Nostalgia & Vintage Cairo

Windsor Bar Timewarp bar:  where mid-20th century tourists once flocked to sink beer and tell travel tales.

Manial Palace: Cairo’s one-percenters once lived it up amid these lavishly eclectic salons.

Aisha Fahmy Palace: Aristocratic early 20th century mansion with eye-popping rococo interiors.

Fishawi’s: Has been serving ahwa (Arabic coffee) and shai (tea) since 1773.

Sprawling City Views

Bab Zuweila: The best view of Islamic Cairo’s minaret-studded sprawl.

Citadel Domed mosques: Rubble-strewn rooftops and the Pyramids peeking out in the distance.

Cairo Tower: Panoramas of the Nile scything between Zamalek’s gardens and Downtown’s modern towers.

Al Azhar Park: The citadel’s Mosque of Mohammed Ali lords it up over the skyline from here.

Quirky Museums

Museo Mevlevi: This painted dervish theatre seems to have slid right out of a storybook.

Nilometer: This relic once monitored the Nile’s ebb and flow.

Egyptian Textile Museum: A trip through Egyptian history using textiles as your guide.

Postal Museum Miniature: dioramas of Egyptian post offices, complete with tiny postmen.

Mosques, Minarets & Mausoleums

Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan: He wasn’t a sultan, but he left Cairo one of its most magnificent mosques.

Madrassa & Mausoleum of Qalaun Mamluk: Artistry of stucco and stained glass reaches its epoch in this tomb.

Al Azhar Mosque: One of Cairo’s oldest mosques, still its most esteemed.

Mosque of Mohammed Ali: A bold, brassy statement of Ottoman styling overlooking the city from the Citadel.

Mosque of Qaitbey: Visit to admire the exquisitely carved minaret and dome.

Mosque-Madrassa of Al Ghouri:  Richly decorated vaulted halls and intricately painted wood panelling.