Cairo (al-Qāhirah) is the capital of Egypt and, with a total population in excess of 17 million people, one of the largest cities in both Africa and the Middle East (the regions which it conveniently straddles). It is also the 19th largest city in the world, and among the world's most densely populated cities.
Though firmly attached to the past, Cairo is also home to a vibrant modern society. The Midan Tahrir area situated in downtown Cairo area , built in the 19th century under the rule of Khedive Ismail, has strived to be a "Paris on the Nile". There also are a number of more modern suburbs including Ma'adi and Heliopolis, while Zamalek is a quiet area on Gezira Island, with upscale shopping. Cairo is best in the fall or spring, when the weather isn't so hot. A felucca ride on the Nile is a good way to escape from the busy city, as is a visit to Al-Azhar Park.
Districts
Cairo is vast: with more than 17 million people, it's the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The downtown core consists of the following districts:
Downtown (Midan Tahrir)
Midan Tahrir is the very centre of the modern city: big hotels, transport nexus and the Egyptian Museum, with downtown extending through Midan Talaat Harb up to Midan Ataba.
Midan Ramses
Cairo's main railway station and a burgeoning retail and accommodation zone.
Garden City
An upmarket "garden suburb" close to the city centre and the Corniche el-Nil.
Islamic Cairo
The centre of historic Cairo, located east of downtown; the Citadel, Khan el Khalili (the main Cairo souq / market), historic mosques and medieval architecture.
Old Cairo
Located south of downtown, includes Coptic Cairo, Fustat (Cairo's historical kernel) and Rhoda Island.
Dokki and Mohandeseen
Located on the west bank of the Nile, with upscale restaurants and shopping.
Gezira and Zamalek
Upmarket suburbs on an island in the Nile, with hotels and the Cairo Tower.
Giza
A sprawling western district of the city and the site of the Pyramids.
Heliopolis and Nasr City
An upmarket residential and retail area close to the Airport.
Ma'adi
A suburb catering to many foreign expatriates, accessed by the Ring Road.
Climate
Climate: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Daily highs (°C): 18 21 24 28 33 35 36 35 32 30 26 20
Nightly lows (°C): 8 9 11 14 17 20 21 22 20 18 14 10
Precipitation (cm): .5 .5 .5 .3 .3 0 0 0 0 0 .3 .5
The best time to visit Cairo is during the winter from November to March, when daytime highs generally stay below 25°C, with nighttime lows around 10°C with occasional rain showers clearing the air. (Don't bother packing an umbrella: even the rainiest months of the year rarely top 5 mm.) If visiting during winter, be aware that not all buildings, including some hotels and hostels, are equipped with heaters. Visitors should always pack a few warm jumpers and a warm jacket for evening wear. The brief spring from March to May can be pleasant, but summer temperatures, on the other hand, can reach a searing 38°C, which is compounded by the city's terrible pollution which is at its worst in the fall before the rains.
Orientation
Today's Greater Cairo is a city with at least 17 million inhabitants, where the rich and impoverished live side by side , and skyscrapers and fast food restaurants nestle up to world heritage monuments. Originally, Cairo was the designated name of the city on the eastern bank of the Nile, and this is where you'll find both the modern Downtown, built under influence of French architecture, today the center of commerce and popular life, as well as historical Islamic and Coptic sights.
Outside the core on the eastern bank, you'll find the modern, more affluent suburbs of Heliopolis and Nasr City near the airport, and Ma'adi to the south. In the middle of the Nile is the island of Gezira and Zamalek, more Western and tranquil than the rest of the city. On the western bank is lots of modern concrete and business, but also the great Giza pyramids and, further to the south, Memphis and Saqqara. The city might seem like a lot to handle, but give it a try, and you might come to love it!
