Cairo highlights the Egyptian Museum, the Citadel, and Old Cairo.

After hotel pickup, your Egyptologist guide will take you to the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. The museum was established around the early 1900s under Khedive Abbas Helmi II, and his A&H monogram still graces its façade. Thanks to the efforts of notable Egyptologists such as Petri, Mariette, and Maspero, the museum has grown into one of the world’s great collections, containing more than 120,000 pieces. It faces a famous square that was once Ismaileya Square and is now known as Tahrir Square (the Liberation Square), renowned for the 2011 revolution and the subsequent events of 2013. The building has two floors: the ground floor presents artifacts in chronological order.

Next, you will visit the Citadel of Saladin and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. Near the end of the Fatimid Caliphate, Saladin arrived in Egypt and restored Sunni rule, eventually fortifying Cairo with the Citadel to defend against Crusaders. The Citadel served as the seat of government for many years, until Muhammad Ali Pasha (the founder of the last royal dynasty) commissioned the mosque and mausoleum for himself around 1831, a legacy that continued until the expulsion of King Farouk in 1952. In Old Cairo, multiple faiths have long interwoven, making this neighborhood especially fascinating to explore.

Lunch will be served at a traditional restaurant in Old Cairo. At the end of the tour, you will be transferred back to your hotel.