Cairo is one of humanity's great cities — a teeming, chaotic, magnificent megapolis of 20 million people that has been the Arab world's most important metropolis for over a millennium. The city is built on the confluence of Africa and the Middle East, of ancient pharaonic civilisation and medieval Islamic culture, of Coptic Christian heritage and modern pan-Arab identity.
Cairo is one of humanity's great cities — a teeming, chaotic, magnificent megapolis of 20 million people that has been the Arab world's most important metropolis for over a millennium. The city is built on the confluence of Africa and the Middle East, of ancient pharaonic civilisation and medieval Islamic culture, of Coptic Christian heritage and modern pan-Arab identity.
The Giza Pyramids and Sphinx
The Giza complex sits on the western plateau just outside Cairo proper — a 20-minute drive from Downtown. The Great Pyramid of Khufu (c. 2560 BC) is the world's oldest and last remaining ancient wonder — 146 metres of limestone blocks rising from the desert floor with a precision of alignment still not fully understood. Most visitors are surprised by how close the city comes to the monuments — suburban Cairo is literally visible from the base of the Sphinx. Enter the pyramids (tickets purchased separately, numbers limited) for the extraordinary experience of crawling through millennia-old passages to the empty granite burial chambers. Sunrise visits offer the purest experience before the tour group coaches arrive.
The Egyptian Museum and Grand Egyptian Museum
The old Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square (opened 1902) holds 120,000 artefacts over two floors — a magnificent but overwhelming collection that includes the entire contents of Tutankhamun's tomb. The new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), adjacent to the pyramids, is now open — a purpose-built facility of 480,000m² designed by Heneghan Peng Architects, with purpose-curated galleries for the Tutankhamun treasures, the royal mummies, and a spectacular atrium with a colossal statue of Ramesses II. Allow a full day for the GEM alone.
Islamic Cairo
Islamic Cairo — the medieval city designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site — contains the greatest concentration of Islamic architecture in the world: over 600 mosques, madrasas, mausoleums, and caravanserais built between the 7th and 19th centuries. The Al-Azhar Mosque (970 AD), the world's oldest functioning university, anchors the district. The Khan el-Khalili bazaar — Egypt's greatest souk, in continuous operation since 1382 — is a warren of gold, spice, papyrus, and silver merchants. The Citadel of Saladin, built in 1176 AD, commands the city from a hill with views across the minarets — the Muhammad Ali Alabaster Mosque (1848) inside its walls is one of Egypt's most beautiful Ottoman-style buildings.
Coptic Cairo
Coptic Cairo — the ancient Christian quarter in Old Cairo (Misr al-Qadima) — contains some of Egypt's most significant early Christian monuments. The Hanging Church (Coptic Museum), suspended above the gatehouse of the Roman fortress of Babylon, is the most famous Coptic church in Egypt. The Coptic Museum beside it houses the world's finest collection of Coptic Christian art. The nearby Ben Ezra Synagogue, where legend holds that Moses was found in the bullrushes, was restored in the 1980s and is one of the oldest synagogues in Africa.
Day Trips from Cairo
The Saqqara necropolis (30km south) contains the Step Pyramid of Djoser — Egypt's oldest pyramid (c. 2650 BC) and the world's oldest large stone structure — surrounded by a complex of dummy buildings and ceremonial courts. Memphis (nearby, Egypt's first capital) has a small open-air museum with a colossal fallen limestone statue of Ramesses II. Dahshur (40km south) contains the Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid — less visited than Giza and often accessible without crowds. These three sites combined (Saqqara, Memphis, Dahshur) make one of Egypt's finest day trips.