Cairo – Historic, chaotic, epic
A developing metropolis of over 20 million people shouldn’t lend itself to serene moments of contemplation, but Cairo defies logic in so many ways.
There mere mention of Cairo conjures instant images of the world of ancients; of soaring pyramids and golden treasures. However, limiting Cairo to such simplicity ignores the underlying intricacies of Africa’s second largest city (behind Lagos) and arguably it’s most historic.
The area of and around Cairo has been important since ancient times and has resulted in the diversity a visitor can experience today. The city lies just north of the ancient capital Memphis, and has played host to Romans, Byzantines and, following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD, has its Islamic way of life which is dominant across North Africa today.
As a visitor, it is an incredible place to spend a few days exploring so many different aspects. Of course the Giza Necropolis and its famous pyramids is top of most people’s list, closely followed by the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, and then most likely some aspect of Old Cairo – whether the Saladin Citadel, many gorgeous mosques (Cairo is known as the City of a Thousand Minarets), or exploring the city’s Coptic history.
Unfortunately, we only spent two full days in Cairo (three nights), so had to limit some of what we wanted to see. I also wanted to really focus on ancient history, so passed up on some of the relatively more modern history of Cairo to spend some time a bit further out of the city – specifically at Saqqara and Dashur, which when combined with Giza, form the extensive Memphite Necropolis.
Our Cairo itinerary ended up as below:
Day 1: Morning at the Egyptian Museum. Afternoon explore Islamic Cairo and the Khan el-Khalili bazaar.
Day 2: Full day to cover the Memphite Necropolis beginning at Giza, moving to Dashur, and finishing at Saqqara.
Originally, our plan on the afternoon of day one was to spend some time seeing the Citadel and some of the key mosques of Cairo, however, we ran so overtime at the Egyptian Museum that we had to cut some time at the end. Similarly on day two, we wanted to include Memphis itself, but ran over time at Giza and actually ran out of time at Saqqara – this day was always ambitious and should probably be spread across 1.5 days.
In hindsight, I regret not being a bit more forceful with our tour agency (Deluxe Tours Egypt) and pushing them for more time on each day. We also didn’t feel super comfortable doing so as the guide that was assigned for us both days didn’t seem to appreciate our interest in certain areas and really tried to rush us at times. I’ll cover this experience further on. I’d still recommend Deluxe Tours Egypt, but on the proviso that Sam is not your guide in Cairo.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities – An incredible collection of artefacts thrown together as if in a… junkyard?
So I bet you’re thinking that what could possibly be the world’s most incredible and important collection of ancient artefacts would be housed in a beautiful state-of-the-art museum, right? Well stop now, tear that theory up, and light it on fire.
Entering the Egyptian Museum is literally what I imagine walking into a time warp would be like – essentially I feel like nothing has changed since the museum was established in 1902. This is compounded by the fact they are constructing the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM for short) close to the pyramids in Giza - why spend money on something old when building something new? There are even crates with what I assume to be treasures inside just lying around in certain areas, not to mention whole statues wrapped in plastic.
All that said and done, the stunning pink palace of Egyptian antiquities proudly standing on the north side of Cairo’s infamous Tahrir Square is a mesmerising place to spend at least a couple of hours (or four in our case) immersing yourself in what you’ll soon see if you’re exploring more of the country.
There are over 250,000 objects spanning a time period of over 3,000 years, so visiting requires a bit of planning, a bit of wandering and a bit of sacrifice. I’d also really recommend a guide as labelling and descriptions aren’t always the best (or existent). The ground floor is arranged reasonably chronologically going clockwise from the entry hall, whist the first floor are grouped more thematically.
In terms of highlights, I cannot describe in words what it felt like to be staring at the golden mask of Tutankhamun. My reaction tells a better story – I cried. It was such a moment for me, an overwhelming one, to be standing in front of something I had so desperately longed to see since I was a small child. It really is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, along with his golden coffin which is also located in the same room.
The whole area of the museum dedicated to the treasures found in Tutankhamun’s tomb is actually very impressive. You can see the famous golden throne, the gilded boxes that encased the sarcophagus, the incredible canopic shrine along with the alabaster chest and canopic jars which held the king’s organs, many of the iconic status of the king, the list goes on.
