Why some curious almost-identities

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I read somewhere that

$$e^{\pi\sqrt{163}}$$

is almost an integer and strangely enough this isn't just a random coincidence but rather there exists some general theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heegner_number

behind the occurences of these almost integers (and their relation to other areas of number theory)

Surely there are many other strange identities such as:

$$\sqrt{2} \approx \frac{3}{5} + \frac{\pi}{7 -\pi}$$

I'm guessing that this "coincidence" is probably similar to the earlier example a special case of some general theory that relates rational expressions of pi to algebraic integers.

Can someone point me in the right direction if not explain it here itself?