The hook
A thundering megacity of some twenty million on the Nile, where a thousand years of minarets and medieval streets, one of the world's great troves of pharaonic treasure, and relentless modern chaos all press together.
01Why it's worth it
Cairo overwhelms, and that intensity is the experience. The medieval core, Islamic Cairo, is one of the richest concentrations of Islamic architecture anywhere: a dense quarter of mosques, madrasas, and gates going back over a thousand years, crowned by the Citadel, and threaded with the bustling Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Older still is Coptic Cairo, with its ancient churches and the roots of Egyptian Christianity. And the city holds the treasures of the pharaohs, now moving into the vast new Grand Egyptian Museum by the pyramids, Tutankhamun's gold among them. Between these, Cairo is loud, dusty, gridlocked, and exhausting, with a warmth and energy that many travellers come to love once they surrender to it. It rewards patience, a strong stomach for chaos, and time in the old quarters after the heat of the day.
02How to experience it
Give Islamic Cairo an unhurried late afternoon for the mosques, the Citadel, and Khan el-Khalili, and set aside serious time for the Egyptian antiquities at the new Grand Egyptian Museum. See Coptic Cairo for the older layer. Escape the noise with a felucca sail on the Nile at sunset.