Other interesting facts about Cairo
• Cairo, the largest city in Egypt, Africa and the Arab World, has a population of around seven million people and is located in a metropolitan area that adds more than ten million people to the city’s population, making it the largest urban area in Africa and the eleventh largest in the world.
• Due to the huge influence that Cairo has had over Egypt throughout history, Egyptians often refer to the city as Maṣr, which is the Egyptian Arabic pronunciation of the word for the name of the country, “Egypt” (مصر).
• The Arab League (LA) has been based in Cairo for most of its existence.
• Cairo is home to the world’s second oldest institution of higher education, al-Azhar University.
• Cairo’s public underground transportation system constitutes the only metro in Africa and is among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over seven hundred million passenger rides annually (with an average of two million per day). The Cairo metro was created in 1987, is operated by the National Authority of Tunnels and consists of two lines (a third line is being built and there will be another three lines that will be built in the next thirty years): Cairo Metro Line 1 (Helwan – El Marg) and Cairo Metro Line 2 (Shobra El Kheima - El Mounib).
• The historic district of Cairo, known as “Historic Cairo”, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 1979. It is one of the most popular attractions for tourists.
• Cairo is the most important city in Egypt and in the Arab world regarding educational institutions such as schools, institutes and international universities.
• Cairo became the sovereign capital of Egypt in the year 1952. Also, between 1958 and 1961, the city was the capital of the United Arab Republic (U.A.R.).
• The majority of inhabitants of Cairo are Muslims, but there are also Christians, which constitute about 10% of the city’s population, mostly of whom belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, which was the dominant religion in Egypt before Islam was introduced into the country by Muslims that arrived from the Arabian Peninsula, led by Amr ibn al-A’as. There are currently very few Jews in Cairo; most of Cairo’s Jewish population has emigrated to Israel and the United States in the last fifty years. Do to the predominance of Muslims in the city, it is full of mosques and, since Friday is the holy day in Islam in which Muslims gather to pray at noon, offices, schools and businesses close this day of the week.
• Cairo International Airport is the busiest airport in Egypt and the second busiest in Africa, after O.R Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) in Johannesburg. After the operation of the new terminal 3, the airport will be able to provide its services to over 22 million passengers each year (10.8 passengers passed through the airport in 2006 and 10 million in 2007). It is one of the fastest growing airports in the Middle East.
• Cairo is home to the most important and technological medical centers in the country. Some of the most representative hospitals of the city are the As-Salam International Hospital-Corniche El Nile; the Maadi, which is the most important private hospital in Egypt; the Ain Shams University Hospital; the Dar El Fouad; and the Kasr El Aini General Hospital.
• Situated at the nucleus of Egypt’s Coptic Christian Community is the oldest structure of Cairo, which is called Babylon, a fortress town that was established by the Romans along the east bank of the Nile.
• Cairo is associated to Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids in adjacent Giza.
• Historic Cairo –or Old Cairo- is home to visible remnants of former national capitals that occupied the same lands of the present city.
• Egypt has been known as a cultural mix and a land where numerous civilizations have met throughout history; that is why the country displays monuments and remnants of different historical periods along all its territory.
• The artistic heritage of the Pharaohs has been essential in Cairo’s love for arts and in its strong cinematic tradition, for example. Egypt’s been known as “Hollywood Middle East” and has built a strong film industry that had consolidated the country as the “cinematographic capital of the East” until India’s film industry, which is known as “Bollywood”, gained a lot of power and became very popular in the Eastern world, becoming the new cinematographic capital of the region. Still, Cairo International Film Festival, founded in 1976 by the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics, has gained great international prestige becoming one of the most important international film festivals in the world. Tens of international actors, directors and stars like the following have been awarded along the more than thirty years of history of the festival: Sophia Loren, Morgan Freeman, Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, Catherine Deneuve, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlize Theron, Mira Sorvino, Lucy Liu, Salma Hayek, Samuel L. Jackson, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Lee, Tom Berenger, Priscilla Presley, Shashi Kapoor, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Goldy Hawn, Greta Scacchi, Marcello Mastroianni, Oliver Stone, Carlos Saura, Robert Wise, Ismail Merchant, Elia Kazan, Michelangelo Antonioni and Vanessa Redgrave, among others. One of the negative aspects of the Cairo International Film Festival is that, despite being such an important international encounter that involves some of the most famous actors and directors of the world, it still has a considerable level of censorship.
