Islamic Cairo and Khan el-Khalili

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Historic Cairo (1979). One Of The Densest Concentrations Of Medieval Islamic Architecture Anywhere A Thousand Years Of Mosques, Madrasas, Caravanserais, Sabils And Merchant Houses Along A Street You Can Still Walk End To End, With A Working Bazaar In The Middle Of It That Has Traded On The Same Ground Since The Fourteenth Century · Cairo, Cairo

Cairo's medieval city is the densest surviving collection of Islamic architecture anywhere, and the astonishing part is that it is still in use. Al-Muizz street runs north to south between two Fatimid gates, and along a couple of kilometres of it stand mosques, madrasas, caravanserais, public fountains and merchant houses from every century between the tenth and the nineteenth, most of them with somebody working in or next to them. Khan el-Khalili sits in the middle, trading on the same ground since the fourteenth century - copper beaters and gold sellers in the lanes where tourists do not go, lamps and scarves in the ones where they do. Ibn Tulun's ninth-century mosque to the south is the oldest in the city and has a spiral minaret you can climb. It is loud, crowded, hot and genuinely overwhelming, and it is the half of Cairo that people who only see the pyramids go home without having seen at all.

The medieval city east of the modern centre, along al-Muizz street between Bab Zuweila and Bab al-Futuh, with Khan el-Khalili at its heart, Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

The streets are open at all hours and never empty; the monuments keep daylight hours and are the variable part. WHICH MONUMENTS ARE OPEN CHANGES CONSTANTLY with restoration, and several are unlocked by a caretaker with a key rather than standing open - the Bayt al-Suhaymi merchant house and the various minaret climbs have each been shut for long periods. Mosques close to visitors during the five daily prayers and for longer around Friday midday; al-Azhar and Ibn Tulun both receive visitors outside those times with shoes removed. Khan el-Khalili's shops open late morning and trade well into the evening, and many close on Sunday. The metro reaches the edge at Bab el-Shaaria and Ataba; inside, the lanes are too narrow for cars and walking is the only option.

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