Cairo/Downtown



Downtown Cairo is the commercial heart of the modern city of Cairo. In addition to hosting the Egyptian Museum, Downtown is the convenient location of many smaller hotels, retail outlets, travel agencies and restaurants. Its central location makes it a natural "jumping off point" for exploration of the city.

History
Downtown Cairo's wide boulevards and streets were laid out in the late 19th century on the orders of Ismail the Magnificent, the Paris of Baron Hausmann being the obvious model for a ruler wishing to Europeanise his capital and his country. The architecture of many buildings is clearly redolent of Paris in the 1870s, if now somewhat run down from neglect and dusty from the Cairene climate.

Orientation
Downtown Cairo is centered on, at the intersection of Talaat Harb St (southwest-northeast) and Qasr El-Nil (west-east). The southern end of Downtown is Midan Tahrir (Tahrir Square). The east end is marked by, the starting point of Islamic Cairo. If you are a confident traveler and used to navigating your way around cities, then Cairo should be no different for you.

Talaat Harb St was known as Soliman Pasha St before 1964. The statue of the French General Jean Anthelme Seve, also known as Soliman Pasha Al Faransawi, stood where the statue of Talaat Harb, founder of the Banque Misr now stands. Cairienes know this street by both names.

By train
All long-distance trains arrive at the station, at the north edge of downtown. Midan Ramses is notorious for swirling, raucous traffic, massive overpasses and crowds at peak hour - it is basically the central traffic hub into and out of Cairo. Just below the square in front of the train station is Martyrs (الشهداء, Al-Shohadaa) metro station, which is an interchange between lines 1 and 2. From here it is a 25-minute walk to Midan Tahrir, on the other side of downtown.

By metro
Cairo's three metro lines converge in downtown.

The Sadat metro station is at Midan Tahrir, right beside the Egyptian Museum. This is at the south end of downtown, a 10-minute easy walk to the center of the district, via Talaat Harb Street. However, walking in that area especially at night is dangerous, as Tahrir Square has become one of the most dangerous spots in Greater Cairo, since 2011 (see Cairo/Downtown). Sadat metro station is closed on occasion for security reasons because of demonstrations at Midan Tahrir.

Downtown is accessed through two additional stations, Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

By bus
The Abdel Mo'nem Riyad Coach Station: a 5-minute walk from Tahrir Sq and behind the Egyptian Museum has four coach stations:
 * One is the micro-bus station.
 * Beside it is the local bus station serving the areas of Giza, Ma'adi, Helwan, Sheikh Zayid City.
 * The third serves the East of Cairo, i.e., Heliopolis, Medinet Nasr, Cairo Airport, and El Rehab.
 * The fourth station is across the road from the other three stations and this is where you can board the intercity coaches. The offices and bookings of Superjet, East Delta, West Delta, and El Gouna are here with destinations including Hurghada, Sharm el Sheikh, Ras Sidr, El Gouna, Alexandria, Delta Cities, Marsa Matrouh, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, El Tur, El Arish, Nuweiba, Dahab, Rafah.

By taxi
From downtown, taxis from Zamalek should cost around LE5, and from Citadel, Coptic Cairo or Islamic Cairo around LE10.

For more general information on Taxis in Cairo, see Cairo.

The Egyptian Museum
They've got the removals men in at the ! Shelves are being cleared, and exhibits photographed, labelled and crated, ready for their transfer to a new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids. It is scheduled to open in 2022. The present building will continue to be used to display some of the massive collections now stored in the basement.

It remains one of the world's great museums. The lighting and labelling are poor, but the fabulous exhibits speak for themselves. The following account describes what has traditionally been displayed here, but this is changing day by day as the transfer gathers momentum.

The museum (officially, the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, and often called the "Cairo Museum") is in a pink neoclassical building on the northern edge of Midan Tahrir. It's the product of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, established by the Egyptian government in 1835, to try to curb the looting of antiquities sites and artefacts. It opened in 1858 with a collection assembled by Auguste Mariette Pasha, the French archaeologist employed by Isma'il Pasha. After residing in an annex of the Bulaq palace in Giza from 1880, the museum moved in 1900 to its present location. It's a glorious ramshackle treasure-house that evokes Dylan Thomas' famous line about "The museum which should have been in a museum!"