• Egypt and Cairo have also been very important for Arabic literature and have been source of some of the most relevant and representative Arab writers and authors such as Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988; Nawal el-Saadawi; Taha Hussein; and Tawfiq al-Hakim.
• Egypt, Cairo and the culture of this magical country have been an inspiration for numerous artists and authors throughout history. To name some of them, we can mention one of the most famous play wrights in history, William Shakespeare; the poet and dramatist John Dryden; the novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell; and the film producer Cecil B. de Mille.
• Cairo is a multicultural city that offers numerous international and cultural events throughout the year. Some of the most representative are the Cairo International Film Festival, which takes place every December; the Cairo International Book Fair; the Cairo International Fair (a multi-sector, multi-national trade exhibition); the Cairo International Song Festival, which takes place every August; and the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre, which takes place every October; among others.
• Cairo is a very attractive city for tourists due to its numerous historical sites, monuments and attractions, which are located not only in the Historic Cairo area, but also outside –but near- the city, for example the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus Pyramids. Cairo received 9.1 million tourists in 2006.
• Cairo was been home to many ancient dynasties in the past: it has been governed by Pharaohs, Caliphs, Romans, Turkish khedives, British colonizers and French colonizers.
• Cairo is one of the most frequented tourist destinations in Egypt.
• Cairo houses one of the oldest civilizations in the world.
• In Cairo, Sunday is not a part of the weekend, but a traditional day off.
• Cairo lies at the centre of all routes leading to and from the three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
• Cairo is also known as “The Jewel of the Orient”.
• Cairo is known to be a cultural and artistic world that offers its residents and its visitors a great variety of art galleries, museums, historic sites and ancient temples.
• Tourists love the mixture of worlds and sights that they find in Cairo: a magical ancient world full of old treasures and unique architecture mixes with a modern and cosmopolitan city that gathers millions of people from different places of the world.
• The Nile River, which represents such an important region in the history of humanity, flows on dividing the city in two.
• While being in Cairo, tourists and visitors are able to get closer to the Islamic religion and its costumes, since they experience the Call to
Prayer five times a day.
• Cairo is divided into several neighborhoods such as: Downtown Cairo, Islamic Cairo, Nasr City, Heliopolis, Garden City, Old Cairo, Maadi, New Cairo, Al-Manyal (island) and Zamalek (island). And, outside Cairo, in Giza, there are other neighborhoods, specially residential ones, such as Imbaba, Mohandiseen, Agouza, Dokki and Giza. There is also the 6th October City, which is a satellite city that some people choose to avoid the chaos of Cairo itself.
• The city of Giza, located on the western bank of the Nile, is a suburb of Cairo and has a population of 2.7 million people.
• For such a big city, Cairo is known to be very safe and there is a very little chance of being victim of a robbery.
• The currency in Cairo is the Egyptian Pound (LE) and visitors should have into account that many restaurants and shops don’t accept credit cards.
• The railway system of Cairo, which is part of the Egyptian State Railway, provides train services that connect the capital city with the main cities and locations of the country such as Alexandria, Luxor and Aswan. The main train station in Cairo is the Ramses Railway Station.
