Cairo (Al-Qahira — "The Victorious") is Africa's largest city and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, at the point where the Nile Delta begins and the Eastern and Western Deserts meet. The city is an overwhelming, exhilarating layering of civilizations: 4,500-year-old pyramids 20 minutes by taxi from the urban sprawl, 10th-century Fatimid mosques beside Coptic churches that predate Islam by 600 years, Ottoman palaces, Belle Époque boulevards and a chaotic megalopolis of 22 million people navigating one of the world's most ferocious traffic systems. The Egyptian Museum holds the world's most extraordinary collection of ancient artifacts including Tutankhamun's golden mask. Islamic Cairo — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — contains the greatest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture in the world.
The Giza Pyramid Complex (2560-2510 BC, UNESCO) — the Pyramid of Khufu (the Great Pyramid, the largest of the three and the only surviving Ancient Wonder of the World), the Pyramid of Khafre (slightly smaller but built on higher ground, with the remaining smooth casing stones at the top), and the Pyramid of Menkaure (the smallest). At sunrise: the light is golden, the temperature bearable, and the complex empty. Arrive at 7am when it opens.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Great Sphinx of Giza (2558-2532 BC) — 73.5 metres long, 20 metres high, carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau. Whose face it represents is still debated (probably Khafre). The enclosure (Valley Temple of Khafre nearby) and the Dream Stele of Thutmose IV are accessible. The "Sphinx in front of KFC" image visible from the road is one of the great archaeological jokes of the modern world.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKoshary (كشري) is Egypt's national dish and the definitive Cairo street food — layers of macaroni, rice, brown lentils, chickpeas, crispy fried onions, and both tomato-chili sauce and garlic vinegar sauce poured on top to taste. At Koshary Abou Tarek (Champollion Street, the most famous koshary restaurant in Cairo) for the full experience.
The Egyptian Museum (1902, the world's largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts — 120,000 objects) holds the Tutankhamun treasures: the solid gold funerary mask (10.23 kg, 3,300 years old), the gilded innermost sarcophagus, the canopic jars, the throne and the 5,398 other objects found in the undisturbed tomb by Howard Carter in 1922. Also: the Royal Mummies (Ramesses II, Seti I, Hatshepsut) and the Narmer Palette (3100 BC). Note: the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza (opened 2023) holds the full Tutankhamun collection and is highly recommended instead.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Sound and Light Show at the Giza Complex (nightly, 45 min, spoken from the Sphinx's perspective) illuminates the pyramids with coloured lights and projects the history of ancient Egypt across the ancient stones. Genuinely atmospheric when the desert wind comes in — the pyramids at night lit up against the black sky with the Milky Way above is the finest hour at Giza.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Saladin Citadel (1176 AD) was the seat of Egyptian power for 700 years — the Mamluk, Ayyubid and Ottoman rulers all resided here. The Muhammad Ali Mosque (the Alabaster Mosque, 1848 — Ottoman Baroque, built by Muhammad Ali Pasha) dominates the Citadel and has the finest view of Cairo (and on clear days, the Giza pyramids) from its courtyard.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKhan el-Khalili (the medieval caravanserai built 1382, now the largest and most atmospheric bazaar in the Arab world) — gold and silver jewelry, spices (mountains of saffron, cumin, coriander, sumac), Bedouin silver, alabaster, papyrus, perfumes, and the Muizz Street (the most complete medieval Islamic street in the world, 10th-17th century architecture). The coffee house El-Fishawi (open continuously since 1773, the oldest café in Cairo) for a strong Turkish coffee and shisha.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAl-Muizz Li-Din Illah Al-Fatimi Street (the most perfectly preserved medieval Islamic streetscape in the world, UNESCO — 1km of 11th-19th century mosques, madrasas, sabils, palaces and caravanserais) includes: the Al-Hakim Mosque (1013), the Qalawun Complex (1283, with the most beautiful mashrabiya windows in Cairo), the Barquq Complex (1386) and the Al-Ashraf Barsbay Mosque (1432). Best at sunset: the light on the stone facades is extraordinary.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFul medames (slow-cooked fava beans with olive oil, lemon, cumin and garlic — the most important Egyptian breakfast/dinner, eaten since pharaonic times) and ta'meya (Egyptian-style falafel made with fava beans, not chickpeas — smaller, greener, more herb-heavy than Lebanese falafel) with fresh baladi bread and raw salad at any of the local restaurants near Khan el-Khalili.
El-Fishawy (الفيشاوي — "Fishawi's"), open 24 hours since 1773, is the most famous café in Cairo — Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz set scenes from his Cairo Trilogy here. The antique mirrors, the shisha (waterpipe) with apple or mint tobacco, the sweet Egyptian tea (shai) with mint, and the constant flow of merchants, tourists and locals make it the most atmospheric hour you can spend in Cairo.
Coptic Cairo (within the old Roman fortress of Babylon on the Nile) contains the oldest Christian sites in Africa — the Hanging Church (El Muallaka, 3rd-4th century AD, built on the watchtowers of the Roman gate), the Coptic Museum (the finest collection of Coptic art and manuscripts in the world), the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (4th century, traditionally built over the site where the Holy Family rested during the Flight to Egypt), and the Ben Ezra Synagogue (9th century, built on the site of a 6th-century BC synagogue).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTilapia (Nile perch, البلطي) grilled whole over charcoal with cumin, coriander and garlic at a riverside restaurant in Giza or on the Corniche El Nil — with tahin (sesame sauce), salata baladi (fresh salad) and fresh baladi bread. The Nile View at the Sofitel Cairo or the more local Abou Ashraf restaurant on the Corniche.
A felucca (the traditional Nile sailing boat, lateen-rigged, in use on the Nile since antiquity) trip from the Corniche in central Cairo — the view of the city from the river at sunset, with the call to prayer from every mosque in the city simultaneously (one of the most extraordinary soundscapes on earth) and the last light on the Citadel. Negotiate directly at the dock: LE200-400 per hour per boat (4-6 persons).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFasahet Somaya (the most beloved Egyptian home-cooking restaurant in Cairo, in a simple dining room in Zamalek) serves the finest Egyptian mezze: molokhia (Jew's mallow soup with chicken broth and garlic — a green, glutinous, aromatic soup that has been eaten in Egypt since the Fatimid caliphs), grilled chicken, stuffed vine leaves (warak enab) and the excellent Egyptian rice with vermicelli.
Cairo genuinely does not sleep — midnight is when the city is at its most alive. Shisha cafes on rooftops or floating boats on the Nile, with watermelon juice (fresh), strong mint tea and the city lit up around you. The Zomorrodah floating restaurant or the terrace of the Nile Corniche. The most characteristic end to a Cairo evening.