Cairo

Why go

The last standing wonder — Giza is inside the metropolitan area, not out in the desert. A new museum for the whole of ancient Egypt — the GEM holds Tutankhamun's complete tomb assemblage. Islamic Cairo — a thousand years of mosques, madrasas and gates in a walkable medieval quarter. Twenty-two million people — the largest city in Africa and the Arab world, and it behaves like it.

The character

Cairo has been the capital of Egypt in one form or another since the Arab conquest founded Fustat in 641, and the Fatimids laid out al-Qahira in 969 — the walled city whose gates, Bab Zuwayla and Bab al-Futuh, still stand. What accumulated between then and now is the densest concentration of Islamic architecture anywhere: some six hundred registered monuments in a few square kilometres, many of them working mosques with schools attached.

The pyramids are the other pole, and the thing visitors underestimate is proximity. Giza is not a remote site but a plateau at the edge of the urban area, with the suburb pressing up to the fence — a fact that is either disillusioning or the whole point, depending on how you look at it. Modern Cairo is loud, enormous, hot and generous, with a traffic system that operates on eye contact and a hospitality reflex that is genuine. The Grand Egyptian Museum, opened after two decades of construction, has finally given the collection the building it needed.

Places of character

Grand Egyptian Museum — Tutankhamun's five thousand objects shown together for the first time. Giza plateau — go at opening; walk out into the desert behind for the three pyramids in alignment. Ibn Tulun Mosque — 879, the oldest intact mosque in the city, with a spiral minaret and a vast empty courtyard. Al-Muizz Street — a kilometre of Fatimid and Mamluk architecture, pedestrianised, best after dark. Khan el-Khalili and the coffee houses — El Fishawy has been open more or less continuously since 1773. Coptic Cairo and the Hanging Church — the Christian quarter inside a Roman fort, and the synagogue nearby.

The way to do it

Start early — everything worth doing is better before ten, both for heat and crowds. Use Uber, which removes the negotiation. Give Islamic Cairo a full day on foot rather than an hour. Accept the persistence at Giza with humour and a firm no. And sit in a coffee house for an hour doing nothing; that is the city's own pastime.

One perfect day

Giza at opening, with the plateau still cool, and a walk out into the sand behind the third pyramid where the city disappears and the alignment reads. Back for the Grand Egyptian Museum: three hours, ending with Tutankhamun. Late lunch of koshari. Afternoon in Islamic Cairo: Ibn Tulun's courtyard for the silence, then up the minaret, then Al-Muizz Street as the light drops and the lamps come on. Tea and shisha at El Fishawy in the middle of the bazaar. Dinner late, and the pyramids lit from a rooftop across the river.

Grand hotels

Marriott Mena House — an 1869 royal lodge at the foot of Giza, with the Great Pyramid filling the window. Old Cataract, Aswan — eight hundred kilometres south, where Agatha Christie wrote; the country's other legendary address.

When to go

Best expression: November to February — twenty degrees, clear skies and the plateau bearable all day. Consider: March, before the heat, with the desert light at its best. Avoid if possible: June to August, when it passes forty degrees, and the khamaseen dust winds in April.

The frame

Ideal stay 4 nights · Minimum 3 nights · Best arrival by air; the new capital rail links are opening slowly · Airport CAI, 25 km · Walkability excellent within quarters, impossible between them · Best without a car yes, with Uber