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Complete Cairo: free self-guided audio tour of Cairo
Complete Cairo is a free self-guided audio walking tour of Cairo, Egypt: 7 stops in about 2 h 20. The Itinerarly app walks you from one stop to the next and plays a short narrated story when you arrive, in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
| Stops | 7 |
|---|---|
| Duration | about 2 h 20, including time at each stop |
| Difficulty | Challenging |
| Distance | about 23.9 km in straight lines between the stops (a little more on foot) |
| Start | Pyramids of Giza |
| Finish | Hanging Church |
| Price | Free (some sights charge their own entry ticket) |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese |
Pharaohs, Islam and Coptic Cairo
The stops, in order
- Pyramids of GizaThese are the Pyramids of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. Raised nearly 4,500 years ago for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, they rise in perfect masses at the edge of the desert, facing the city. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, originally 146 metres high, was the tallest building in the world for almost four thousand years.
- Great Sphinx of GizaThe Great Sphinx of Giza, the plateau's thousand-year-old guardian, is the largest monolithic statue in the world: seventy-three metres long, twenty metres high, carved from a single bed of limestone. With its lion's body and human face—probably that of the pharaoh Khafre—it has kept watch before the pyramids for about 4,500 years. Its missing nose has fed many legends; in truth it was broken centuries ago.
- Egyptian MuseumThe Egyptian Museum in Cairo, opened in 1902 on Tahrir Square, holds one of the most extraordinary collections of antiquities in the world: more than a hundred thousand objects tracing seven thousand years of civilisation. Its most famous treasure is the gold of Tutankhamun, found intact in 1922: the solid-gold funerary mask, the nested sarcophagi, the jewels and chariots of the young pharaoh. You can also admire colossal statues, papyri, royal mummies…
- Citadel & Mosque of Muhammad AliTowering over Cairo from its hilltop, the Citadel of Saladin was built in the late 12th century by the famous sultan to defend the city against the Crusaders. For nearly seven hundred years it was the seat of power in Egypt. At its heart rises the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, the "alabaster mosque", built in the 19th century in the Ottoman style with cascading domes and two slender minarets over eighty metres tall.
- Khan el-KhaliliThe Khan el-Khalili is Cairo's great bazaar, a labyrinth of covered lanes that has pulsed with trade since the 14th century. Under Mamluk arcades crowd the stalls of goldsmiths, spice sellers, hammered copper, perfumes, lanterns and fabrics. Here you haggle over mint tea by hand and lose yourself with delight in the mingled scent of saffron, oud and leather.
- Al-Azhar MosqueAl-Azhar Mosque, founded in 970, is one of the oldest still in use in the world and the spiritual heart of Sunni Islam. Its university, among the oldest on earth, has shaped the religious and legal thought of the Muslim world for more than a thousand years. The mosque blends the styles of ten centuries: marble courtyards bathed in light, a forest of reused ancient columns, and five elegant minarets punctuating the Cairo sky.
- Hanging ChurchThe Hanging Church, or Al-Muallaqa, is the most famous of Cairo's Coptic churches. Built as early as the 3rd or 4th century above a former gate of the Roman fortress of Babylon, it seems to "hang" in the void, hence its name. You reach it by a staircase leading to a nave adorned with inlaid ebony and ivory woodwork, ancient icons and a marble pulpit borne by thirteen columns symbolising Christ and his apostles.
How to take this tour
- Install the free Itinerarly app on iPhone or Android and create a free account.
- Open Guided tours, choose Cairo, then Complete Cairo.
- Start whenever you like: the app guides you to Pyramids of Giza and the story plays when you arrive at each stop.
Other audio tours of Cairo
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Complete Cairo tour in Cairo free?
- Yes. It is one of 3 free self-guided audio tours of Cairo in the Itinerarly app. Some sights charge their own entry ticket.
- How long does the Complete Cairo tour take?
- About 2 h 20 for 7 stops, including time at each stop.
- Where does the Complete Cairo tour start and finish?
- It starts at Pyramids of Giza and finishes at Hanging Church.
- Which languages is the narration in?
- English, French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese, with natural-sounding synthetic voices.