Other must see artefacts include colossal statues of Akhenaten and Ramesses II, the room dedicated to funery artefacts belonging to a couple Tuya and Yuya, the golden mask of Psusennes I… Honestly there are too many to list. The Mummy Room may or may not be worth seeing (afterwards, we didn’t think so) – it is full of royal mummies and it is kind of earie and creepy to stand above these people who tried so hard to preserve themselves for their afterlife and, in most cases, tried so hard not to be found…
Some tips:
Give yourself time. I don’t think we thought we would spend so much time here – I wanted to see everything! I don’t think our guide realised this either, so he really did try and rush us at some points. Apparently most people spend around two hours; we spent double that and could have spent more. I actually missed seeing the golden mask of Psusennes I and our guide told us it wasn’t in the museum. He either just wanted us to get moving or he actually was a terrible guide who had no idea what I was talking about. More on this later.
Buy a Cairo Pass. This is available by asking at the entrance and then going through a weird process where it eventually gets stamped by some senior museum official. You need a passport photo, a copy of your passport, and 100 USD. The pass gives you access to every attraction in the Cairo area but the real value comes later in a trip when if you have the Cairo Pass, you get the Luxor Pass for 50% off, or just 100 USD (and I’ll explain in my Luxor Pass how we got so much value out of this).
Don’t embarrass yourself trying to take photos of Tutankhamun’s mask or coffin. The guards will pounce on you and make you delete all the photos. I saw it happen to several people.
Have a guide with you. As I said above, it will really help you to understand what you are looking at. The museum isn’t actually that visitor friendly. I believe you can get a guide or join a small group at the museum.
Time your visit for first thing in the morning or late afternoon. Avoiding large groups will help make it more enjoyable.
The Saladin Citadel of Cairo and Khan el-Khalili – Scratching the surface of Cairo’s Islamic soul
Next up on our Cairo trip was the Citadel of Saladin which has been proudly perched above Cairo since its construction in the late 1100s. The fortress, a UNSECO World Heritage Site, offers a great introduction to Cairo’s Islamic past and it’s here you can see some of the city’s most important mosques.
We visited two mosques – first the Al-Nasir Muhammad Mosque and second the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, also known as the Alabaster Mosque. The former is the older of the two, built in the early 14th century. It has a magnificent hypostyle hall surrounding a serene open-air courtyard, and has two beautiful intricately detailed minarets and a gorgeous turquoise dome. I’m waxing lyrically about this place, but it was gorgeous. The columns are actually really interesting – if you look closely, each capital is a different style, and some of the granite ones actually come from ancient temples.
The second mosque we visited, and the main reason most people would visit the citadel, was built in the 1800s to rival the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. The Alabaster Mosque earns its nickname as the lower story and the forecourt are tiled with alabaster up to over 11 meters. I loved being inside this mosque – something about mosques is so peaceful and serene – and they’re just so beautiful.
The most interesting fact about the Mosque of Muhammad Ali is that the clock in the courtyard was a gift from France. In return, the Egyptians sent to Paris an obelisk from Luxor Temple which now stands in the centre of Place de la Concorde. The clock the French gave has never worked, and the gift the Egyptians sent is now an icon of Paris. Go figure.
Make sure you spend some time taking in the view from the terrace at the front of the Alabaster Mosque. The outlook is incredible and it’s a nice moment for quiet contemplation – especially as this was the first moment I saw the pyramids, albeit off in the distance! You can also see the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan and old Islamic Cairo below, as well as the Nile bending its way through the city.
Our last stop was the vast Khan el-Khalili bazaar. I don’t really have a lot to say about this – it seemed like a mostly tourist market (unlike the souk in Aswan). There were a few glimpses of more local life on the fringes, but otherwise it was just shop after shop selling things that would seem attractive to foreigners, or fake designer items. We did stop at the famous El Fishawi café for a Turkish coffee.
Some tips:
Bargain hard if you want to purchase something. We found in all markets in Egypt that you could offer 25% of the initial price and then land somewhere around 50% of the seller’s first offer.
The markets were not very busy (tourist downturn perhaps), or appealing. Interesting to see, but I’ve been to many markets across the Middle East and North Africa and aside from the Egyptian theme of what was on offer, there wasn’t anything overly special about this one. Nice to spend an hour wandering, but otherwise I’m not sure I really get it. I think I would have preferred to go and see another mosque or historic attraction.
In reality, Islamic Cairo needs more time than what we had (or were given by our guide), we missed quite a bit of what is apparently good to see.
The Memphite Necropolis – There’s more to this place than Khufu’s ancient wonder
Wow.
You catch glimpses of it as you get closer to the plateau as breaks in the hectic Greater Cairo traffic and surrounding buildings tease you with what lies ahead.
As you get closer, the magnitude of 2.3 million limestone and granite blocks rising up 139 m from the sands reveals itself further; the Great Pyramid of Giza accompanied by two smaller – but no less majestic – pyramids forming the centrepiece of the Giza necropolis.
