Cairo

Cairo is one of the largest metropolises in Africa and the Arab world — a sprawling megacity of around 22 million people spreading along both banks of the Nile. It is also one of the oldest and most historically dense cities on earth: founded in 969 by the Fatimids, it has been for more than a thousand years the political, economic and intellectual capital of the Arab-Muslim world. An attentive visitor crosses, in just a few days, four superimposed civilisations — pharaonic, Coptic, medieval Islamic and modern — with an intensity that few cities in the world can match.

Islamic Cairo, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, holds one of the finest collections of medieval Islamic architecture on the planet: the Citadel of Saladin (12th century) and its dominant Muhammad Ali Mosque, the Al-Azhar Mosque (970 AD, one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world), the Khan el-Khalili (a still-living medieval souk), the Mamluk madrasas and the hundreds of minarets that earned Cairo its nickname 'the city of a thousand minarets'. Coptic Cairo, more discreet, hides the Hanging Church (al-Mu'allaqa), the Ben Ezra Synagogue and several sanctuaries linked to the Holy Family's flight into Egypt. Finally, the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square preserves over 120,000 pieces, including the Tutankhamun treasure and the royal mummies — a visit that alone would justify the trip. Cairo is not an easy city: chaotic traffic, real pollution, guaranteed urban fatigue. But it is also one of the most stimulating travel experiences the contemporary world can offer.