Explore Cairo

Built between 876 and 879 by Ahmad ibn Tulun, the Abbasid governor of Egypt, this is the oldest mosque in Egypt preserved largely in its original form. Arcades of pointed arches frame a vast courtyard with a domed fountain added in 1296, and the minaret has an external spiral stair. Visitors enter outside prayer times.

The Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan below the Citadel was built between 1356 and 1363 for the Mamluk sultan an-Nasir Hasan. Its massive stone walls enclose a courtyard with four vaulted iwans, each once used by one of the four Sunni schools of law, and a domed mausoleum. The Al-Rifa'i Mosque stands directly opposite.

Al-Azhar Mosque in historic Cairo was founded by the Fatimids in 970 and dedicated in 972 as the first mosque of their new capital. It became a centre of Sunni learning from which Al-Azhar University grew. Enlarged over a thousand years, it combines Fatimid arcades around a marble courtyard with Mamluk and Ottoman minarets and gates. Visitors enter outside prayer times.

The Al-Hussein Mosque stands beside the Khan el-Khalili bazaar and opposite Al-Azhar in historic Cairo. Its shrine, first built in 1154, is revered as the resting place of the head of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad; the present building in Gothic Revival style dates from 1874. It is a working mosque, entered outside prayer times.

The Al-Hakim Mosque stands at the northern end of Al-Muizz Street, beside the Bab al-Futuh gate of the Fatimid city wall. Begun by Caliph al-Aziz in 990 and completed by his son al-Hakim in 1013, it has a large marble courtyard and two minarets encased in square bastions. A 1980 restoration by the Dawoodi Bohras returned it to use as a working mosque.

The Amr ibn al-As Mosque in Old Cairo stands on the site of the first mosque in Egypt, founded around 642 by the Arab commander Amr ibn al-As in the new capital, Fustat. Rebuilt many times, it now has a large open courtyard ringed by long arcades of columns. It is a working mosque that visitors enter outside prayer times.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue in Coptic Cairo stands on a site used for Jewish worship since at least the 9th century; the present building dates from its rebuilding in the 1890s. Its storeroom held the Cairo Geniza, some 400,000 manuscript fragments found in the 19th century and now mostly in Cambridge. It no longer holds regular services and is visited as a historic monument.

The Hanging Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is built over the southern gatehouse of the Roman fortress of Babylon in Coptic Cairo, which gives it its name. A church has stood here since early Christian times; the present building has a timber roof shaped like Noah's Ark, a marble pulpit on slender columns and more than 100 icons. Steps lead up from Mar Girgis Street.