The Cairo Coptic Museum is the repository of the largest collection of early Egyptian Christian art in the world. The displays tell the tale of Egypt between the age of the Pharaohs and Islamic rule.
The Coptic Museum was established by Markus Simaika Pasha in 1910. It was built on land intended for a Coptic Church after the founder obtained permission from the Pope Cyril V of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The building and surrounding garden covers an area of 8000 square meters. It contains objects donated by the Coptic community and artifacts that were once housed in the Egyptian Museum. It became a State Museum in 1931.
Exhibits at the Coptic Museum are arranged in two floors. The third floor has a library with 1200 of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, a valuable collection of early Christian Gnostic texts found near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. The library is only open for researchers and historians. The first floor has religious artifacts and objects made of carved stone, stucco work, religious frescoes and wooden objects. The second floor has textiles, manuscripts, a valuable collection of Coptic icons and metal objects. It has a collection of over 16,000 works of art of which 12,000 are displayed at a given time.

The Egyptian Antiquities Museum, popularly known as the Egyptian Museum is a repository of the largest collection of ancient Egyptian objects in the world. It is located to the north of Tahrir Square next to the Nile Hilton hotel.
The Egyptian Museum was established to prevent the removal of Egyptian treasures by foreigners in the 1830s. It first occupied a building in Bulaq on the banks of the River Nile in 1863. After many objects were damaged when the building was flooded, a new museum was built. The present building was designed by French architect, Marcel Dourgnon and inaugurated in 1902.
The Egyptian Museum has a collection of over 120.000 items. Notable exhibits are objects from Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s tomb displayed on the second floor including a golf funerary mask and sarcophagus. The second floor also has a Mummy room with the mummified remains of 11 kings and queens. One room on the same floor displays mummified birds and animals found in royal tombs. The ground floor has a collection of papyrus and coins. The collection not only has papyrus and coins from the age of the Pharaohs but also from the Greek and Roman civilizations. There is also a collection of coins minted under Islamic rule. Other objects displayed on the ground floor are tablets, statues and coffins from the age of the Pharaohs.

The Cairo Tower or Borj al-Qahira in Arabic is the tallest tower in North Africa and the modern landmark of the city. It offers spectacular views of the ancient and modern parts of Cairo.
The Cairo Tower was constructed with American funds in 1956 and completed in 1961 with the help of the Soviet Union. It was designed by Egyptian architect, Naoum Chebib like a lotus which was the most sacred among flowers in the age of the Pharaohs. Extensive restoration was carried out between the years 2004 and 2009 to get the structure ready for its fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 2011.
The Cairo Tower is 187 meters high. It is the second tallest tower in Africa. The Cairo Tower is 45 meters taller than the Great Pyramid at Giza. The walls are built using concrete and granite and the tower has a latticework exterior. There is a TV tower, a revolving restaurant and an observation deck at the top. Telescopes are stationed on the observation deck for visitors to see different parts of the city. It is lighted up at night and the twinkling lights through the latticework somehow blend with the stars above. It is open daily from 9.00 am to 1.00 am the next day.

The Giza Zoo is a zoological park located on the site of a former harem. It is one of the few green spaces in Cairo and is home to several imported and native animals.
The Giza Zoo was built by Khedive Ismail and consisted of 180 birds and 78 animals from his private menagerie. It was located on the site of the harem gardens and covered an area of over 52 acres. He imported plants from India, South America and Africa and a banyan tree from India still grows within the zoo. In the 1870s, the state took over the park from Khedive Ismail and it opened as a public zoo in 1890. The former harem building became a natural history museum.
The gardens have paths paved with black stone flags and pebbles laid artistically like mosaics. A suspension bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel helps visitors view animals from above and is the first elevated viewing bridge in the world. There are primate and bear grounds and a separate space for chimpanzees. It has a reptile house and taxidermist workshop. The Giza zoo is a research facility and many species including the Californian sea lion have been successfully bred here.