• The following are some of the most important universities in Cairo: Al-Azhar University, which is the world's second oldest surviving degree granting university; Ain Shams University; the American University in Cairo (AUC; Cairo University; Ahram Canadian University; Helwan University; Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport; Higher Technological Institute; Sadat Academy for Management Sciences; Modern Academy in Maadi; Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA); Misr International University (MIU); Misr University for Science and Technology; German University in Cairo (GUC); Canadian International College (CIC); Université Française d'Égypte; British University in Egypt (BUE); Sekem University; and Nile University.
• Located in the 6th October City, the Nedia Production City (NPD) is the largest information and media complex that has ever been built. This media complex and the two Egyptian media satellites (‘Nilesat 101’ and ‘Nilesat 102’) are essential for the country’s role in the 21st Century.
• These are some of the most famous people that were born in Cairo: the novelist and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz; the former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nobel Prize winner Mohamed El Baradei; the former Secretary General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali; the Greek artist Constantin Xenakis; the Italian Egyptian singer Dalida; the Greek actress Voula Zouboulaki; the billionaire and owner of the company Orascom Telecom Holding, Naguib Sawiris; the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu; the Canadian children’s singer Raffi Cavoukian; the professional football player Mido; the Greek actress Nora Valsami; the Turkish novelist Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu; the Egyptian singer Maryem Tollar; the NBA player Alaa Abdelnaby; Yasser Arafat; and many more.
Things to do and places to visit in Cairo.
Historic Cairo - Old Cairo (Masr el Adima):
Located on the right bank of the Nile, Old Cairo is the ancient heart of Cairo and of Egypt; the place where people can still find some remnants of the antique cities that were capital of the country in the past such as Fustat. It is a place to get away from the noise of the busy center and to enjoy the beauty of the ancient architecture and find pieces of history of a city in which some of the most important civilizations have been established. Old Cairo offers many tourist attractions full of cultural treasures; this place represents the union of three of the main religions of the modern world: Christianity, Islamism and Judaism. The famous Coptic Cairo, where the Coptic Christian community of Cairo is concentrated, is located in this area of the city and preserves some of the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon and five of the twenty original churches that were built by the Romans many years ago such as the Hanging Church (Al-Muallaqa), which is the oldest Christian place of worship in the city, and the St. Sergius Church. The Coptic Museum is another attraction in Coptic Cairo. Also, Old Cairo is home to the first mosque that was built in Egypt, the Mosque of Amr Ibn Al As, and to the oldest synagogue in Egypt, the Ben Ezra Mosque.
Coptic Cairo:
Located in Old Egypt, this is the place where most of the Coptic Christian community of Cairo lives and where visitors can see some of the oldest churches built by the Romans and some of the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Some of the attractions to see are the Coptic Museum and numerous antique churches such as the Hanging Church, the St. Sergius Church, the Greek Church of Saint George, the Saint Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga), the Saint Barbara Church, the Saint Mary Church (Haret Elroum), the Saint Mercurius Church, the Church of the Holy Virgin (Babylon El-Darag) and the Church of Saint Menas.
Egyptian Museum of Antiquities:
Founded in 1857 by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette and located to the northwest of the Liberation Square is the Egyptian Museum, a series of buildings in which the museum has preserved and exhibited the largest, finest and exclusive collection of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman antiquities in the world. With over 136.000 items on display and many more hundreds of thousands in its basement storerooms, a visit to the Egyptian Museum requires of several days in order to see a good part of the beautiful and unique treasures of this magical and historic place. Some of the most popular attractions are the Tutankhamun Gallery, in which the treasures from the tomb of the young king are displayed, including the famous solid gold death mask; the Old Kingdom material; the Statue of Khafre (Chephren), which is one of the masterpieces of the museum; the Royal Mummy Room, which contains the mummies of some of the most famous and powerful Pharaohs in Egypt dating from the 18th to the 20th Dynasties; and many more.