There are seven sections within the museum that are arranged in chronological order:


 * 1) Tutankhamen's treasures
 * 2) Pre-dynasty and Old Kingdom monuments
 * 3) First intermediate period and Middle Kingdom monuments
 * 4) Monuments of the Middle Kingdom
 * 5) Monuments of the late period and the Greek and Roman periods
 * 6) Coins and papyri
 * 7) Sarcophagi and scarabs

The museum is open daily, 9AM–7PM. General admission is adults LE200, students LE100 (Nov 2021), which does not include the Royal Mummies room. Tickets for photography (personal use, without flash) are available at LE50 per camera (LE300 for video), but no photography is allowed in the Tutankhamen exhibition or in the Royal Mummies room. There are three separate checkpoints that have x-ray machines. There is one outside the courtyard, then there is one before the steps of the museum and a third right inside the doors.

Highlights



 * Objects from the Tomb of Tutankhamen, Upper Floor - discovered in 1922 and gradually revealed over the next few years, many of the objects from the tomb of the "boy king" were brought to the Egyptian Museum for display. A small number of objects found their way into foreign collections, whilst several, including the inner sarcophagus and the body of Tutankhamen himself, remained in the small tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The most famous objects from the tomb are the funerary mask of Tutankhamen and the inner coffin. The mask is made of solid gold, inlaid with lapis lazuli, cornelian, quartz, obsidian, turquoise, and colored glass. The inner coffin is made of solid gold. It is $$ long, $$ wide, and $$ high. The king is shown as Osiris holding the crook and flail, traditional symbols of kingship. Many items from the Tutankhamen collection are on tour to museums in Europe and North America, and the chariots have been moved to the new museum, which is not open as of Nov 2018. The complete collection of items found in the tomb has yet to be fully documented. It took almost ten years for the founder of the tomb, Howard Carter, to finish excavating the tomb.
 * The Royal Mummies: To see the Royal Mummies room, you can either buy a combination ticket at the ticket office at the main gate for LE300, or a separate ticket at the mummies room for LE180 (Nov 2018). No photography is allowed. There are two rooms you can enter using same ticket so make sure that you see both of them: many of the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom period and later are displayed here in the Royal Mummy Hall, which is at the corner of the first floor lobby. Mummies of eleven kings and queens are kept in temperature- and pressure-controlled glass cabinets on display. Unfortunately, some mummies are not even identified by the name or the period to which they belong to and other chronological information.
 * Jewelry: there is a large collection of Egyptian jewelry on display in the museum. Egyptians were concerned with creating harmonious forms and color combinations. To a large extent, the majority of Egyptian jewelry was made with gold and semi-precious stones. Silver was used but it much less popular than gold in the creation of jewelry. The majority of the jewelry found on display in the museum were found on the mummy of Tutankhamen himself.
 * Egyptian Museum Library: created in the year 1902, the library specializes in ancient Egyptian civilization and houses some 42,500 books on the topic. However, the library is not open to the general public, with access restricted to accredited researchers and students.

Only the Gold Room and the Mummy Room are air-conditioned. A bookstore and several small gift stores are open during museum hours within the main entrance hall to the museum. Prices are often somewhat inflated. Be careful also that the proprietors do not pass on a dusty, grimy equivalent of the display copy you think you are purchasing.

Midan Tahrir
(Arabic: ميدان التحرير, "Liberation Square", also commonly known as Tahrir Square) is the name given to the large public square at the epicentre of modern Cairo, and (as a city district) to the streets and institutions located nearby. The Egyptian Museum, the American University in Cairo, the Arab League, and the Hilton and Intercontinental Hotels are all located here, as are several important government offices. The metro also has its main nexus under Midan Tahrir, and a great many buses and taxis make Tahrir Square a key part of their services. The square was known as Midan Ismaili until 1954, when President Nasser gave it its current name.

The relatively open vista of Tahrir Square affords the confused traveler a great opportunity to look about and gain some bearings within the bustling city center.

Perhaps the most prominent building bordering Tahrir Square is the now somewhat jaded-looking Nile Hilton, which was Africa's first Hilton hotel, between the Square and the Nile Corniche. Immediately to the north and perpendicular to the hotel is the unmissable Egyptian Museum in reddish-pink stone. South of the Hilton Hotel stands the dingy Arab League Building. Somewhat further southeast, across the busy thoroughfare of Tahrir street, is the brutal Stalinist-looking Mogamma Building which houses 18,000 Egyptian government bureaucrats. This building is the most convenient place for tourists to renew or extend their Egyptian visas.

From here, Sharia Tahrir heads due west to cross the Nile over the Tahrir Bridge and into Gezira (the island suburb), and beyond to Giza and the Pyramids (several miles away) Next to the Mogamma Building is a small but attractive Mosque of Omar Makram, in which many state and business funerals are held. Only slightly further south can be found the Intercontinental Hotel.

Bordering Tahrir Square to the east is a sizable frontage of large office buildings and stores, topped with neon signs. The downtown campus of the American University of Cairo lies across the busy Qasr al-Ainy.

