Cairo
Travel Guide

The capital of Egypt is an amazing city with many must-see attractions worth to be explored. The Greater Cairo has an estimated population of 22 million citizens being the largest city in Africa and in the Middle East. In Arabic the city is “al-Qahirah” which means “the conquror” or “the victorious”. This city is also called the city of the 1000 minarets or the “Umm al-Dounia” meaning “the Mother of... the World”. The city of Cairo was founded in 969 by the Fatimid Caliphate from Tunisia, but in the territory there were many other civilizations before like the Islamic, Byzantine, Roman, Persian or the Memphis. Something interesting about Cairo is that has one of the oldest universities in the world, the al-Azhar University, which was founded in 975 CE. Sunday is the first day of the week,being Friday and Saturday the weekend days. The Nile river runs through Cairo, and there are two islands in the middle of the city.

You need to be registered in Bautrip in order to save or like an article.
Join us!
Are you a member of Bautrip?
Log in

Cairo Overview

Language

The official language in the Arab Republic of Egypt is the Arabic, being the Egyptian Arabic the National language, but many young people also speak fluently English.

Weather

In general, Egypt has an arid and desert climate. In Cairo, the weather is always warm or hot and the nights use to be cool. There are only two main seasons: the hot summer with avarage temperatures of 35°C (from May to October) and a mild winter from November to April.

Money

Egyptian pound. To give you an idea, 1 euro about 20 Egyptian pounds.

When to go

It is recommended to visit Cairo during the mild winter days, so from November to April. If you go in the summer be prepeared for the super hot weather.

Days

4 days. It’s totally recommended to spend at least 4 days in Cairo, taking into a count that there are many things to see around it, it would be better to spend around 10 days in Cairo and surroundings to really see a bit of everything.

Surroundings

Old Town of Cairo
Aswan
Faiyum (Magic lake)
Wadi El-Natrun
White Desert
Alexandria
Moeris Lake
Nasr Lake
Valley of the Kings
Egyptian Museum
Khan Al Khalili
The Hanging Church
The Cairo Citadel
Mosque Madrassa of Sultan Hassan
Cairo Tower
Tahrir Square
The Pyramids and the Sphinx

Store Hours

Usually, the work days in Egypt are Sunday to Thursday, being Friday and Saturday the weekend days. Usually the working hours are from 9h to 22h, some shops close at the lunch time but most of of them don’t do it.