The Cairo Tower (El-Borg):
Located in the southern half of the Gezira Island in the Nile River, the Cairo Tower, colloquially known as Burg al-qāhira, is one of the main symbols of the modern city of Cairo and one of the city’s most famous and well known landmarks. With 614ft / 187m of height, the tower offers a wonderful panoramic view of the city from its observation platforms and its rotating restaurant. Built between 1956 and 1961, the Cairo Tower was designed by the Egyptian architect Naoum Chebib to evoke a lotus plant. The rotation of the restaurant takes around seventy minutes.
Nile River Cruise:
There are around 240 river boats (from five stars to none) that offer different cruise tours through the Nile River, most of them of a duration of three, five or eight days. Departing from the ports of Luxor and Aswan, the Nile River Cruise trip is known to be one of those experiences of a lifetime. Traveling through this legendary river that has been the source of life to so many important civilizations can be a unique experience. It is a very popular way of discovering the magic of the Egyptian history, culture and architecture. Some of the most common attractions that the cruises usually visit are: the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, who was ancient Egypt's longest ruling female pharaoh; the Temple of Karnak, which is the largest temple complex built by man; the Valley of the Kings, which is the resting place of more than sixty pharaohs, including Tutankhamun; the Temple of Horus (the falcon god), which is 2000 years old; the High Dam at Aswan, which is one of Egypt’s modern marvels; people can hop aboard a felucca, which is a traditional Egyptian sailing vessel; and many others. Also, many cruises are part of longer tours that include the cruise and some other popular excursions like the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Egyptian Museum and more.
Al Azhar Park:
Located in the heart of Old Historic Cairo, the Al Azhar Park is a public park that was built as a gift to Cairo from Aga Khan IV and that offers beautiful gardens from which people can enjoy a wonderful panoramic view of the city while they travel into past and spend some time discovering history. The Al Azhar Park is home to the newly discovered Ayyubid wall, constructed by Salah El Din more than 800 years ago, and will be home to a marvelous project that is currently under development: the Urban Plaza and the Museum of Historic Cairo, which will exhibit around a thousand artifacts and items from different historic periods in order to show the global evolution of the city of Cairo, as well as its urban, cultural and architectural development. The Al Azhar Park has received several honors and awards such as the Travel + Leisure Magazine Global Vision Innovation Award in 2005 and it was included among the list of the top sixty great public spaces in the world by Project for Public Spaces (PPS).
National Cultural Center:
Created in 1988 and located in the Gezira Island in the Nile River, the National Cultural Center is the epicenter of the cultural life in Cairo. It is a building complex dedicated to theatre, music, opera and dance. The National Cultural Center is part of the Ministry of Culture and its main objective is to promote the arts of music and dance, as well as to preserve and develop the Arab music. Apart from the different artistic shows, this cultural center also offers numerous artistic classes for children and youths. The Cairo Opera House is part of the National Cultural Center.
Cairo Opera House:
Located in the National Cultural Center in the Gezira Island in the Nile River, the Cairo Opera House is the main performing arts venue in the city and is home to most of the greatest musical groups in Egypt. Inaugurated in 1988 by President Hosni Mubarak, the Cairo Opera House offers performing acts of classical music as well as of Egyptian classical music. One of the most important events that take place at the Opera House is the annual Arab Music Festival, which takes place every November. In 2007, the Cairo Opera House hosted the first performance of the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Middle East and Africa.
Khan al-Khalili Bazaar:
Dating back to 1382 and located in the Islamic District of Cairo, the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar is a huge souk of narrow streets full of hundreds of coffee houses, restaurants, street food vendors and shops of carpets, jewelry, shoes, handkerchiefs, antiques, perfumes, crystal pipes, as well as many other things that tourist and Egyptians adore. This large and old bazaar is one of the most popular attractions in the city and for some it is the best place to visit in Cairo. There are especially famous and popular places in the bazaar like the Midaq alley that inspired the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner novelist Naguib Mahfouz to write his novel “Midaq Alley” in 1947, and a place called "Qahwet el Fishawy", which is known for serving one of the best shisha in the country. Another very famous place in Khan al-Khalili Bazaar is the Al-Fishawy Café, also known as the “café of mirrors”, which is the oldest coffee house in Cairo (it opened more than two hundred years ago) and used to be frequented by the famous Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz. The Al-Fishawy Café has an antique Turkish style, which consists of panels of mirrors and woodwork, plentiful chandeliers and brass tables, and it opens 24 hours a day.
