We booked a Cairo day tour with Emo tours to avoid negotiating with drivers again. The tour covered Christian, Islamic Cairo and the market
- Abu Serga, St Barbara and Hanging church, plus Ben Eza synagogue in the Christian Cairo part: The old churches are adorned with woodwork and ancient artefacts. No entry fee across any place here
- Citadel of Cairo, El Sultan Hasan mosque, Al Rifa’i mosque : The citadel was impressive with a huge area on an elevated fort like structure, including Mohamed Ali mosque. The mosques are ancient, but a bit similar to each other
- Khan el Khalili bazaar: We just had a walk around without purchasing anything. The price they use to call people to shops is different when you start a conversation on purchase. 75 LE generic price for T-shirts went up to 300-400 LE when you ask for a specific one
The driver wanted to take us to a small perfume museum which we said no to. These so called museums are typically shops acting as tourist traps
Egyptian Museum of Antiquities
We then headed to Egyptian Museum of antiquities at Tahrir Square on our own since it was not included in our tour. Our initial attempt to add this as a part of day tour resulted in 2.5x increase in price by Emo tours, so we thought of taking a Careem back
There are multiple museums in Cairo, with Egyptian Museum being the popular one. The museum was a very good way to understand how ancient Egyptians thought about life and death. It showcases many mummies, equivalents of layers of coffins used in erstwhile times, ornate masks, jewelry, statues and everything else you can imagine stored in tombs and temples you would have visited across Egypt. One of the mummies from tombs of Yuya and Thuya was the most well preserved one – we could see hair, eyes and facial features quite clearly
There are multiple layers of coffins that cover the mummy, made of gold, metals and wood
You will see the treasures from tombs and temples laid out in different rooms across two floors. They have so many artefacts that some are just placed on the way without much information mentioned about them
King Tutankhamen’s mask was still there with a long queue to see his tomb treasures. Photography was strictly not allowed. Some of the treasures have already moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum at Gaza
We wanted to visit St Simon or cave Church in garbage city, but ran out of time. It’s good to keep a few pending places to visit so that there is something to look forward to next time
Tannoura show in Cairo
Must visit if you happen to be in Cairo on Mondays/ Wednesdays/ Saturdays. It is like whirling dervishes of Turkey with a colorful touch and handwork of revolving skirts
The show starts at 7:30 PM at Wekalet el Ghouri, with tickets opening at around 6 PM same day. We reached just in time at 7:25 PM and managed to get tickets. They try to accommodate as much as possible by adding chairs at the back. In peak months, might be better to come in early to buy tickets. We had heard you cannot go out after purchasing tickets, so get a book or download a movie to watch while you are waiting. The ticket price was 90/$2 LE per person
It is supposed to be spiritual, so treat with respect. Videography is not allowed. You can applaud after performance unlike the spiritual performances in Turkey
Where we stayed
Marriott Mena House, right opposite the pyramids on redemption booking. The stay was excellent with no complaints whatsoever. We had lounge access with evening snacks- they made special efforts to get a vegetarian Indian meal from the Moghul restaurant
You will get the closet view of two pyramids from here. Revenue rates are quite expensive, upwards of $400-600+. There are quite a lot of alternate places around if you are going there only for the view, although from a bit faraway but covering more pyramids or Sphinx