Destinations
cairo
Travel guides covering cairo.
Modern Egypt Revolution History: A Cairo Guide
Nasser's 1952 officers seized power without firing a single bullet. The king left with 204 pieces of luggage. Cairo still carries the whole story.
Read guide →Modern Egypt and the 1952 Revolution: A Cairo History Guide
Nasser's officers took Egypt in a bloodless coup at 7am on July 23. The king was gone by noon the next day. Cairo still carries every scar and monument of what followed.
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Mamluk Egypt History: Cairo's Forgotten Empire of Stone
The Mamluks were slaves who became sultans and built more of Cairo than anyone else. Most tourists walk past their finest work to reach the pyramids.
Read guide →Naguib Mahfouz Cairo Literary History Guide: The City He Wrote
Mahfouz set 34 novels in Cairo's medieval alleys yet was stabbed in the neck by a man who had never read a word he wrote. The city is still processing both facts.
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Fatimid Cairo, Al-Azhar, and the City Built to Convert the World
Al-Azhar was founded in 970 AD not as a university but as a Shia missionary school. Today it is Sunni Islam's most influential institution. The whole city holds that kind of contradiction.
Read guide →Mohamed Ali Pasha and the Modernization of Egypt: Cairo's Divided Legacy
He executed 470 Mamluk beys at a dinner party, then built a mosque that looks Ottoman but sits on a Pharaonic hill. Mohamed Ali's Cairo is everywhere if you know what to look for.
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Khedival Cairo Belle Epoque Architecture: The Complete Guide
Khedive Ismail built a European city on top of a medieval one in under a decade. Most of it still stands. Almost nobody walks it deliberately.
Read guide →Naguib Mahfouz Cairo Literary History Guide: The Real Khan el-Khalili
Mahfouz wrote Cairo Trilogy in a city that no longer exists. The coffeehouse where he held court for 40 years still serves tea. The alley that inspired it all is a 10-minute walk from where tourists stop.
Read guide →Naguib Mahfouz Cairo Literary History Guide: Walk His World
Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for literature set in streets he walked daily. Most visitors read him at home and miss the Cairo that made him. Here is the city he actually lived.
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Mamluk Egypt: The Cairo History Guide You Actually Need
The Mamluks ruled Egypt for 267 years and built more of Cairo than the Pharaohs did. Most visitors walk past their greatest monuments without knowing who made them.
Read guide →Modern Egypt's 1952 Revolution: A Cairo History Guide
Naguib Mahfouz heard the tanks from his apartment window and kept writing. The revolution that ended 2,500 years of foreign rule lasted fewer than six hours.
Read guide →Mamluk Egypt: The Cairo History Guide Worth Your Time
The Mamluks ruled Egypt for 267 years and built more of Cairo than any dynasty before or since. Most visitors walk past their greatest monuments without knowing who made them.
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