Car Hire Cairo - Mini guide to Cairo

Sprawling, calamitous, bustling, ancient and balmy Cairo is home to 16 million people and has a long reputation as one of the world’s greatest tourist cities. It’s hardly graceful or clean and certainly not walkable, but fascinating non-the-less.

First stop for most are the Great Pyramids of Cheops (and his two sons), located at Giza on the city outskirts. One of the apparent seven wonders of the world, the Pyramids are guarded by the massive lion-like Sphinx. How they managed to build theses massive structures over 5000 years ago is anyone’s guess. Every evening a ‘Jean Michel Jarre’ style light show theatrically descends about the area, explaining its history.

Cairo’s most visited attraction is the world renown Egyptian Museum, boasting perhaps the greatest collection of antiquity in the world (more than 100,000 pieces), including King Tutankhamen’s gold and lapis mask, and the Royal Mummy room. It’s located near the city’ bustling main square.

Visiting Islamic Cairo is like stepping back six centuries, its full of tiny alleyways, mud-brick houses, food hawkers, and goats, camels and donkeys. The 9th C Mosque of Ibn Tulun is the city’s oldest, and presiding over it is the Citadel - a medieval fortress with its own Al-Azhar Mosque that dominates the skyline. The Mamluks (Turkish army officers) seized power and ruled from here for 700 years.

Coptic Cairo has Roman origins and the Fortress of Babylon is the sole remaining evidence of Christian influence in the city. There is also a fascinating museum recording young Jesus’ visit to the city.

The rest of Cairo is a mess, but intriguing with its endless markets, street life, Nile river banks, lovely mosques and Islamic architecture.