Cairo
Ride the hand-cranked elevator up to rooms that ooze old-timer charm, with dark furniture and scuffed-wood floors (room 25 is our favourite). The air-con is noisy, and management is prone to adding surprise extra charges, but the faded romance of the place – including the restaurant where the dinner bell chimes every evening at 7.30pm – is nostalgia-buff heaven.
Cheaper rooms share toilets.
8.53 MILES
The last remaining wonder of the ancient world; for nearly 4000 years, the extraordinary shape, impeccable geometry and sheer bulk of the Giza Pyramids…
0.82 MILES
One of the world’s most important collections of ancient artefacts, the Egyptian Museum takes pride of place in Downtown Cairo, on the north side of Midan…
12.76 MILES
Covering a 7km stretch of the Western Desert, Saqqara, the huge cemetery of ancient Memphis, was an active burial ground for more than 3500 years and is…
0.77 MILES
This museum, on the edge of Islamic Cairo, holds one of the world’s finest collections of Islamic art and is Egypt's (and one of the entire Middle East's)…
1.14 MILES
Founded in AD 970 as the centrepiece of the newly created Fatimid city, Al Azhar is one of Cairo’s earlier mosques, and its sheikh is considered the…
0.98 MILES
Sharia Al Muizz, as it’s usually called, named after the Fatimid caliph who conquered Cairo in AD 969, was Cairo's grand thoroughfare, once chock-a-block…
3.4 MILES
This museum, founded in 1908, houses Coptic art from the earliest days of Christianity in Egypt right through to early Islam. It is a beautiful place, as…
12.25 MILES
The Mastaba of Ti was discovered by Auguste Mariette in 1865. This grand and detailed private tomb is not only Old Kingdom art at its best but also one of…
0.18 MILES
The Ezbekiyya Gardens, designed in 1870s, were once considered among the finest gardens outside Europe. They once covered more than 20 acres, with exotic…
0.18 MILES
One of the few remaining testaments to Cairo’s once-thriving Jewish community, this art-nouveau-meets-ancient-Egypt Sephardic synagogue is very seldom…
0.32 MILES
This traffic-clogged area of park, markets and transit hub is the transition point from European-built Cairo, particularly its theatre and entertainment…
0.32 MILES
A quirky, old fashioned two-room museum home to dusty cases of highly detailed models of post offices and tiny dioramas of postal services throughout the…
5. Contemporary Image Collective
0.33 MILES
This art initiative often hosts excellent temporary art and photography exhibitions; check the website to see if anything is showing while you're in town…
0.41 MILES
This Florentine-style Roman Catholic church is a major landmark along Sharia Mohammed Farid. It dates from 1909 when Cairo was home to a sizeable Italian…
0.42 MILES
Most of Cairo's surviving sabils (public fountains) are found in Islamic Cairo, but this gloriously ornate – though heavily dilapidated – example, built…
0.43 MILES
On the south side of Midan Ramses is Cairo’s pre-eminent orientation aid, Al Fath Mosque. Completed in the early 1990s, the mosque’s minaret is visible…