Approaching the pyramids are full of moments that I find hard to believe you could ever erase from your memory, or ones that would be no less vivid many years after you first were in the presence of the oldest and only remaining of the Antipater of Sidon’s Seven Wonders of the World.
Constructed some 4,500 years ago during the Old Kingdom, the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, along with the Great Sphinx of Giza, are some of the most enduring and iconic images of a time past, and a must-visit for many travellers.
There is so much we think we know, assume to know, and don’t know about the mysteries of the pyramids (not to mention Ancient Egypt as a whole), and standing at the base of the Great Pyramid and assessing the magnitude of the structure starts to unravel all your preconceived notions, ideas and understanding the Egyptians, not to mention of human capability.
I won’t go into the range of theories about who (or how) really built the pyramids, but I would urge people to open their minds and to read up on some of the very plausible alternate theories – they’re super interesting and it’s great to have an alternate view of Egypt to consider as your journey through a country that continually puts you in front of one unbelievable structure after another.
So, visiting. A lot of people debate whether or not entering the Great Pyramid is worth it. Personally, I do not know why you’d travel all the way to Egypt and not do it! Sure, there is nothing really inside, but to not experience climbing into the pyramid and ascending the Grand Gallery to the King’s Chamber would really be an injustice. It’s a magic feeling being inside and there is a strange energy that comes over you, and one that would be repeated when we visited other pyramids across the greater Memphite necropolis.
You’ll spend at least a couple of hours at the site – one of which should include heading to the southern side to get the most iconic view of the pyramids – the panoramic shot of the three large ones with the three smaller Queen’s Pyramids. We hired a couple of camels to take us around some excellent vantage points. This was amazing for two reasons – first was that it allowed us to peacefully enjoy viewing the pyramids, and second, we have a bunch of incredible photos which capture the memories I’ll treasure forever. Make sure you bargain hard for the camels though, we were so overcharged because we trusted our guide to do the best for us… You should pay around 20 USD per camel. I’m embarrassed to write what we paid!
After we’d finished being wowed by the pyramids, we had a quick look through the Valley Temple of Khafre and then stopped to admire the Great Sphinx of Giza, generally believed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre. There are many vantage points to get a variety of views of the Sphinx – and of course I couldn’t resist the cliché kissing photo…
Our next stop was Dahshur. Many people are surprised to learn that there are more than 80 pyramids known in Egypt today. The Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur contain many of these, in varying condition. Dahshur has two of the better known ones – the Red Pyramid of Sneferu (believed to be the first true pyramid) and the Bent Pyramid, also built by Sneferu.
Of the two pyramids at Dahshur, the Red Pyramid is the most interesting, and the one you can enter. The Bent Pyramid you can view from an area where your car pulls up, and walk around it if you wish. The Bent Pyramid is believed to represent a transitional form between step-sided and smooth-sided pyramids, where they started building at an angle, then realised the finished structure would be unstable, subsequently changing the design to complete it.
As it the Red Pyramid is less visited than the Great Pyramid, I actually found going inside this pyramid more interesting and exciting – less people and less tourism infrastructure made it feel more like a discovery moment. You descend down into the pyramid for what seems like an eternity, and once inside, there are three chambers to look at. Again, like the Great Pyramid, the walls are bare (were these really ancient burial sites…?), but the structure is just incredible. Again, you can feel a sense of energy whist inside – I’ll leave to you how much of this is real ‘energy’ and how much is the thrill and excitement of being inside a 105 m tall pile of red limestone blocks.
We then moved on to Saqqara for the remainder of our day. I’ll start by saying that Saqqara is an incredible site and if you considered yourself even slightly more interested in Ancient Egypt than others, I really suggest you give yourself a lot of time to explore and enjoy it here. We didn’t, partly due to our guide rushing us and seemingly wanting to finish his allotted time, and partly due to me not speaking up and demanding we keep looking at things!
The Pyramid of Djoser, or Step Pyramid, is the focal point for most people visiting Saqqara and is actually a vast and unique mortuary complex with the pyramid enclosed in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration. The colonnaded entrance and various temples and other structures of the festival complex are brilliant early examples of Egyptian palatial architecture, and it is well worth having a guide or reading up on this prior to or during your visit.
We also visited the largely ruined Pyramid of Teti. Whilst the preservation of this pyramid above ground is very poor, the chambers and corridors below ground are very well preserved and contain the second known so-called Pyramid Texts – hieroglyphic inscriptions of spells primarily concerned with enabling the transformation of the deceased in the afterlife. It’s quite impressive and is interesting to see (after the Great Pyramid and the Red Pyramid) decoration inside which finally starts to convince you that these were indeed intended as burial or funerary structures.