Respect
Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country so say nothing that might be perceived as an insult to Islam or the Egyptian culture. Women and men should wear modest clothing. It is considered disrespectful to the mainly Islamic inhabitants to see visitors walking around with exception of beaches and hotels wearing clothing which reveal thighs , upper arms , bare backs , or cleavage. Men should also not walk about bare chested or wearing very short shorts outside of the hotel or beach resort. Do not enter a mosque with shoes on. This is extremely disrespectful. Also, avoid walking in front of persons in prayer. This can sometimes be difficult as Egyptians can and will be seen , laying out prayer mats on pavements to pray specially for the noon day Friday prayer. It is quite acceptable for visitors or Christian Egyptians , to carry on as normal in the streets or shops during the prayer time. Try not to make any comments on Egyptian heroes like Gamal Abdul Nasser, or Anwar Sadat because you might end up in a heated argument.
Top Things To See
A selected list of Cairo highlights:
Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. The only remaining monuments of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it is the country's most famous tourist attraction.
Egyptian Museum, on Midan Tahrir. The world's premier collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
Citadel, in Islamic Cairo. A grand castle built by Salah Al-Din. Also parts of the water pipes (Majra Al-Oyouon) are still there, these pipes used to carry the water from the Nile River to the citadel.
Ibn Tulun, close to Sayida Zeinab. The oldest, and maybe most beautiful mosque in Cairo.
Cairo Tower (185 m./610 ft.) on Gezira Island offers a 360-view of Cairo, along with the Giza Pyramids off in the distance to the west.
Al-Azhar Park. A recently opened landscaped gardens overlooking the Citadel edit
Khan El Khalily. Cairo's souk area where visitors will find many merchants selling perfume, spices, Gold, Egyptian hand craft.
Abdeen Palace. Located about one Kilometer away from the Midan El-Tahrir a five minutes walk, home of the last king of Egypt the exiled king Farouk.
Pharaonic Village. It is about twenty minutes driving from Downtown.
Buy
Midan Talaat HarbATMs are conveniently located in various places throughout downtown. A more secure option are the ATMs in the five star hotels. There also are numerous places that handle currency exchange, or you can try any major bank such as HSBC or Commercial International Bank for currency exchanges or redeeming travelers cheques. There also are a number of Citibank branches in Cairo.
Foreign currencies can also be exchanged for Egyptian pound in all the Egyptian banks like Banque Misr , National Bank of Egypt , Banque De Caire , Arab African Bank , The United Bank , or the large branches of Bureau De Change.
The Khan El-Khalili bazaar is a giant souq in Islamic Cairo. The merchants here are ravenous and skilled, so don't fall for the hard sell and be prepared to haggle. This is a great place to buy rustic glassware and perfume bottles. Be choosy.
Zamalek has a number of small, but high-end shops, along with shops selling crafts, jewelry and other items. Fair Trade Cairo in Zamalek is a great shop selling high quality crafts made by local artisans. Nefertari, also in Zamalek, has wonderful organic cotton linens, skin care products, and the like. There is also Nomad, that has a small, charming second floor showroom in Zamalek, as well as Nagada, and Khan Misr Taloun.
Diwan, in Zamalek, is a very nice primarily English-language bookstore.
Midan Talaat Harb and surrounding streets, including Talaat Harb Street, are home to countless shops, selling everything from shoes and books to sweets.
The Midan Ataba area in Downtown Cairo is home to large bookseller markets, where you can find inexpensive books, as well as electronics and clothing markets.
Eat
This guide uses the following price ranges for a typical meal for one, including soft drink:
Budget Under LE 10
Mid-range LE 10-40
Splurge Over LE 40-100
Cairo has an enormous number of restaurants, catering to most needs. Cheap food can be found everywhere in street restaurants and snack stalls. The top notch restaurants are often, but not always, found in hotels and Nile boats. The borders between restaurants and cafes are not crystal-clear in the Egyptian capital. In many places it is perfectly acceptable to just have a drink or sheesha. Medium and high-range outlets might have a minimum charge. Cheaper restaurants will normally not serve alcohol as well as some more expensive outlets.
In general, downtown is good for budget eating, while for higher quality eating you should head to Zamalek, Mohandiseen or any of the other more affluent parts of town.
