Cairo
Cairo in three days
A thousand years of capital stacked on top of each other. Here is the order that makes it work.
3 min read
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Cairo
Cairo
A thousand years of capital layered on top of each other, and a million people who make it work.
- Best time to visit
- October — April
- Coordinates
- 30.0444, 31.2357
Cairo is the largest city in the Arab world and one of the hardest to get a grip on, because it is not one city. It is a collection of them — Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, Downtown, Zamalek, the new administrative capital in the desert — each with its own scale, noise and rules.
Three days is right
Day one: Islamic Cairo. Bab Zuweila and the three mosque complexes around it, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar in the late afternoon, and the view from the minaret of Al-Azhar or Bab Zuweila at sunset. Go early. The area empties after 4 pm and the light does the work instead of the crowds.
Day two: the pyramids and the museum. The Giza plateau first thing in the morning, then the Grand Egyptian Museum, which finally gives the Tutankhamun collection a building worth the name. Budget a full day between the two.
Day three: Coptic Cairo and the old streets. The Hanging Church, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the Church of St. Sergius, and the old alleys of the Mar Girgis area.
Getting around
The metro is cheap, fast and now genuinely good — the new line 3 connects Zamalek, Downtown and the museum area. Use it. The traffic above ground at 8 am and 6 pm is not a way to spend your time, and a ride-hailing driver will know the shortcuts a taxi driver will not.
A word on food
Do not eat the tourist lunch. Eat where the queue is on the pavement and the prices are handwritten on a board. Koshari at Abou Tarek in downtown is the obvious choice and it is genuinely good; so is a foul sandwich from a cart near the old university.