The next, and unfortunately the last, attraction we saw at Saqqara was the beautiful mastaba of Mereruka. The tomb of this powerful official is exceptionally well preserved and the depictions of scenes of everyday life in Egypt start to show a visitor that there was more to things than gods and kings. My favourite room of the tomb is where the false door is located. False doors feature regularly in Ancient Egyptian tombs and temple and were believed to be a threshold between the worlds of the living and the dead through which a deity or the spirit could enter and exit. Mereruka’s tomb bears a stunning intact statue of the deceased within the false doorway.
Some tips:
Start early. The crowds are less in the morning, not to mention the light on the pyramids is better for those all-important photos.
Again, the Cairo Pass was useful – we could see everything without lining up or fussing around getting tickets at each attraction. If you didn’t purchase this at the Egyptian Museum, you can get it at Giza when you visit the pyramids.
Go inside the Pyramid of Khufu. Just do it.
Bargain hard for camels and don’t pay more than you should (like we did!) – it should be around 20 USD per camel.
Time. Give yourself plenty of it if you want to see the entire Memphite necropolis in one day. If we had more time in Cairo, I actually would have done half a day at the Giza plateau, and a full day at Dahshur and Saqqara, and included the ruins of Memphis. There is a lot to see, especially at Saqqara where there are more discoveries being made all the time. It’s a fascinating site, and for many, will be your first introduction to tombs and temples of Ancient Egypt.
I’d really recommend trying to have some base knowledge of Ancient Egypt prior to arrival as well as having a guide to explain things to you. A simple travel guide would be sufficient. It just helps you understand and appreciate what you’re observing a little more. A guide just brings this further to life (if they’re good) and saves you having to read from a book whilst you’re exploring.
Deluxe Tours Egypt – Our Cairo guide was a miss, but they exceled in other places
I have mixed feelings about my experience with Deluxe Tours Egypt which unfortunately largely stem from the guide we were allocated for two days in Cairo. All of our dealings with George who helped arrange our trip and drove us to and from the airport in Cairo, as well as our guides and drives in Luxor and Aswan were great. We raised our issues with George and the service recovery was great, we just wish it had been avoided in the first instance. They have great reviews online for other Cairo guides, it’s just a shame we got a bad one.
It’s hard when you don’t know what you’re going to get and you have to arrange things in advance. We felt really let down at the start of our trip by Sam (Samir? Sameed? Samar? I don’t care?) who, at times, rushed us through sites, outright lied to us, was disinterested in explaining things to us, and, at times, sometimes knew less than me.
Firstly, I appreciate that people book a guide and driver for 8 hours, but rather than rushing a guest who seems very interested in your country and its history, wouldn’t you make a judgement call and suggest for a small extra fee you can extend the day? We would have loved this! Instead, we felt as though he just wanted to get home to whatever he had to go home to.
Secondly, I read online that the term ‘Egyptologist’ is thrown around and used very liberally in Egypt. To be honest, we certainly experienced that with our Cairo guide. At some points, I would ask questions based on my knowledge (which I know is above the usual visitor) and he would flat out tell me something I knew to be incorrect, or just not know. For example, I asked to see the golden mask of Psusennes I at the Egyptian Museum and honestly, I don’t think he knew what I was talking about as he said it wasn’t there. This was at the end of our visit there so I just let it go, and I guess it’s a good excuse to go back, but it’s still an annoyance in hindsight.
Thirdly, and worst of all, was his deception and subsequent attitude and behaviour when called out on it. I’m very well-travelled and I understand how things work in developing countries with kickbacks and commissions for guides. However, I also expect a guide to have your best interests at heart and to be honest and help you get the best deal. At the pyramids, Sam told us he had already bargained for us and got our camels down from 60 USD each to 50 USD each which he assured us was the best price. I had naively not read up on this prior to our visit, so took him on his word. Imagine my surprise when later in the day a friend informed me we had been completely ripped off and should have paid maximum 20 USD each! I brought this up with him at the end of the day when we returned to our hotel. Needless to say, he did not appreciate being called a dishonest person or a liar and proceeded to have a full blown argument (I must admit he riled me up so much that I turned into a crazy screaming Egyptian) outside the lobby to our hotel with all the staff watching. I was pretty mortified.
Honestly, I’m kind of on the fence about recommending Deluxe Tours Egypt. I really liked George and he was a great guy when we met him. Our guide in Luxor (Mahmoud) was also great, so knowledgeable and so patient. We also had a good guide in Aswan, but we didn’t spend much time with him and I forgot to write down his name.
There are so many options when it comes to arranging guides and drivers all over Egypt. Give these guys a go (just avoid Sam like you would the plague), or find another!