Al-Azhar Mosque
Cairo, United States
Al-Azhar Mosque is one of the most important religious institutions in the Islamic world — founded in 970 AD by the Fatimid dynasty as both a mosque and a university, making it one of the oldest continuously operating educational institutions on Earth.
Egyptian Museum (Tahrir Square)
El Tahrir Square, Qasr Al Doubara, Cairo, 11519, Egypt
The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square is the most important collection of pharaonic antiquities in the world — over 120,000 artifacts spanning 5,000 years of Egyptian civilisation, housed in a pink neoclassical building from 1902 that is itself a monument to the 19th-century passion for Egyptology.
Giza Plateau Sound & Light Show
Zuqaq Al Giza, Bab El Bahr, Cairo, 11668, Egypt
The Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids has been running since 1961 — a nightly spectacle that illuminates the pyramids and the Sphinx with coloured lights while a narration (available in multiple languages) tells the story of ancient Egypt through the voices of the pharaohs and the Sphinx itself.
Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)
Al Remaya Street, Kafr Nassar, Giza, 12559, Egypt
The Grand Egyptian Museum is the most ambitious museum project of the 21st century — a 490,000-square-metre complex near the Giza Pyramids designed to house the complete collection of Egyptian antiquities, including the entire Tutankhamun collection (5,400 objects, many never previously displayed) in a single purpose-built institution.
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.
Mosque of Muhammad Ali
Citadel of Saladin, Al Abageyah, Cairo
The Mosque of Muhammad Ali is Cairo's most visible mosque — a massive Ottoman-style structure with an 82-metre dome and twin 84-metre minarets that dominates the Citadel of Saladin and the city's skyline.
Nile Felucca Ride
Kornish Al Nil Street, Al Ismalia, Cairo, 11519, Egypt
A felucca ride on the Nile is the most peaceful experience available in Cairo — a traditional wooden sailboat with a single triangular sail that drifts along the river using the same wind and current that have powered boats on the Nile for 5,000 years.
Pyramids of Giza & The Sphinx
Al Ahram Tunnel, First Al Omraneya, Giza, 12551, Egypt
The Pyramids of Giza are the last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World — three monumental tombs built 4,500 years ago for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, standing on a limestone plateau at the edge of the Western Desert with the sprawl of modern Cairo visible in the haze behind them.
Saqqara Step Pyramid
Saqqara, Giza Governorate, Egypt
Saqqara is the necropolis that invented the pyramid — a vast desert plateau 30 kilometres south of Cairo where the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2670 BC by the architect Imhotep, represents the first monumental stone structure in human history.
Sultan Hassan Mosque
Al Sultan Hassan Street, Al Helmia, Cairo, 11655, Egypt
The Sultan Hassan Mosque is the largest and most ambitious mosque of the Mamluk period — a massive stone complex built between 1356 and 1363 that architectural historians consider one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture worldwide.
Tahrir Square
Tahrir Square, Downtown Cairo
Tahrir Square is the most politically significant public space in the Middle East — a traffic-choked roundabout in downtown Cairo that became the epicentre of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, when millions of Egyptians gathered to demand the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
Explore iconic in Cairo
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