Islamic Cairo Architecture Private Walking Tour

This Islamic Cairo Walking Tour traces roughly a thousand years of building in the old city, on foot and at a relaxed pace. It starts at Al-Azhar Mosque, founded in 970 CE and still one of the Islamic world's most important centers of religious study, before moving along Al-Muizz Street a stretch lined with some of the best-preserved medieval Islamic architecture anywhere, including the Qalawun Complex's hospital and mausoleum.

A guide trained in Islamic art and architecture points out details easy to miss on your own: carved stucco, mashrabiya screens, and the striped ablaq stonework that became a signature of Mamluk building under Sultan Barquq.

The walk finishes in Khan El Khalili, the bazaar that grew up alongside these monuments in the 14th century and still functions as a working market today, its covered lanes largely unchanged since. Lunch is served at a restaurant inside a restored historic building along the route. Comfortable shoes are the only real requirement everything else, from pacing to translation, is handled for you.