Cairo's culture runs deeper than its tombs: 600 registered Islamic monuments, an Arabic modernist painting tradition born in 1908, Belle Époque opera houses and a downtown gallery circuit squeezed into 1930s apartment blocks. Three days inside the living city.
Built 1356-1363, Sultan Hassan is the high point of Mamluk architecture — a cruciform madrasa with a 26m entrance portal and four vaulted iwans for the Sunni schools of law. Al-Rifa'i (1912) faces it, holding the Shah of Iran's tomb. Daily 08:00-17:00, one ticket covers both.
Around 4,500 objects on display from a 100,000-piece collection — the world's finest holdings of Mamluk enamelled glass, Fatimid woodwork and Qur'anic calligraphy. Reopened 2017 after the 2014 car-bomb restoration. Sat-Thu 09:00-17:00, Fri closed 11:30-13:30.
Roughly 10,000 works tracing Egyptian modernism from Mahmoud Mokhtar's 1920s nationalist sculpture through the Art & Liberty surrealists of the 1940s to Abdel Hadi El-Gazzar's mystical realism. Three floors on the Opera House grounds in Zamalek. Tue-Sun 10:00-13:00 and 17:00-21:00.
A 1648 Ottoman-era merchant house off Al-Muizz Street, expanded in 1796 — mashrabiya screens, a marble-paved courtyard with a salsabil fountain, and separate haramlek and salamlek wings. One of the best-preserved domestic interiors in the Islamic quarter. Daily 09:00-17:00.
Founded 1908 by Marcus Simaika, holding some 16,000 objects — the Nag Hammadi codices, 5th-century Bawit monastery frescoes, and carved wooden screens tracing the shift from Pharaonic to Christian iconography. The mashrabiya-lined interior is itself a designed object. Daily 09:00-17:00.
Open since 1908 and the meeting room of Cairo's literary left — Naguib Mahfouz wrote here, Umm Kulthum sang in the back hall, and the 1919 revolution was plotted in the basement print room. Photographs of the regulars still line the walls. Sun-Thu 10:00-midnight.
The nucleus of Cairo's independent art scene since 1998, in a converted downtown warehouse on Nabrawy Street alongside Gypsum Gallery and Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art nearby. Rotating shows of Egyptian and regional artists. Sat-Thu, generally 12:00-20:00; entry free.
The 1988 Japanese-funded replacement for the 1869 Khedivial opera that burned in 1971. The Main Hall seats 1,200 and hosts the Cairo Symphony Orchestra most Saturdays, plus Arabic music nights in the Small Hall. Tickets from the on-site box office or the website.
A one-kilometre stretch holding the greatest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture anywhere — the Qalawun complex (1285) with its mausoleum, madrasa and hospital, plus the Barquq and Al-Nasir Muhammad monuments. Pedestrianised and restored in 2008. Monuments open 09:00-17:00.
Behind the tourist frontage of the 1382 souk, the back alleys still hold working coppersmiths, mother-of-pearl inlayers and glass-blowers. Sikkat al-Badistan and Haret Khan al-Khalili are where craftspeople work rather than sell. Most workshops open 10:00 to late, closing Sunday.
Founded 2008 by artist Moataz Nasr in the potters' district beside Old Cairo — exhibition halls, printmaking and photography studios, and a programme of concerts, film screenings and workshops. Tue-Sun 11:00-19:00, closed during summer heat months.
Sufi tanoura performance in a restored 1505 Mamluk caravanserai — spinning dervishes in weighted multicoloured skirts accompanied by ney, rababa and frame drums. Shows Wednesday and Saturday at 19:00 or 20:00 depending on season; free entry, no reservations.