The Great Pyramids of Giza:
Located west of the Nile River, bordering the Sahara Desert, in the Giza Necropolis, the pyramids of Giza are the earth’s oldest tourist attraction. There are three pyramids: the Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu), the Pyramid of Chephren (Khafre) and the Pyramid Complex of Menkaure (Mycerinus), which is the smallest one of the three. The pyramids have inspired many legends, but it is believed that they were built by the antique civilization as resting places, tombs and monuments in recognition to their great kings and nobles. The Great Pyramid of Cheops, which is known as the “Great Pyramid of Giza”, is the only remainder of the seven ancient wonders of the world; it is believed that it took twenty years to build it and that it is made of about two million blocks of limestone. It was considered the tallest man made structure in the world for over forty centuries and until 1889.
The Great Sphinx of Giza:
Located west of the Nile River, bordering the Sahara Desert, in the Giza Necropolis and in front of the Pyramid of Khafre stands the Great Sphinx of Giza, which is a statue of a sphinx known as the Abu al-Hol (Father of Terror) and is believed to be older than the pyramids themselves (it is thought that is was built by the ancient Egyptians of Old Kingdom between 2555 BC and 2532 BC). The Sphinx is a mythological creature that represents a feline with a human head. The Great Sphinx of Giza is the largest monolith statue as well as the oldest monumental sculpture in the world.
The Hanging Church (El Muallaqa):
Located in Coptic Cairo (in Old Historic Cairo), on the top of the southern tower gate of the old Babylon fortress and with its nave suspended over a passage (that’s where its name comes from), the Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, best known as the Hanging Church (El Muallaqa, Sitt Mariam, St. Mary), is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the most famous Coptic church in Cairo. It is one of the most famous tourist attractions of the Old Historic Cairo and of Coptic Cairo because of its antiquity and its architecture. During the 14th and the 15th Centuries it was known as the “Staircase Church” because of the twenty nine steps that lead to the entrance.
Saladin Citadel (Al-Qalaa):
Located on part of the Muqattam hill near the center of Cairo and built by the Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) in the 12th Century as a protection from the Crusaders, the Saladin Citadel is a massive stone fortress that offers its visitors a magnificent view as well as different attractions such as three mosques (the Ottoman Mosque of Mohamed Ali, which was built in memory of his oldest son, Tusun Pasha; the 13th / 14th Century Mosque of Al-Nassir Muhammad; and the 16th Century Mosque of Suleyman Pasha), the National Military Museum, the Police Museum and the Al-Gawhara Palace. It is also known as “Mohamed Ali Citadel” because of the Mosque of Mohamed Ali. The visitors are free to go around the castle and discover its different areas such as the execution room. The objective of Salah al-Din was to surround and bring together Cairo and Fustat, and to be able to defend both of them with one army. The citadel remained the heart of the Egyptian government until the 19th Century. These were the words of Salah al-Din when he had the idea of building the citadel: "With a wall I will make the two [cities of Cairo and Fustat] into a unique whole, so that one army may defend them both; and I believe it good to encircle them with a single wall from the bank of the Nile to the bank of the Nile."
Bab Zuweyla:
Built as a second wall around Cairo by Badr Al-Jamali in the year 1092, Bab Zuweyla or Bab Zuwayla is a medieval gate, the last remaining southern gate from the walls of Fatimid Cairo, and is considered one of the major landmarks of the city. In the 19th Century this place was chosen to be the place where miracles could be fulfilled; that is why today people and tourists leave locks of hair or pieces of their cloth incrusted into the door in order to see their dreams come true. The gate has a pair of twin towers (minarets) that offer a magnificent and unique view of Old Cairo.
