Things to do in Cairo

Culture · Giza, beside the pyramids

The largest archaeological museum in the world, holding the complete Tutankhamun collection for the first time.

Local tip: Decades in the making and worth a full day rather than a morning. Book ahead and go on a weekday — and see it before the pyramids, not after, so the site makes sense.

Landmark · Historic Cairo

A concentrated open-air museum of Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman architecture along a single pedestrianised street.

Local tip: Go in the late afternoon and stay past sunset, when the monuments are lit and the street belongs to Cairenes rather than tour groups. Climb the Bab Zuwayla minarets for the view.

Neighborhood · Islamic Cairo

The great medieval bazaar, going since the 14th century, plus El Fishawy café which has reputedly never closed.

Local tip: The outer lanes are for tourists; go deeper and the market becomes a working one where Cairenes buy gold, spices and copper. Haggling is expected, cheerful and not personal.

Food · Gezira Island

A leafy island district of embassies, galleries, bookshops and the best concentration of restaurants in the city.

Local tip: Where most foreign residents gravitate, and the easiest introduction to Cairo. Walk the Nile corniche at sunset and eat somewhere on Road 26 July.

Nature · Above Islamic Cairo

A large hillside garden built on 500 years of accumulated rubble, with the restored Ayyubid city wall running through it.

Local tip: One of the great urban restoration projects anywhere, and the best view over historic Cairo at sunset. Cairenes come here in the evening; almost no visitors do.

Culture · Rhoda Island

An eccentric early-20th-century royal palace mixing Ottoman, Moorish, Persian and Art Nouveau styles across separate pavilions.

Local tip: Extraordinary, meticulously restored and almost entirely empty. Twenty minutes from Zamalek and you will likely share it with a handful of people.