn’t state exactly what type of Cairo tiling he is referring to. However, upon checking his diagram, page 58 it would appear to be equilateral. However, due to the small scale nature, this is not categorically so.
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2005 Phillips, George McArtney. Mathematics is Not a Spectator Sport. Page 193
Problem 6. 5. 3 Construct a dual of the 3. 3. 4. 3. 4 tessellation by joining the centers of adjacent polygons. This is called the Cairo tessellation. Observe that it has a pentagonal motif that has four sides of one length and one shorter side
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2005 Wilder, Johnston-Sue; John Mason. Developing Thinking in Geometry
… is often referred to as the Cairo tessellation as it appears in a mosque there.
Page 182.
Although the diagram is too small in scale to measure with certainty, it appears to be of the dual of the 3. 3. 4. 3. 4 (90°, 120° type).
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2007 B. G. Thomas and M. A. Hann. in Sarhangi, Reza (Ed). Bridges. Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science. (Ninth) Conference Proceedings 2007. Donostia, Spain. Patterned Polyhedra: Tiling the Platonic Solids
…without gap or overlap. There are however various equilateral pentagons that can tessellate the plane. Probably the best known is the Cairo tessellation, formed…

2008 Anon. Key Curriculum Press. PDF Chapter 7 Transformations and Tessellations, page 396
The beautiful Cairo street tiling shown below uses equilateral pentagons.
This also gives a construction, of the well known ‘45° type’.

2008 Goos, Merrilyn et al. Teaching Secondary School Mathematics: Research and Practice for the 21^st Century.
The particular tiling pattern of an irregular pentagon, shown in Figure 9.16, is called the Cairo tessellation because it appears in a famous mosque in Cairo.
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2008 B. G. Thomas and M. A. Hann. In Sarhangi, Reza (Ed). Bridges. Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science. (Tenth) Conference Proceedings 2008. Leeuwarden, Netherlands
There are, however, equilateral convex pentagons that do tessellate the plane, such as the well known Cairo tessellation shown in Figure 1.
Also, other minor references essentially in passing.
Cairo reference and diagram page 102 in ‘Patterning by Projection: Tiling the Dodecahedron and other Solids’ gives an equilateral pentagon.

2008 Fathauer, Robert. Designing and Drawing Tessellations, 2008
A common street paving in Cairo, Egypt is shown above left. It is notable for the interesting tessellation formed by pentagons, four of which form larger hexagons, with hexagon patterns running in two different directions
Type of pentagon: Equilateral (page 2).
Has a brief discussion on tessellations in the 'real world', page 2, with many photos of brickwork and paving stone tessellations, all except for the ‘Cairo Pentagon’ tiling, where although this is discussed, he shows a line drawing. Presumably, the reason for this is that he was unable to locate a photo.

2008 B. G. Thomas and M. A. Hann. In Bridges. Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science.
There are, however, equilateral convex pentagons that do tessellate the plane, such as the well-known Cairo tessellation shown in Fig. 1.
Type of pentagon: Equilateral (page 101).

2009 Kaplan, Craig. S. Introductory Tiling Theory for Computer Graphics. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, page 33
The Laves tiling [3². 4. 3. 4] is sometimes known as the ‘Cairo tiling’ because it is widely used there. Page 103
Not seen, Google Books reference.

2010 Alsina, Claudi and Roger B. Nelsen. Charming Proofs: A Journey Into Elegant Mathematics. Dolciani Mathematical Expositions
Another pentagonal tiling can be created by overlaying two non-regular hexagonal tilings illustrated in Figure 10.6. This rather attractive monohedral pentagonal tiling is sometimes called the Cairo tiling, for its reported use as a street paving design in that city.
Cairo diagram page 163. The type of pentagon is not detailed; unfortunately, the diagram is too small a scale to measure with certainty.
Not seen, Google Books reference.

27. 2011 Elwes, Richard, Maths 1001: Absolutely Everything You Need to know about Mathematics in 1001 Bite-Sized Explanations. Quercus, page 109
…it adorns the pavements of that city’ (Cairo).
Although it would appear likely that a single pentagon is intended, this shows two different, but roughly alike pentagons, of which I assume that it just a careless drawing. Given that the type of pentagon Elwes is referring to is unclear; no assessment as to type is made

Web References
For the sake of accuracy, I restrict the listings here to a few prime mathematics sites:

Wolfram MathWorld
A tessellation appearing in the streets of Cairo and in many Islamic decorations. Its tiles are obtained by projection of a dodecahedron, and it is the dual tessellation of the semiregular tessellation of squares and equilateral triangles.

Wikipedia
In geometry, a pentagon tiling is a tiling of the plane by pentagons. A regular pentagonal tiling on ... Tiling Dual Semiregular V3-3-4-3-4 Cairo Pentagonal.svg ...