Cairo in three days
A thousand years of capital stacked on top of each other. Here is the order that makes it work.
Three days is enough for Cairo if you are ruthless about order, and not enough if you are not. The problem is not that there is too much to see — it is that the things are scattered across a city of twenty million people, and the distance between them eats the day.
This is the order that worked for us.
Day one — Islamic Cairo, early
Start at the Citadel and Bab Zuweila when it opens at six. The three mosque complexes around Bab Zuweila — al-Mu'ayyad, al-Hakim, and the nearby Qalawun — are the densest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture anywhere outside Samarkand, and they are empty before eight.
Walk down to the Khan el-Khalili bazaar as it opens. The lanes fill from about ten, so the first two hours are for the craftspeople setting up rather than the crowd.
Take the metro down to Al-Azhar and go up the minaret of Al-Hakim for the best view over the old city. The fee is small and there is almost nobody there.
Day two — Giza at sunrise, the museum at midday
The pyramids at Giza are best at opening, because that is when the light comes in low from the east and the Sphinx still has its morning shadow. Get there for 7:30. You will have the plateau almost to yourself until nine.
Then the Grand Egyptian Museum. It is enormous and the Tutankhamun galleries will make you queue, but the rest of the collection — the Thutmose III statue, the wooden furniture from Amarna, the royal sarcophagi — is world class and almost nobody is in the room with it.
Day three — Coptic Cairo, then Downtown
Coptic Cairo is compact: the Hanging Church, the Church of St. Sergius, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the old streets between them all fit into a morning.
Then Downtown, which is the part of Cairo that looks like 1930s Alexandria. Walk the Fuad building and the old cafés on the Corniche, and have dinner on the roof of the Fares or the Kazouza with a view over the Nile and the illuminated Citadel.
The practical part
- Get a metro card. The metro is the fastest way to cross this city and it costs almost nothing.
- Carry small notes. Half the city runs on cash and a taxi driver without change is a problem.
- Drink the water. Bottled, sealed, and you will be fine.
- The heat in June is not romantic. Do the heavy outdoor things early and be indoors by two.
