Cairo Tourist Attractions

The Cairo attractions in this guide are visited as part of Cairo Tours, Egypt Classic Tours, Egypt Short Break Tours, Egypt Family Tours, Egypt Budget Tours, Egypt Nile Cruises, and Alexandria Shore Excursions, all of which WOW Egypt Tours proudly offers to travelers from around the world. Cairo is the starting or ending point of most Egypt Tours Packages and Egypt Travel Packages, and most travelers spend at least two to three days in the city before or after traveling to Luxor, Aswan, or the Red Sea.

The Giza Plateau on the southwestern edge of Cairo holds the most visited ancient monuments in Egypt. The Giza Pyramids Complex is the overall archaeological site encompassing the three main pyramids, the Great Sphinx, the Valley Temples, causeways, and subsidiary pyramids. The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining lion with a human head, believed to represent Pharaoh Khafre, and is the largest monolithic statue in the world at 73 meters long. The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the oldest and largest of the three Giza pyramids, the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, built around 2560 BCE and standing at 138 meters after the loss of its original casing stones. The Middle Pyramid of Khafre appears taller than Khufu's due to its higher position on the plateau and retains part of its original limestone casing at the apex. The Small Pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three main Giza pyramids, built of granite and limestone and accompanied by three subsidiary queens' pyramids. The Valley Temple of Khafre is one of the best-preserved Old Kingdom temples in Egypt, built of red granite and used for the ritual purification and mummification of Khafre before his burial in the pyramid above.

Cairo holds Egypt's two most important archaeological museums. The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is the largest archaeological museum in the world, located at the edge of the Giza Plateau adjacent to the pyramids, and houses the complete treasures of Tutankhamun alongside millions of artifacts spanning all periods of ancient Egyptian history. The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square is the original national museum of Egyptian antiquities, opened in 1902, and remains one of the most important collections of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world with over 100,000 objects on display. South of Cairo, Memphis City is the open-air museum on the site of the ancient capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, containing a large fallen limestone colossus of Ramesses II and an alabaster sphinx. Saqqara is the vast ancient necropolis of Memphis containing the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest complete stone building in the world built around 2650 BCE, alongside dozens of Old Kingdom mastaba tombs, the Pyramid Texts, and the Serapeum where the sacred Apis bulls were buried. Dahshur Pyramids is a royal necropolis south of Saqqara containing the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid of Sneferu, Khufu's father, representing the transitional development from step pyramid to true pyramid construction.

Islamic Cairo holds the largest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture in the world. El-Moez Street is a historic thoroughfare running through the heart of the old Fatimid city, lined with mosques, mausoleums, fountains, and palaces built between the 10th and 19th centuries, and is one of the largest open-air museums of Islamic architecture in existence. Khan el-Khalili is the main historic bazaar of Cairo, established in the 14th century as a caravanserai for merchants and still operating as a market for gold, silver, spices, textiles, and souvenirs alongside traditional coffeehouses and restaurants. Saladin Citadel is a medieval Islamic fortress built by Saladin on a spur of the Muqattam Hills overlooking Cairo, which served as the seat of Egyptian government from the 13th century until the 19th century and contains several mosques and museums within its walls. Muhammad Ali Mosque, also known as the Alabaster Mosque, was built between 1830 and 1848 inside the Citadel and is the largest mosque built in Egypt in the first half of the 19th century, modeled on Ottoman imperial mosques in Istanbul. Sultan Hassan Mosque is a 14th-century Mamluk mosque and madrasa complex opposite the Citadel, considered one of the finest examples of Mamluk architecture in Cairo. Al-Azhar Mosque was founded in 970 CE by the Fatimid dynasty and is the oldest university in the world still in operation, remaining one of the most important centers of Islamic learning globally. Amr ibn al-Aas Mosque in Old Cairo is the first mosque ever built in Egypt and in all of Africa, constructed in 642 CE following the Arab conquest, though the current structure dates to later reconstructions. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is the oldest mosque in Cairo still standing in its original form, built between 876 and 879 CE by the Abbasid governor Ahmad ibn Tulun, and is notable for its large open courtyard and its unique spiral minaret modeled on the minarets of Samarra in Iraq.

Coptic Cairo, located in the Old Cairo district on the east bank of the Nile, contains the oldest Christian churches and Jewish monuments in Egypt. The Hanging Church, officially Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church, is built over the gatehouse of the Roman fortress of Babylon and is one of the oldest and most important Coptic churches in Egypt, dating to the 3rd or 4th century CE. St. George Church is a Greek Orthodox church also built within the Roman fortress of Babylon, dedicated to Saint George and one of the few circular churches in the Middle East. St. Virgin Mary Church, also known as the Church of Abu Serga, is one of the oldest churches in Egypt, built over the crypt where the Holy Family is traditionally believed to have rested during their flight into Egypt. The Ben Ezra Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Cairo, built on the site where the infant Moses is traditionally said to have been found, and is known for the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, one of the most important collections of medieval Jewish manuscripts ever found. The Coptic Museum is the largest collection of Coptic Christian art and artifacts in the world, housing manuscripts, textiles, icons, woodwork, and metalwork spanning the 3rd to 19th centuries CE, located within the walls of Old Cairo adjacent to the churches and synagogue.

The overview page for Cairo the Capital of Egypt covers the full history of the city from its ancient origins at Memphis and Heliopolis through the Coptic, Arab, Fatimid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and modern periods, and explains how the different historical layers of the city relate to each other geographically and culturally. Use this page alongside the individual site guides to understand Cairo as a whole before planning which areas and attractions to prioritize during your visit.