Two Days in Cairo: The Itinerary We Give Our Own Friends

Cairo is a city of twenty-two million people with four thousand years of layers under it. Two days is not enough, so the skill is in choosing well rather than moving fast.

Day one: Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum

Start at the plateau early. The pyramids open at 7am and the first hour is by far the best — cooler, emptier, and better light.

Give the panoramic viewpoint proper time. It is the only spot where you see all nine pyramids together.

The Grand Egyptian Museum needs three hours minimum and could absorb a full day. Finish with the Tutankhamun galleries so nothing after them feels like an anticlimax.

Day two: the other Cairos

The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir is still worth two hours even now the headline pieces have moved. It is chaotic and atmospheric in a way the new museum deliberately is not.

Coptic Cairo is compact — the Hanging Church, St Sergius and Ben Ezra Synagogue sit within a few hundred metres.

Finish at Khan El Khalili after 4pm, when the heat drops and the market wakes up. Tea at El Fishawy is a cliché and you should still do it.

What to cut

Saqqara and Dahshur, unless you have a third day. They are excellent and they are a separate outing.

The Citadel, if you are short on time. The view is good, the mosque is impressive, and it is the most skippable of the major sites.

Any "panorama and papyrus shop" combination sold at hotel desks.