Ahmad Ibn Tulun Mosque:
Located on the high rocky plateau of Gebel Yashkur (“the Hill of Thanksgiving”), the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun is the second oldest mosque in Cairo (it is the oldest one in the city surviving in its original form), the largest mosque in the city in terms of land area and was once the largest mosque in the world. Built between 876 AD and 879 AD by Ahmad Ibn Tulun, it was constructed in the Samarran style common with Abbassid constructions and the outer walls have almost no decoration. Built up against the outside walls of the mosque is the Gayer-Anderson Museum, which is one of the remaining houses that were built there during the medieval period and used to be the home of the British general R.G. ‘John’ Gayer-Anderson. The Mosque of Amhan Ibn Tulun and the Gayer-Anderson Museum are the scenery of some parts of “The spy who loved me”, the James Bond film.
Muqattam Hills (Gebel Giyushi):
Located in the outskirts of Cairo, just beyond the Saladin Citadel, the Muqattam Hills (Gebel Giyushi, in Arabic) constitute a great trip from Cairo that will take half a day for those who want to take a look at some of the most spectacular views of the city from different points of the hills such as the rocky spur to the south of the conspicuous Giyushi Mosque (1085). The Muqattam Hills consist of a high range of hills of fossils, including fossil trees. Located on the slopes of the hills, not far from the Giyushi Mosque, is the Bektashi Convent, which belonged to a Turkish Order of Dervishes. Also, situated at the foot of the hills, is the Church of Saint Simeon the Tanner, which Pope Shenuda III has visited several times.
Ancient Heliopolis:
Located in the apex of the Nile Delta, the Ancient Heliopolis (sun city), also known as Ain Shams, which means, literally, “Eye of the sun” or “Center of the sun” in Arabic, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt and the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian Nome. It used to be the main seat of sun worship and it had a huge sun temple that, some believe, would make the great temple of Amun, located in the Karnak complex at Luxor, look small. The earliest temple red granite obelisk is still in its original position in Heliopolis. The Tree of the Holy Virgin is not far from the ancient city. Egyptian and Greco-Roman mythology said that the phoenix, after rising from the ashes of its predecessor, would bring the ashes to the altar of the sun god in Heliopolis. It is still a developing tourist destination since not very long ago it was rarely visited by tourists.
Alexandria Day Trip:
Founded by Alexander the Great in the year 312 BC, Alexandria was the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt and is the second largest city in the country. To enjoy a more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern atmosphere and to see some of the famous Roman remains, tourists can visit the historic city of Alexandria while being in Cairo. There are lots of private tours to Alexandria that offer the private guidance of an Egyptologist and that give you the possibility of deciding how long you want to stay in each stop of the tour and where you want to go. Some of the most common and popular stops are the catacombs of Kom Ash-Shukaffa, which is a Roman burial site that shows the merging of the Egyptian and the Roman architecture, and in which visitors can descend below ground to visit the tomb and Caracalla Hall; the Pompey’s Pillar, which is a granite column that was built in honor of Emperor Diocletian; the Roman amphitheatre, which is thought to be the best preserved Roman site in Egypt; the legendary Ancient Library of Alexandria, which is one of the greatest literary sites in the world.
