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Decent stables near the coach park at the Giza pyramids. Expect to pay around £E35 per hour (hand over the money after the ride, and tip your guide an additional around £E5 or around £E10 ), and keep your Pyramids site ticket or you'll be charged again to enter. Moonlight rides around the Pyramids are a favourite outing, but under new regulations, you can't ride very close to the site after .
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Abdeen Palace
Begun in 1863 and employing Europe's most lavish architects and designers, Abdeen Palace was a centrepiece of Khedive Ismail's plan for a modern Cairo, inspired by Paris' recent makeover; the khedive even called in mastermind French planner Baron Haussmann as a consultant. He wanted the palace finished for the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal, to impress visiting dignitaries, but its 500 rooms weren't completed until 1874.
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Agricultural Museum
It may sound dull, but the Agricultural Museum, near the 6th of October Bridge, is quite fascinating and verges on the bizarre. The displays tell you all you ever wanted to know about agriculture in Egypt, from Pharaonic times onwards, and range from Roman loaves and giant plastic fruits to glass cases packed with stuffed birds and a Pharaonic-era mummified bull from Memphis. The easiest way to get here is to catch the metro to Doqqi station.
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Al-Azhar Mosque
Founded in AD 970 as the centrepiece of newly created Fatimid Cairo, the Al-Azhar Mosque is one of Cairo's earliest mosques and its sheikh is the highest theological authority for Egyptian Muslims. Its university was established in AD 988, and claims to be the world's oldest surviving educational institution (a claim disputed by the Kairaouine Mosque and University in Fez, Morocco). Students are now taught in various campuses around the country.
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Al-Azhar Park
Al-Azhar Park is a triumph of thoughtful urban planning, inspired architecture and sensible environmental management - a rare mix indeed in this muddled megalopolis. A restaurant and gallery building on the park's northern hill boasts spectacular 360-degree views of the city and a design referencing surrounding historic buildings.
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Al-Fath Mosque
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 from just about anywhere in central and Islamic Cairo.
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American University in Cairo
American University in Cairo is the college of choice for the sons and daughters of Egypt's stratospherically wealthy. As of fall 2008, most students will be at a new campus in the eastern suburbs, but that won't stop average Egyptians from imagining the Western-inspired debauchery that goes on behind the tall fences. This campus has an attractive courtyard and a good bookshop.
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Amir Taz Palace
The Amir Taz Palace is the restored home of one of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad's closest advisers, who later controlled the throne through Sultan Hassan. Now used as a cultural centre, the home is not as extensive as Beit el-Suhaymi, but admission is free, and there are a couple of small exhibits, a beautiful wood ceiling in the loggia and even clean bathrooms.
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Bab al-Futuh
The square-towered Bab an-Nasr (Gate of Victory) and the rounded Bab al-Futuh were built in 1087 as the two main northern entrances to the walled Fatimid city of Al-Qahira. Walk along the outside and you'll see what an imposing bit of military architecture the whole thing is.
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Bab Zuweila
Built at the same time as the northern gates (10th century), beautiful Bab Zuweila is the only remaining southern gate of medieval Al-Qahira. Visitors may climb the ramparts, where some intriguing exhibits about the gate's history are in place. The two minarets atop the gate, also open to visitors, offer one of the best available views of the area.
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Basilica
A miniature version of Istanbul's famous Aya Sofya, dubbed the 'jelly mould' by local expats. Baron Empain, the man who founded Heliopolis, is buried here.
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Beit al-Harrawi
Another fine 18th-century mansion, but too sparse inside to warrant the admission charge. It is sometimes used as a concert venue and houses the Arabic Oud House; you may hear rehearsals.
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Beit el-Suhaymi
Islamic Cairo's finest example of the traditional family mansions built throughout the city from Mamluk times to the 19th century has a typically plain facade, but once through the tunnel-like entrance you emerge into a beautiful inner courtyard. If you only shell out for one Islamic monument, this should be it.
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Beit Zeinab al-Khatoun
Leaving the Al-Azhar Mosque, turn left and then left again to reach an alley squeezed between the southern wall of the mosque and a row of tiny shops housed in the vaults of a 15th-century merchants' building. At the top of this road lies Beit Zeinab al-Khatoun, a restored Ottoman-era house with a rooftop affording superb views of the surrounding minaret-studded skyline.
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Ben Ezra Synagogue
Egypt's oldest synagogue dates from the 9th century. In the 12th century, the synagogue was restored by rabbi Abraham Ben Ezra. Tradition marks this as the spot where the prophet Jeremiah gathered the Jews in the 6th century after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Jerusalem temple. The adjacent spring is supposedly where the pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the reeds, and where Mary drew water to wash Jesus.
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Birqash Camel Market (Souq al-Gamaal)
A visit to Egypt's largest camel market, on the edge of the Western Desert, makes for a wild contrast to Cairo city life. The market is an easy half-day trip from Cairo but, like all of Egypt's animal markets, it's not for the faint-hearted. Hundreds of camels are swapped here daily, most having made the long haul up the 40 Days Road from Sudan.
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Blue Mosque
The Blue Mosque, built in 1347, gets its popular name from the combination of blue-grey marble on the exterior and the flowery Ottoman tiling, not applied until 1652, inside. The minaret affords an excellent view of the Citadel, while over to the east, just behind the mosque, you can see the remains of Saladin's city walls, being excavated as part of the Al-Azhar Park project.
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Cairo Atelier
Gallery off Sharia Mahmoud Bassiouni, as much a clubhouse as an exhibition space, frequented by Cairo's art-world old guard.
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Cairo Opera House
Off the west side of Midan Saad Zaghloul , the well-groomed Gezira Exhibition Grounds are dominated by the Cairo Opera House . Built in 1988 with money from Japan, the building is a modern take on traditional Islamic design.
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Cairo Puppet Theatre
The long-running Cairo Puppet Theatre is opposite Ezbekiyya Gardens in Downtown. The shows are in Arabic, but are colourful and animated enough to entertain non-Arabic speakers of all ages.
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Cairo Tower
North of the Cairo Opera House and south of the Al-Zuhreya Gardens is the Cairo Tower. Completed in 1961 and resembling a 185m-high wickerwork tube, the tower was apparently built as a thumb to the nose at the Americans, who had given Nasser the money used for its construction to buy US arms. After the Pyramids it's the city's most famous landmark. The 360-degree views from the top are excellent; clearest in the early morning or late afternoon.
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Cairo Zoo
Children can feed the hippos, see countless kinds of camels - and meet lots of local kids - at the Cairo Zoo.
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Church of St Barbara
St Barbara was beaten to death by her father for trying to convert him to Christianity. Her relics supposedly rest in a small chapel left of the nave.
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Church of St Sergius
This church, the oldest inside the walls with 3rd- and 4th-century pillars, is said to be built over a cave where Joseph, Mary and the newly born infant Jesus sheltered after fleeing to Egypt to escape persecution from King Herod of Judea, who had embarked upon a 'massacre of the first born'. The cave (now a crypt) in question is reached by descending steps to the right of the altar, but it's been flooded for some time now.
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Church of St Simeon the Tanner
The Church of St Simeon the Tanner , on a ridge above 'Garbage City', is just a part of a whole complex carved into the cliffs. It seats 5000 (that the buses carrying worshippers fit through the lanes below is a miracle in itself) and is ringed with biblical scenes carved into the rock. Look over the ridge, and you can see the whole sprawling city; look down, and you see real, live pigs rooting around the zabbaleen backyards, recycling the edible trash.
