16 of the best · Cairo, Egypt
The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, the royal mummies at NMEC, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Coptic Museum, the Cairo Opera House and the tentmakers of Al-Khayamiya.
Our 16 favourites, listed A–Z · Updated October 2026
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Three places we would send a friend to first, chosen by people who know Cairo well.
On Tahrir Square since 1902
The museum of 1902 on Tahrir Square, still the great treasury of Pharaonic Egypt.
The royal mummies
The museum at Fustat whose Royal Mummies Hall holds the kings and queens of the New Kingdom.
El-Fustat Road, Ein Elsira, CairoExplore View on map
Islamic art
One of the world’s great collections of Islamic art, from carved wood to glass lamps and ceramics.
Five thousand years of collections, the stage on Gezira and the city’s crafts.
The back story
From the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square to the royal mummies at Fustat, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Cairo Opera House and the tentmakers of Al-Khayamiya.
Visual arts
From Tutankhamun at the GEM to the royal mummies at Fustat and Islamic art at Bab al-Khalq.
Beside Ibn Tulun
Two Ottoman-era houses against the walls of Ibn Tulun, filled by an English collector.
Tutankhamun’s treasures
The museum beside the Pyramids, home to the treasures of Tutankhamun, with galleries open daily.
Islamic art
One of the world’s great collections of Islamic art, from carved wood to glass lamps and ceramics.
The royal mummies
The museum at Fustat whose Royal Mummies Hall holds the kings and queens of the New Kingdom.
El-Fustat Road, Ein Elsira, CairoExplore View on map
Christian Egypt
The collection of Christian Egypt, inside the walls of Roman Babylon.
On Tahrir Square since 1902
The museum of 1902 on Tahrir Square, still the great treasury of Pharaonic Egypt.
Mamluk mosques, the oldest mosque in Cairo and two palaces of the modern city.
The Hindu palace
The early-20th-century palace of the founder of Heliopolis, inspired by the temples of India and Cambodia, restored and open.
On Roda Island
The palace of Prince Mohamed Ali on Roda Island, with its gardens and halls of tilework.
Below the Citadel
The great 14th-century mosque-madrasa of Sultan Hassan and its neighbour, Al-Rifa’i, below the Citadel.
Completed in the 9th century
One of the oldest mosques in Cairo, with a vast courtyard and a spiral minaret.
Performing arts
The Cairo Opera House on Gezira.
Opera, ballet and symphony
The home of opera, ballet and the Cairo Symphony, on Gezira island.
Folk & cultural traditions
Appliqué, brass and silver: the bazaar, the tentmakers and the city’s jewellers and weavers.
Egyptian design
The Egyptian jewellery house that draws on the country’s heritage, with boutiques in Cairo.
The old souk
The great bazaar of medieval Cairo: brass, lanterns, spices and silver in a maze of lanes.
Al-Khayamiya
The covered street south of Bab Zuweila where appliqué textiles are still stitched by hand.