For those with a greater interest in Cairo's culinary life, look for Cairo Dining, a magazine with a half-yearly update of 1000 Cairo restaurants (and places to go out) sorted by price, kind of food and area.
Otlob.com delivers food from a large number of Cairo restaurants, including fast-food places like McDonalds, as well as higher-end places. Otlob is also useful because it offers a list of restaurants by type of food, area, and even covers menus, conveniently all in English. Almost all but the highest quality Cairo restaurants offer delivery or takeout.
Drink
Coffee & shisha at el-FishawyCairo has a wide range of drinking options from the very traditional to fashionable and modern. At the other end of the scale, almost any street in Cairo has a traditional coffee house, ´ahwa, a traditionally male institution of social life tracing many hundreds of years back in history. Besides that you'll find everything from fruit stalls to patisseriés and bakeries and modern cafés whipping up all varieties of modern European coffee. In addition to the traditional Turkish coffee and shai tea, virtually everywhere you'll find drinks like hibiscus tea kerkedeeh, served warm or cold depending on season, sahleb, a coconut drink usually served in winter, fakhfakhenna (a kind of fruit salad), sugarcane juice, mango and tamarind juice, Tamr hindi.
Nightlife
For the capital of a muslim country Cairo is quite moderate when it comes to the consumption of alcohol. A wide range of bars and dance clubs is available, basically in every major hotel, and some are open 24/7. If you'd like to explore the less fancy drinking places in Cairo, Downtown is definitely the place to go.
Sleep
Cairo has a tremendous range of accommodation, from low-rent budget hotels downtown to five-star palaces along the Nile. See individual district articles for hotel listings.
Contact
Mail
The main post office [37] of Cairo is located on Midan Ataba (open 7am - 7pm Sa - Th, 7am - 12 noon Fr and holidays). The poste restante office is to be found along the side street to the right of the main entrance to the post office and through the last door (open 8am - 6 pm Sat - Th, 10am - 12 noon Fr and holidays) - mail will be held for 3 weeks.
Egypt-Post livery is green and yellow.
There are two kind of mail boxes for international and domestic use. They are typically found on the street in pairs, colored green and yellow. It is said that your mail will be delivered no matter which one you use. Always use the register mail facility to post anything valuable or important. It takes longer but each step of the journey is recorded, as many letters do not arrive at their destinations when using regular mail service.
Internet
The Internet is rapidly growing in Cairo as in many other Egyptian and Middle Eastern cities. There is now a profusion of established internet cafés and venues, with many more opening for business each month. An hour in a downtown net cafe will set you back 3-5LE. A growing number of cafés including Cilantro and Beanos provide wifi for free, and if all else fails, you can always drop into a McDonalds and try their network. Luxury hotels often provide WiFi at a premium.
If you have access to a traditional telephone line in Cairo, then you will be able to access the internet through dial-up connection for 1.25 LE per hour by dialing 0777 XXXX numbers.
Mobile Phones
In Egypt, cell phone are a way of life. Walking down any street, or on a crowded bus, it seems that many (younger) Egyptians are addicted to cell phones (similar to what you may find in Japan or Korea). Instead of using your phone from you home country (which often tend to carry very high roaming fees), consider obtaining an Egyptian SIM card or cheap unlocked phone. The 2 main carriers in Egypt are Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt , with UAE's Etisalat a growing 3rd player in the Egyptian market. Mobinil and Vodafone offer the best coverage, but for tourists Etisalat is the best option as they give the most minutes and seem to have the lowest calling rates abroad out of any of the 3 (its a difference of paying $0.55USD per minute for a call to the States than paying $2.50 USD for using your home GSM provider on raoming).
You can find mobile dealerships in every section of Cairo (frankly, you can't avoid them), and getting set up is fairly easy. SIM cards for any of the 3 providers go for about 5-20 LE (about 1 to 5 USD). You will need to bring your identification ( its recommended to bring a copy of your ID, as you may not want someone walking off with your passport in a shady shop to make a copy). If you don't have an unlocked phone, many shops will sell cheap older models (usually Nokia phones) or secondhand phones. But beware, make sure that the phone is fully functional before purchasing it, and buying a used one is at your own risk, as a good percentage of these tend to be stolen ones).
