Seven Things That Make Cairo Worth the Hassle

Now, it is easy to whinge about Cairo – and, lord knows, I have!

Frankly, as a visibly foreign female visitor, tourist Cairo makes the souks of Marrakech feel like a women-only yoga retreat, while the air quality can leave one longing for the meadow freshness of Beijing.

Cairo can leave one feeling punchy, even stabby, and ready to shell out baksheesh by the bucketload JUST.TO.MAKE.IT.STOP.

And yet…

There is much, much more to Cairo than the pyramids.

From the City of the Dead, a necropolis now home to hundreds of thousands of living families, through thousand-year-old mosques and gorgeous Egypto-colonial buildings to worldclass museums and riverside restaurants, it really is worth making the effort to get to know this frustrating yet fascinating city.

So here are a few of the things that made Cairo worthwhile for us, from the obvious, to the less-obvious.

Fagnoon Art Centre

An enormous, rackety, web of walkways, climbing frames, ropes and shady classrooms, Fagnoon sprawls across a stream and several fields on the far outskirts of Cairo with views over the pyramids of Sakkara. An art school for both children and adults, complete with ickle bickle bunny rabbits, it’s an absolutely wonderful way to spend the day.

At Fagnoon, you can learn to use a potter’s wheel, metalworking, woodcarving, rug weaving and ropework. You can paint on tiles, glass, wood, or simply paper, then scamper round the rooftops. A must for anyone with kids – join in, or grab a coffee and use their wifi as the mood takes you – it’s also a hit with adults. Their mud bath tug-of-war is a cult activity for trendier Cairenes.

Fagnoon is on Sabil Umm Hashim, off Sakkara Road. Activities cost LE25 a pop. Tel: +20 238 151 633.

The Egyptian Museum

We caught the Tutankhamun exhibition when it came to London a few years back and spent time at the British Museum before we left. But Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, a warren of halls almost casually scattered with priceless treasures, is an ark of wonders where you can wander happily for a full day, or, for that matter, two.

Some highlights? Tutankhamun’s death mask, arguably the single greatest piece of early art, along with his opulent grave goods, including chariots, ritual beds, and glorious jewellery. There are busts of Nefertiti, the celebrated beauty, bizarre androgynous colossi of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, and, for those of you into gender, a bearded head of the female king Hatshepsut.

Also: Ramses II in bombastic mode, Hellenistic-Egyptian fusion statues from the times after Alexander, Roman-era sarcophagi, complete with paintings of the children whose bodies they house, and, from the kohl that did the work of sunglasses through to savagely barbed spearheads, remnants of the lives of the ordinary folk who made this civilisation great. A can’t-miss.

The Egyptian Museum is on Midan Tahrir: tickets cost LE60 (LE30). Ignore the men telling you it is shut: this is a common scam that leads to a shop hard selling overpriced tat.

The Nile at Zamalek

One of the highlights of Cairo should be a walk along the Nile, with plentiful pauses to enjoy the view. Yet on the main Corniche, which is what they call the waterfront in these parts, the felucca salesmen and tat vendors are relentless.

Zamalek, the Nile island where many of the city’s expats lives, offers a much more zen view of one of the world’s great rivers, and the chance, even as a Westerner, to be invisible. The white sofas and billowing tent encampments of Sequoia are an excellent place for a drink beside the Nile (with a play area for little kids too), while cheap cafes along the bank cater to less well-heeled locals.

The Pyramids of Dahshur

I wrote about the pyramids in detail here, but I can’t reiterate enough that the pyramids of Dahshur are a must-visit. Whether making like Indiana Jones in the bowels of the Red Pyramid or enjoying a moment of quiet contemplation in the shadow of the Bent Pyramid, looking out over endless sands, this is how antiquities are meant to feel, and rarely do.

Islamic Cairo

Escape the horrors of the tourist streets of Khan Al-Khalili market, with their child-size (seriously!) belly-dancer outfits, tin-foil shisha pipes, plastic pyramids and cries of “Where did you come from? Paradise?”, and you’re into Islamic Cairo, a living, breathing Bond film set.

The narrow medieval streets are home to shops, gorgeous mosques and, simply, folk going about their everyday lives. Dressed modestly, you can wander at will. Sit on plastic chairs at a pavement cafe and watch the kids cruising by on mopeds, complete with blasting sound systems, women doing their shopping and Nubian men in crochet skull caps shooting the breeze, and wait for some guy in an Aston Martin to come zooming down the alley and upset the fruit cart.

Nobel prizewinner Naguib Mahfouz set several novels here, and this is a place that repays getting lost in. Once you’re done, check out a few nearby mosques. 10th century Ahmed Ibn Tulun and the 14th century Sultan Hassan mosque worked better for us than the gaudier Ottoman style.

The Citadel on a Friday Afternoon

Built by Saladin, the chivalrous tactician who dominated the Arab world during the later Crusader era, and rebuilt by Mohammed Ali, the Albanian mercenary who became Egypt’s first king, the Citadel stands on a rocky outcrop, home to mosques and museums.

Friday afternoon is a lovely time to visit the Citadel, particularly with a nipper. Ordinary Egyptian families are out and about, while the most persistent hawkers are, largely, spending time with their own families. My son loved swinging from and wielding the impressive howitzers that fringe the Military Museum; even without kids, the relaxation is infectious.

The American University Bookshop

Pass through security on a street off manic, angry Tahrir Square, and the hubbub dies away, replaced by an ocean of green, flowers and tranquil, colonial architecture: the grounds of the American University in Cairo. Which is also home to probably Egypt’s best English language bookshop.

Want a book on the grand hotels of Eygpt? Up-to-date reading on Egypt after the Revolution or Naguib Mahfouz’ Cairo Trilogy? The excellent Jerusalem: The Biography or The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt? Or The Dangerous Book for Boys and a guide to writing hieroglyphics for your kids?

With the AUC’s own expert publications, plus a decent kids and tweens section, this is the place to build your Egypt reading list — and they can order in for you as well.
AUC Press Book Store: Sheikh Rihan Street, off Tahrir Square. 10am-6pm, currently excluding Fridays.