Places in Cairo

Since opening in 1902, the Tahrir museum has become part of Egyptology’s own history. Although the Tutankhamun collection has moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, its halls still hold exceptional objects spanning ancient Egyptian history.

Ahmad Ibn Tulun’s mosque is one of Cairo’s oldest surviving mosques, and immediately beside it two Ottoman houses form the Gayer-Anderson Museum. Together they move from monumental open space to intimate rooms dense with detail.

Behind a quiet doorway in al-Darb al-Asfar, Bayt al-Suhaymi shows how an affluent Ottoman-era Cairene house controlled light, air and privacy through courtyards, mashrabiyyas and reception rooms.