Stay safe
You can walk around the main streets anytime you feel like roaming. It's fairly safe and you will always find lots of people around smiling and offering to help. Women alone can expect to be the target of an excessive amount of catcalling, but it rarely, if ever, goes beyond that. You should bear in mind that around the more touristy locations there is an abundance of 'helpful' people, but be careful who you go with and under no circumstance let anyone push or guide you anywhere you don't want to go! If you get lost look for the security and police officers. Many speak a little English, and most know their local area very well, as well as the tourist spots.
Crossing streets is another major challenge in Cairo. Traffic lights, which only exist in a few locations, are routinely disregarded. In downtown Cairo, police officers may be controlling traffic at key intersections at busy times. To cross the street, it's like playing the video game "Frogger", hurrying across the street one lane at a time, when there is a small break in traffic. Also, when riding in a taxi, the driver may go quite fast and drive erratically. If at any time you feel unsafe simply tell the driver to stop and get out.
Emergency services
Police, 122.
Ambulance, 123.
Fire, 180.
Stay healthy
Tummy upsets As elsewhere in Egypt, be careful with what you eat. Raw leafy vegetables, egg-based dressings like mayonnaise and minced meat are particularly risky. Avoid cold salads and puddings from buffets even in the 5* hotels just to be on the safe side.Opinions on tap water vary, but most visitors choose to stick to the bottled stuff. Large bottles of water can be purchased for 2 or 3 LE. Avoid ice in drinks, and only eat fruit with a skin you can wash or peel. You may find that tummy medications you bring from home simply don't work. All visitors would do well to buy from any pharmacy Egyptian brand drugs. The best and most common being Entocid and Antinal. Diarrhea and vomiting can almost always be stopped by taking 2 of these tablets with a glass of water in a few hours. If symptoms persist, it is wise to consult a doctor as dehydration in Summer can come on quickly.
Smog can reach extreme levels, especially in late summer and fall before the rains. This, coupled with the summer heat, can make spending time outdoors in the summer quite unpleasant.
Mosquitos Mosquitos are a part of life in Egypt so you will have to live with them. They are active from dusk till dawn, and then find a dark sheltered place to sleep during the heat of the day. They love humidity and wet environments where they breed. They also love leafy green gardens, and hedging. Sitting around lakes, pools, or in a garden at night can be suicide. Only the female bites, and one female in a bedroom can cause much discomfort by morning, so it is always wise to kill any before sleeping. A fly swatter is best as they move due to air pressure, swatting with a newspaper will not work. Mosquito repellent sprays are of little value either. Most hotels will have smoke sprays at dusk to quieten them down but they will revive and attack later. The best defense is to kill any in hotel rooms. Wear long sleeves and long trousers when out at night.When out sit in a breeze or in front of a fan as they do not like moving air. The mosquito tablets and burners merely make them sleepy, they do not kill them. It's better to spend a few minutes going round the hotel room killing any you see than suffer days of itching and painful bites.
Hospitals
For medical care, hotels usually have a house doctor on call. Any major operations are best performed outside Egypt, but the following hospitals are generally considered the best in Cairo:
Cleopatra Hospital, Heliopolis, ☎ 2414-3931, .
Dar El Fouad Hospital, 6th of October City, ☎ 3835-6030, .
Backpackers will see doctor's offices dotted all around Cairo on board signs. They are speciality specific. Just look for one and then inquire. Note most surgeries open after 5pm and run late till sometimes midnight.A consultation fee will give you a consultation and one follow up appointment. Travelers can also visit private hospitals like El Salam, Dar Al Fouad,6th October University Hospital, Ain Shams University Hospital,Kasr El-Eney during the day. Each has an outpatient clinic with various specialists on duty. Usually no appointment is necessary and you will be seen depending on how early you arrive. The fee for the outpatient clinic of 6th October University Hospital for a consultation and follow up is 40le.
Cairo Map
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