Al-Husayn Mosque & Surrounding Quarter
Midan al-Husayn, Islamic Cairo
The Mosque of al-Husayn is one of the holiest sites in Islam — believed to contain the head of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad whose martyrdom at the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD is the foundational event of Shia Islam.
City of the Dead (Northern Cemetery)
Northern Cemetery, Cairo
The City of the Dead is one of the most extraordinary urban phenomena in the world — a vast medieval cemetery east of Islamic Cairo where an estimated 500,000 to one million people live among the tombs, mausoleums, and funerary complexes of Egypt's sultans, emirs, and saints.
Coptic Cairo
Old Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
Coptic Cairo is the oldest part of the city — a walled enclave built on the site of the Roman fortress of Babylon that predates Islamic Cairo by six centuries and contains some of the oldest Christian churches in the world.
Egyptian Food Culture (Kushari & Street Food)
Downtown Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian street food is one of the great underappreciated cuisines of the Middle East — a tradition of cheap, filling, flavourful dishes that feeds 100 million people daily and centres on a handful of preparations that have been perfected over centuries.
Islamic Cairo (Al-Muizz Street)
Cairo, Egypt
Al-Muizz Street is the most historically significant street in Cairo — a kilometre-long corridor through the heart of Islamic Cairo that contains the highest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture in the world.
Khan el-Khalili Bazaar
Khan el-Khalili, Islamic Cairo
Khan el-Khalili is Cairo's great bazaar — a labyrinth of narrow alleys, covered passages, and caravanserais that has been the commercial heart of Islamic Cairo since the 14th century, when the Mamluk sultan al-Zahir Barquq established a khan (caravanserai) for merchants trading between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
Muqattam Hills & Cave Church
Mokattam, Cairo
The Monastery of Saint Simon, better known as the Cave Church, is one of the most extraordinary religious spaces in the Middle East — a church carved into the cliffs of the Mokattam Hills that seats 20,000 people, making it the largest church in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world.
Tentmakers' Market (Souk al-Khayamiya)
Near Bab Zuweila, Islamic Cairo
The Tentmakers' Market is the last covered souk in Cairo — a narrow street of workshops near Bab Zuweila where artisans create elaborate appliqué textiles using a technique that has been practised in Egypt for centuries.
Explore culture in Cairo
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