• Al-Rifai Mosque

    Muhammad Ali's dynasty rests here — and, with it, the last Shah of Iran.

    CairoRumeila

    €€ Mid-rangeUNESCO
  • Ibn Tulun Mosque

    Unmissable

    Cairo's oldest mosque still in its original form, with a minaret whose staircase runs outside.

    CairoSayyida Zeinab

    BudgetUNESCO
  • Gayer-Anderson Museum

    A furnished Ottoman house, lived in as it was, pressed against Ibn Tulun's outer wall.

    CairoSayyida Zeinab

    €€ Mid-rangeTerrace
  • Museum of Islamic Art

    Egypt's richest collection of Islamic art, down to the enamelled Mamluk mosque lamps.

    CairoBab el-Khalq

    €€ Mid-rangeBest in the morning
  • The Hanging Church

    A nave built over the towers of a Roman gate: hence the name, and the drop beneath the floor.

    CairoOld Cairo, Fustat

    BudgetBest in the morning
  • Ben Ezra Synagogue

    The synagogue of the Cairo Geniza, whose fragments are now in Cambridge.

    CairoOld Cairo, Fustat

    BudgetHistoric venue
  • Coptic Museum

    The largest collection of Coptic art anywhere, in a museum built against the walls of the Babylon fortress.

    CairoOld Cairo, Fustat

    €€ Mid-rangePaid entry
  • Egyptian Museum in Tahrir

    Tutankhamun and the royal mummies have gone elsewhere; the rest, vast, has stayed.

    CairoTahrir, Downtown

    €€€ High endFamily-friendly
  • Prince Mohamed Ali Palace

    Buildings, borrowed styles, a garden of rare trees — on an island in the middle of Cairo.

    CairoManial, Roda Island

    €€ Mid-rangePaid entry
  • Baron Empain Palace

    A concrete Hindu temple on the airport road, long left to rumour.

    CairoHeliopolis

    €€ Mid-rangeWhere locals go
  • Abdeen Palace

    Off the beaten track

    The day power left the Citadel and came down into the city.

    CairoAbdeen

    €€ Mid-rangeHistoric venue
  • Groppi

    The tea room of cosmopolitan Cairo, faded and now under restoration. Come for the decor and the story.

    CairoTalaat Harb, Downtown

    €€ Mid-rangeHistoric venue
  • Café Riche

    Downtown's café of writers and conspirators, opened in 1908.

    CairoTalaat Harb, Downtown

    €€ Mid-rangeWhere locals go
  • The Metropole hotel on Saad Zaghloul square — the Trianon occupies its ground floor

    Trianon

    An early twentieth-century patisserie and brasserie, painted ceilings intact, on Saad Zaghloul Square.

    AlexandriaSaad Zaghloul, Raml

    €€ Mid-rangeHistoric venue
  • The El-Hussein mosque, on the square the cafés look onto

    The cafés of al-Hussein

    Not an address but a habit: chairs out on the square, a tea, a shisha, at any hour.

    CairoAl-Hussein, Gamaliya

    BudgetOpen late
  • Al-Azhar Mosque

    Founded in 970 by the Fatimids, a place of teaching for more than a thousand years.

    CairoAl-Hussein, Gamaliya

    BudgetWhere locals go
  • Bab Zuweila

    The southern gate of Fatimid Cairo, topped by two Mamluk minarets you can climb.

    CairoDarb el-Ahmar

    €€ Mid-rangeUNESCO
  • Qalawun Complex

    A madrasa, a mausoleum and a hospital from 1284, in the middle of al-Muizz street.

    CairoAl-Muizz, Gamaliya

    €€ Mid-rangeUNESCO
  • Khan el-Khalili

    Our favourite

    A caravanserai from 1382 turned into a labyrinth of trades. On foot, and without a watch.

    CairoGamaliya

    BudgetHandmade
  • Wekalet el-Ghouri

    Off the beaten track

    An early sixteenth-century Mamluk wikala, now a courtyard of craftspeople and musicians.

    CairoAl-Azhar, Gamaliya

    BudgetUNESCO
  • Saqqara

    Unmissable

    Djoser's step pyramid, the oldest large stone building in the world. Best in the early morning.

    GizaSaqqara

    €€€ High endUNESCO
  • Dahshur

    Two of Snefru's pyramids, one of them changing angle halfway up, and nothing like Giza's crowds.

    GizaDahshur

    €€ Mid-rangeBest in the morning
  • Memphis

    A capital of three thousand years, down to a fallen colossus and an alabaster sphinx. Come warned.

    GizaMit Rahina

    €€ Mid-rangeHistoric venue
  • Giza Sound and Light Show

    Floodlit pyramids and the voice of the Sphinx: a production from another era, under a desert night.

    GizaGiza Plateau

    €€€ High endFamily-friendly