Cairo
Cairo is the largest city in the Arab world and the gateway to ancient Egypt: the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx stand on its western edge, the treasures of Tutankhamun fill its museums, and a thousand years of Islamic and Coptic history layer its old quarters, all threaded together by the Nile.
October–April
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Finding Cairo
Reading Cairo
01Cairo Beyond the Crowds
The pyramids will always draw the masses. But Cairo rewards those who linger — in hilltop gardens, thousand-year-old lanes at dawn and slow felucca sails on the Nile.
02Cairo in Every Season: When to Go and What Changes
Cairo never closes, but it changes character with the calendar — mild winter days at the pyramids, spring dust winds, furnace summers and the lantern-lit nights of Ramadan.
03A weekend in Cairo, hour by hour
Two days is tight for a city of twenty-plus million and five thousand years — but with an early start and a firm plan, Cairo gives you the pyramids, the medieval city and the Nile. Here is the schedule.
04What to eat in Cairo: the essential dishes and where to find them
Egyptian food is one of the great underrated cuisines — ancient, generous and absurdly affordable. These are the dishes that define Cairo, and the kinds of places that do them justice.
053 Days in Cairo: Pyramids, Museums and the Nile
A three-day route through the essentials — Giza at opening time, the Grand Egyptian Museum, medieval bazaars and a felucca at sunset.
Cairo, framed