Museum of Islamic Arts:
Located to the north of the Midan Ahmed Maher and facing Old Historic Cairo, the Museum of Islamic Art is considered one of the greatest in the world and has one of the finest collections of its kind in the world, with masterpieces from every Islamic country. Founded by the German architect and scholar Franz Pasha, the museum houses more than 102.000 objects that constitute a unique collection of rare woodwork, plaster, crystal, glass, ceramic, metal and textile artifacts that have been collected throughout all the periods and from all the countries of the Islamic world. The museum has organized numerous national and international exhibitions. The huge collection of the Museum of Islamic Arts is exhibited in several areas and rooms such as the Abbasid and Tulunid Periods; the 18th Century Room; the Arabic Books; the Arms and Armor; the Asia Minor; the Court; the Egyptian Faience; the Egyptian Library; the Faience and Porcelain; the Fatimid Period; the Fatimid and Ayyubid Periods; the Furniture and Metalwork; the Glass Lamps; the Islamic Chronology; the Mameluke Metalwork; the Mameluke Style; the Omayyad Period; the Persian Pottery; the Temporary Exhibitions; the Textiles; and the Woodcarving.
Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga):
Located in Coptic Cairo (Old Historic Cairo) and founded between the 4th and the 5th centuries, the Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church, also known as Abu Serga, is one of the oldest Coptic churches in Egypt and is very important historically due to the traditional belief that says that the Holy Family (Joseph, the Virgin and the child, Jesus Christ) found refuge here (on the spot where the church was later built) for a month during their journey into Egypt. There’s a ten meter deep crypt in the place where they were supposed to have rested. Around the year 750, during the reign of Marwan II, the church was burned during the fire of Fustat and it was later rebuilt between the 10th and 11th centuries.
Ben Ezra Synagogue:
Located behind the “Hanging Church” in Coptic Cairo (Old Historic Cairo), the Ben Ezra Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Egypt and it is believed that it is the place where the box of baby Moses was found. It is also said that the church once had an old copy of the Old Testament that was written by Ezra the Prophet (Al-Azir). It was originally built as a Christian church, the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, in the 4th Century and then, in the 9th Century, the Copts sold it to the Jews –to Abraham Ben Ezra- and it became a synagogue. Later, in the 12th Century, it was restored by Abraham Ben Ezra, who was rabbi of Jerusalem, and then, in the 1980s, it was rebuilt and a large cache of documents (a collection of around 250.000 pieces of paper that included contracts, receipts and ordinary correspondence that have allowed researchers to reconstruct daily life in Fustat) was found in a geniza (in a hiding place). The present building dates back to 1892, since the original had collapsed and a new one had to be built.
Pharaonic Village:
Located on an island in the Nile River, three miles south of the center of Cairo, the Pharaonic Village is Egypt’s historic park and living museum, and constitutes an attraction that every tourist should visit during the first days of his/her trip to Egypt, since it explains the history of the country –both ancient and modern history- in a period of two to three hours. The park was created by Dr. Hassan Ragab PhD., who was the person who rediscovered the ancient Egyptian art of paper (the art of making papyrus), after having the idea of representing and showing Egypt’s history with live shows and actors that could make everything more real. The magic of the park is the feeling of reality in what people can see and experiment: visitors are transported by floating amphitheatres and a hundred actors and actresses represent different characters from ancient Egypt like pharaohs, slaves, fishermen and potters, acting in numerous scenes such as sculpting, making papyrus, building homes and many others. The village has many different and interesting attractions such as a complete replica of king Tutankhamun's tomb with all its treasures; twelve other museums (four related to ancient Egypt, five related to other periods in the history of the country and three related to the last three presidents: Mohamed Naguib, Nasser and Sadat); an amusement park called “Tut land”; an arts center; and the “Nefertari” yacht, in which people can make a trip on the Nile River.
Egyptian National Library:
Located in Ramlet Boulaq, a district of Cairo, and founded in 1870 after an initiative from Ali Pasha Mubarak, who was the education minister at the time, the Egyptian National Library and Archives is the oldest government library, the largest library in Egypt (the second largest are the library of the Al-Azhar University and the New Library of Alexandria) and one of the largest libraries in the world. The library constitutes a unique source of information on early Islamic Egypt's social and cultural life, and it also houses Ancient Persian and Ottoman collections. Its manuscripts and documents include more than 57.000 of the most valuable manuscripts in the world. It possesses several million volumes on a wide range of topics: it has thousands of ancient collections; a wide variety of manuscripts of the Qur’an; collections of Arabic papyrus; a wide variety of Arabic language and other Eastern manuscripts; a large collection of Arabic medieval coins; and many other antique treasures that can be seen by visitors from all around the world.
