Egypt Guide
Cairo
Old Cairo
The southern sector of the city is divisible into three main areas, the most interesting of which is Old Cairo (Masr al-Qadima). Depending on whether it's broadly or narrowly defined, Old Cairo covers everything south of Garden City and Saiyida Zeinab – from the slaughterhouse district beside the Mamluke Aqueduct out to the ancient Jewish cemetery of Al-Basatin – or a relatively small area near the Mari Girgis metro station, known to foreigners as "Coptic Cairo". Cairenes themselves distinguish between the general area of Masr al-Qadima and specific localities such as Fumm al-Khalig (where you can see the Aqueduct which brought water to the Citadel) or Qasr el-Sham'ah, which was the fortress of Babylon, where the Holy Family is thought to have taken refuge from King Herod. This developed into a powerhouse of native Christianity, and today remains the heart of Cairo's Coptic community. Featuring several medieval churches, the superb Coptic Museum and an atmospheric synagogue, it totally eclipses the site of Fustat – Egypt's first Islamic settlement, of which little remains but the much-altered Mosque of Amr – or the largely uninteresting southern suburbs of Ma'adi and Helwan. Understandably, most tourists concentrate on Coptic Cairo, followed by a brief look at the Mosque of Amr.