Midan Tahrir is served by the Sadat metro stop, but it is occasionally closed at times of expected demonstrations, and some entrances seem to be permanently closed. There is a bus stop near the area at Talaat Harb Square.

Probably one of the easiest ways to negotiate the busy Tahrir Square area is to use the interconnecting underground pedestrian tunnels linking the Metro station with various points in and around the square. This can save a great deal of time and prevent much negotiation of crazy traffic and the ongoing remodelling of the square.

Buy
The Downtown district of Cairo features a number of Egyptian department stores. They were fantastic emporiums, full of the world's best products — until July 1961 when every one of Egypt's great department stores were nationalized. Those days are long gone, and quality shopping has moved to upmarket malls in Heliopolis, Nasr City, Maadi and other upscale neighborhoods. Today, Downtown is the place to go for cheap fakes and local produce of variable quality and the full range of Arabic pop music (and films).

The Midan Ataba area is home to large bookseller markets, where you can find inexpensive books, as well as electronics and clothing markets. Near the main post office, there are vendors selling stationary and cards. Talaat Harb Street is the place to find shoes, with one shoe store after another.



Eat
Downtown is not the main haunt for the greatest of culinary treats, although quality eating does exist. It is however heaven for Egyptian snacks, sweets and fast food. All restaurants under "splurge" serve alcohol unless otherwise noted.

Budget

 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.
 * Directly opposite the gates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the south-eastern corner of the square are to be found all the central Cairo branches of McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.

Mid-range




Coffee houses
Downtown is a primary walk for coffee houses and almost every side-street has one. However, some areas and street have clusters of small places which makes for a very lively atmosphere.


 * Ta'kiba Coffee shop is a short walk away from Midan Falaki by the wrongly named Champollion Palace, on Champollion Street, and round the corner from the Townhouse Gallery and Theater. The gallery has a clean toilet for public use.
 * Ta'kiba Coffee shop is a short walk away from Midan Falaki by the wrongly named Champollion Palace, on Champollion Street, and round the corner from the Townhouse Gallery and Theater. The gallery has a clean toilet for public use.
 * Ta'kiba Coffee shop is a short walk away from Midan Falaki by the wrongly named Champollion Palace, on Champollion Street, and round the corner from the Townhouse Gallery and Theater. The gallery has a clean toilet for public use.

Sleep
Downtown Cairo is full of cheap but often dirty hostels and hotels. There are upscale options as well.

Connect
There are a handful of internet cafes around Midan Talaat Harb.

Free wi-fi is available at Pottery Cafe. Free wi-fi (Orange) is also available at modern coffee shops such as Cilantro and Costa Coffee, where you obtain access by getting a 2-hour "promotional" card from the waiter. McDonalds restaurants also offer free wi-fi.

Stay safe
Be extra careful crossing the roads in and around Tahrir Square. Egyptian motorists drive fast and seldom obey red lights.

Tahrir Square has become one of the most dangerous spots in Greater Cairo, as many political demonstrations have been held there, since 2011. The danger arises not only from the unfortunate escalation of demonstrations into violence, but also because thugs exploit the situation when security forces evacuate the area which makes it easier for them to steal, rob under the threat of injury and even rape. These incidents are usually made by a group of people riding motorcycles.

Be careful at Midan Tahrir and Midan Ataba, as these seem to be epicentres for the touts and pretentious helpful locals. They will pretend to innocently ask you where you where you are from and then point you in the wrong direction in direct you towards a friend's business. Only at the pyramids does this happen more often. Ataba is always crowded and has a very high incidence of pickpocketing, in a scenario such as getting in the metro station from there.

Cope
All hotels/hostels and people who work the street in downtown will try to sell you vastly overpriced tours around Egypt. They can be very forceful at times, as the competition for tourists is strong and they want to take money from you before the next one gets to you. Do not let yourself be bullied into taking one of these, until you have spoken to fellow travelers who can give you a more neutral opinion. In fact there are very few places in Egypt where it would be necessary to organize tours from the capital, and fewer where it would be financially advantageous.

Downtown has many small tourist-oriented tour kiosks. The problem that visitors face is these tours often are inflated in price and always include at least 2 stops to "uncle's" perfume, papyrus, or handicraft shops. This takes away many hours from the tour and time at monuments in the hope that at least a few from the coach will buy something.

The better option would be negotiate a taxi for the day. Stop a few taxis and ask what the price would be for a whole day of sightseeing at the places you want to visit. If the price is mutual, a taxi driver will be happy to escort you around town and wait hours in the shade outside for you if they are sure of a good fare at the end of the day instead of driving around Cairo looking for fares.