Downtown Cairo

The New City, now the transportation and commercial hub of Cairo, was conceived in the 19th century. Under the auspices of the benevolent British and French colonialists, the khedives then ruling planned the city around a system of midan?, (squares) from which radiate straight avenues; these are named for national heroes and revolutionary activists. Buses leave from two stations on the northern and southern sides of Tahrir Square to every metropolitan destination. At the north end of Tahrir facing the square is the sandstone Egyptian Museum; adjacent to it on the west side is the blue-and-white Nile Hilton, useful as an air-conditioned mailbox. At the southern end of the square is the concave Mugama Building, the headquarters of Egyptian bureaucracy, where you need to register your passport within seven days of arrival (for more details, see Practical Information below).

The American University in Cairo (AUC), directly to the east of the Mugama Building across Kasr al-Aini St., has gardens filled with English-speaking Egyptians and Arabic-speaking Americans, plus an excellent bookstore offering a variety of guidebooks and maps. Taia’at Harb Street runs from the northeast side of Tahrir through Taia’at Harb Sq. Ramses Square to the north and Ataba Square to the east (both major transportation hubs) form a rough triangle with Taia’at Harb enclosing the main business and shopping district, which is crammed with travel agents, banks, restaurants, juice stands, clothing stores, language schools, and budget hotels. Opera Square, on the east side of the triangle near Ataba Sq., was the site of two great imperialist monuments, now destroyed: the Opera House and the old Shepherd’s Hotel. Only the Azbekiya Gardens, encircled by bookstalls, remain.