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Solar Barque Museum
South of the Great Pyramid is the fascinating Solar Barque Museum. Five long pits near the Great Pyramid of Khufu once contained the pharaoh's solar barques (boats), which may have been used to bring the mummy of the dead pharaoh across the Nile to the valley temple, from where it was brought up the causeway and into the tomb chamber. The barques were then buried around the pyramid to provide transport for the pharaoh in the next world.
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Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art
Set amid car-repair shops, this is Cairo's most cutting-edge space, with emphasis on video and multimedia installations. It also has a large workshop across the street, for classes and confabs.
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Umm Kolthum Museum
Set in a peaceful Nileside garden, Monastirli Palace was built in 1851 for an Ottoman pasha from Monastir, in northern Greece. The salamlik that he built for public functions is now an elegant venue for concerts, while the other part is now the Umm Kolthum Museum. Dedicated to the most famous Arab diva, the small museum is more like a shrine, given the reverence with which the singer's signature rhinestone-trimmed glasses and glittery gowns are hung under spotlights in display cases.
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Wikala of Al-Ghouri
Part of the Mosque and Mausoleum of Al-Ghouri complex, the Wikala of Al-Ghouri, 100m east, is another of the doomed sultan's legacies. Similar to the Wikala Al-Bazara but more sympathetically restored, the upper rooms are artists' ateliers while the former stables are craft shops. The courtyard serves as a theatre for Sufi dance performances.
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Zamalek Art Gallery
A light-filled space showing contemporary Egyptian artists, usually figurative.
