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Citadel
Sprawling over a limestone spur on the eastern edge of the city, the Citadel was home to Egypt's rulers for some 700 years. Their legacy is a collection of three very different mosques, several palaces (housing some underwhelming museums) and a couple of terraces with city views. Admission includes entry to all the museums within the Citadel.
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Complex of Sultan Ashraf Barsbey
From Qaitbey cross the square and continue north. The cemetery has an almost villagelike feel with small shops, cafés and street sellers, and sandy paths pecked by chickens and nosed around by goats. After about 250m the street widens and on the right a stone wall encloses a large area of rubble-strewn ground that was formerly the Complex of Sultan Ashraf Barsbey.
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Contemporary Image Collective
Excellent exhibits documenting Egyptian life and occasionally shows videos on its rooftop.
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Convent of St George
The Convent of St George is closed to visitors, but you can step down into the main hall and the chapel. Inside the latter is a beautiful wooden door, almost 8m high, behind which a small room is still occasionally used for the chain-wrapping ritual that symbolises the persecution of St George during the Roman occupation. Occasionally, visitors wishing to be blessed are wrapped in chains by the resident nuns, who intone the requisite prayers.
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Coptic Museum
Founded in 1908, this museum houses Coptic art from Graeco-Roman times to the Islamic era drawn from Cairo, the desert monasteries and Nubia. In recent years it has undergone a major restoration, and parts have been closed to the public. By the time you read this, the full collection should be on show. Exhibits include textiles, frescoes, stonework, woodwork, manuscripts, glass and ceramics. There's a pleasant enclosed garden and a small café.
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Dahshur
South of Saqqara in a quiet bit of desert, Dahshur is an impressive field of 4th- and 12th-dynasty pyramids. The site was an off-limits military zone until mid-1996, remains free of large tour buses. Although the rhomboidal Bent Pyramid can only be admired from outside, the interior of the wonderful Red Pyramid is open to visitors.
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Dr Ragab's Pharaonic Village
The theme park Dr Ragab's Pharaonic Village is cheesy but offers a child-friendly glimpse of what life in ancient Egypt would have been like, with a boat trip past actors in Pharaonic costumes, a playground and an art centre where kids can make mini reed boats. Take a taxi (around £E20 from Downtown), or walk the 800m from the Sakiat Mekki metro stop.
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Eastern Cemetery
The tombs of Qar, Idu and Queen Meresankh III, in the Eastern Cemetery, are accessible, although it's sometimes difficult to find the guard who has the keys.
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Egyptian Museum
With so much to see in the Egyptian Museum, trying to get around everything in one go is liable to induce chronic 'Pharaonic phatigue'. The best strategy is to make at least two visits, maybe tackling one floor at a time. Unfortunately, there's no best time to visit as the museum is packed throughout the day.
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Egyptian National Railways Museum
Mahattat Ramses is an attractive marriage of Islamic style and industrial-age engineering. At its eastern end it houses the Egyptian National Railways Museum, with a beautiful collection of old locomotives, including one built for Empress Eugénie on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal.
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Egyptian Textile Museum
Directly across the street from the Madrassa & Mausoleum of Barquq, the Egyptian Textile Museum was slated to open in 2008.
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Fishawi's Coffeehouse
Hung with huge mirrors and packed day and night, Fishawi's Coffeehouse claims to have been open continuously for the last 200 years, except perhaps on Ramadan mornings when everyone is fasting. Entertainment comes in the form of roaming salesmen, women and children hawking wallets, pistol-shaped cigarette lighters, carved canes, sheesha -style cigarette holders, and packet after packet after packet of tissues.
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Formal Gardens
North of Midan Saad Zaghloul on the banks of the Nile two lush Formal Gardens have outdoor cafés where local families and young couples partake of tea and sheesha . Below the gardens, the pedestrian corniche (admission around £E2 ) is lively in the evenings.
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Fun Planet
Fun Planet is an indoor amusement centre offering loads of rides and games and will appeal to teenagers.
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Gabalaya Park & Aquarium
The pleasant Gabalaya Park & Aquarium has landscaped gardens with aquariums set in rocks (though not many actual fish). It's a great central spot to escape the crowds.
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Gami' al-Azhar
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).
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Gawhara Palace & Museum
South of Mohammed Ali's mosque is another terrace with good views. Beyond the terrace, the dull Gawhara Palace & Museum lamely attempts to evoke 19th-century court life.
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Gayer-Anderson Museum
The quirky Gayer-Anderson Museum gets its current name from a British major, John Gayer-Anderson, an army doctor who restored and furnished the two adjoining 16th-century houses between 1935 and 1942, filling them with antiquities, artworks and Oriental artefacts acquired on his travels in the region. The houses and their contents were bequeathed by Gayer-Anderson to Egypt (he died in 1945) and have been lovingly restored by a British mission.
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Giza Plateau
It can be a bit of a shock to visit the Giza Plateau and realise that the sandy mound that's home to the pyramids is actually plonked in the middle of the congested city suburb of Giza. There are currently two entrances: the main entrance is via a continuation of Pyramids Rd (Sharia al-Haram) at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the secondary entrance is via the village of Nazlet as-Samaan, below the Sphinx.
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Great Pyramid of Khufu
The oldest pyramid in Giza and the largest in Egypt, the Great Pyramid of Khufu stood 146m high when it was completed in/around 2570 BC. After 46 centuries its height has been reduced by 9m. About 2.3 million limestone blocks, reckoned to weigh on average about 2.5 tonnes each, were used in the construction.
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Greek Orthodox Cemetery
Beyond the Church of St Barabara an iron gate leads to the large, peaceful (if a bit litter-strewn) Greek Orthodox Cemetery. Women on their own should be careful - we've heard reports of flashers lurking among the gravestones.
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Hanging Church
Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Hanging Church, which is still in use, is called the Hanging or Suspended Church as it is built on top of the Water Gate of Roman Babylon. Steep stairs lead from the forecourt to a 19th-century façade topped by twin bell towers. Beyond is a small inner courtyard, usually filled with sellers of taped liturgies and videos of the Coptic pope, Shenouda III.
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Italian Insurance building
Sharia Qasr el-Nil boasts some particularly fine architecture, notably the Italian Insurance building .
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Karim Francis Art Gallery - Downtown
Francis is one of Cairo's more influential curators.