The Ahmed Shawki Museum is dedicated to the life and works of Ahmed Shawki one of Egypt’s best loved poets and dramatists. His home, the Karmet Ibn Hani houses the museum.
Ahmed Shawki built the house after his return from exile in the 1920s. He named it after his favorite poet, Ibn Hani Al Abbasi popularly known as Abu Nawwas. It was a large whitewashed palace surrounded by beautifully manicured and tree lined gardens. The museum was opened for public viewing in 1977.
The Ahmed Shawki Museum is set in garden with many unique bronze sculptures. There is a large bronze figure of the poet by sculptor, Gamal El Seguini that was installed to commemorate his 50th death anniversary. The displays are on two floors. On the ground floor is a suite dedicated to the works of the singer and composer, Mohamed Abd El Wahab. The ground floor also has the Shawki library with 332 books and drafts and manuscripts of the many works of the poet. The upper floor has the well preserved private rooms of the Shawki family and their collection of photographs, paintings and antiques. It is also a meeting place for poets and writers and two poetry recital sessions are held every month and also serves as a center that promotes arts and letters in the city.

The Abbas Bridge is one of the impressive bridges of Cairo. The Bridge has a pedestrian walkside and is actually a 586 meters long span type bridge inaugurated in 1908 by Khedive Abbas, in order to link Giza to Rhoda Island. The Abbas Bridge is followed by another one but smaller bridge called al-Malek al-Saleh.

The Hanging Church gets its name because it is located above an old Roman Gatehouse in Cairo. Its nave hangs over a passage. The real name of the Church is Sitt Mariam or St. Mary’s Church.
The Hanging Church is the best known Coptic Church in Cairo. The Coptic church is one of the early Eastern Orthodox Churches which once had its seat in Alexandria. Today, the Hanging Church is the official residence of the Coptic Pope. It was built in the 7th century and it is believed that there were churches on the site from the 3rd or 4th centuries. It has been rebuilt several times in particular in the 10th century by the Patriarch Abraham.
The Hanging Church has a beautiful courtyard flanked by religious mosaics. The marble pulpit has thirteen pillars representing Jesus and the 12 apostles. It is famous for its icons and the oldest one is from the 8th century. The eastern end has three sanctuaries dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. George and St. John the Baptist. The sanctuary screen dates back to the 12th or 13th centuries and is made of ebony inlaid with ivory. It has a row of seven large icons. The left screen has 17 icons and the right screen has 7 small icons on the top. The church is a thriving place of worship and important celebrations like the enthronement of patriarchs take place here.

This beautiful and clean cemetery is one of the prettiest cemeteries in Egypt. The gravestones are gorgeous with statues of angels, saints, doves, crosses and the like. If you like to be in the cemetery when a funeral is occurring, you will witness the old Egyptian tradition of wailing at burials. These wailing women can be seen pictured on the murals and bas-reliefs of the tombs of the ancient Egyptians.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue is the oldest Jewish place of worship in Cairo. The land was bought by Rabbi Ben Ezra of Jerusalem to build the synagogue and it was named after him.
Two legends exist about the location of the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Some believe that it was the place where baby Moses was found safe in the midst of bulrushes. The other legend says that it was here that the prophet Jeremiah regrouped the Jewish people after they were expelled from Jerusalem. In 1896, a collection of 100,000 documents relating to the history of the Jewish people in Egypt was found in the Geniza or store room. Most of the documents have been relocated in various museums in Europe and Britain.
The architecture of the Ben Ezra Synagogue has a basilica style. There are two floors, a lower floor for male worshippers and an upper floor for women. Steel bars divide the main hall into three parts. The central hall has the Bima or desk for Torah reading. Twelve columns support the roof and 6 marble steps lead to the wooden altar. The interiors are decorated in Turkish style floral and geometric patterns. Today, the synagogue has very few worshippers but has become a thriving tourist attraction in Cairo.