Sultan Hasan Mosque:
Located on a shelving rock below the Citadel of Salah al Din, the Sultan Hasan Mosque is one of Cairo’s most famous mosques and is considered by many as the finest example of Arab-Egyptian architecture. Built in 1356-63 for the Mameluke Sultan Hasan el-Nasir, the mosque, with its more than seven hundred years, constitutes a unique ancient construction that lets its visitors travel in time to see what an ancient Egyptian temple looked like. The exterior of the mosque has large areas of stone and the minaret at the south corner of the mosque is the tallest in Cairo. There are wonderful details on the walls and the ceilings of some areas of the mosque such as the burial chamber were the remains of Sultan Hasan rest, the praying area and some paths inside the mosque. Barack Obama visited the mosque in June 2009.
Coptic Museum:
Founded in 1910 by Morkos Pasha Simaika and located next to the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo, the Coptic Museum is a very important museum that explains the history of Christianity in Egypt through a unique collection of about 15.000 objects of stonework, metalwork, woodwork, manuscripts and textiles dating from between the 3rd and the 18th centuries. It houses the largest and finest collection of Coptic material in the world, including the world’s most relevant examples of Coptic art, and the largest collection of Egyptian Christian artifacts in the planet. The artifacts and monuments link ancient and Islamic Egypt through a very rich mixture of Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Ottoman and Byzantine traditions. The museum also contains the largest collection of Coptic textiles (wool, linen and silk), which was the most important industry during the early Christian period in Egypt. It became a state museum in 1931. It was renovated between 1983 and 1984, then reinforced between 1986 and 1988, and then, again, renovated between 2005 and 2006.
Ramses Square and Ramses II Statue:
Discovered in 1820 by Giovanni Battista Caviglia at the Great Temple of Ptah of Mit-Rahina near Memphis, Egypt, the Ramses II Statue is a 3200-year-old red granite monument of Ramses II (a pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty who ruled Egypt for more than sixty years and who is considered one of ancient Egypt’s most prolific builders) that weights 83 tons and stands 36 feet (11 meters). When found, the statue was cut into six pieces and later, in 1955, it was moved to the Bab Al-Hadid square in Central Cairo, which was then renamed Ramses Square, until 2006, when it was translated to the Giza Plateau –near the pyramids and the Museum of Antiquities- in order to keep it away from noise, pollution and vibrations, and to start a restoration process. The statue will be translated to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which is currently under construction and which will be its home for good.
Magic Galaxy:
Located in the 4th and 5th floors of the City Stars Complex between Nasr City and Heliopolis, in Cairo, Magic Galaxy is an indoor family amusement park and entertainment center that offers ten big rides and more than a hundred games and rides such as video simulation games, prize-winning contests and a Baby Zone section for children younger than two years old. It is one of the most famous indoor parks in the Middle East. It focuses on entertainment activities for children from 2 to 12 year old.
Ezbekiya Gardens:
Built in 1870 under the direction of the French landscape gardener M. Barillet and located on the edge of the old Arab town (not far from the center of Cairo), the Ezbekiya Gardens are known to be the lungs of the city and to offer beautiful views of exotic plants, trees and flowers like the Indian Banyan Trees, which are some of the favorites of the tourists due to their aerial roots that constantly form new trunks. Also, the gardens have various types of bushes that constitute a very popular attraction for tourists from all around the world. One of the secrets of the beautiful plants of the gardens is the proximity of the Nile River, which makes it easier for them to flourish. This is a wonderful place to visit while being in Cairo.