Nearby towns are now suburbs and even the Pyramids of Giza are now integrated into the sprawl of humanity. Ancient and urban, ugly and astounding Cairo is an intricate puzzle of history, religion, geography and romance. Known in the Middle East as Umm Al-Dunya or "The Mother of the World", it is stitched together like a quilt made from 1001 threads and fabrics, and has bright swatches of intensely authentic experiences.
The first thing to do when you get here is to trust people more than your instinct tells you to. The taxi drivers are self-confessed acrobats, and freelance guides, and interrogators. Everywhere you go you will be asked: "Where you come from?" Roll with it. Better yet, if you like the man and he seems knowledgeable, let him be your guide; you'll immediately have a more in-depth travel experience because you'll get to know a modern Egyptian.
Most people start with a visit to the pyramids, but I prefer to get into the rhythm of a city by experiencing it at its most pungent and exotic - the medieval market streets of Khan el-Khalili deliver this in spades. Off the main pedestrian street there are narrow walkways crammed with glittering products and vocal salesmen. Take in the shafts of light, the scent of incense, spicy cumin and dusky dried roses. In search of "real Cairo" we veer off into even tighter, darker unnamed alleys.
A chubby baladi bread baker invites us in to see how this traditional bread is made and it is like time travel. We crouch in the dark three-by-two-metre space next to weathered baskets of wholewheat flour and watch as the bread swells in the primitive wood-fuelled furnace. A boy of about eight is working hard, transferring the baked discs of pita-like bread to cooling racks made of palm leaves. Around another bend, there are metalworkers and ancient men on rickety metal chairs bent over backgammon boards. And then, standing in a blackened doorway in blackened clothes, is a striking-looking man selling coal as it must have been sold forever. This medieval market still works in medieval ways.
Following a lead from our hotel concierge, we duck past the touristy, plastic-chaired cafés lining the Midan Hussein Square and slip into the last seats in the 200-year-old El Fishawi coffee house. With small copper-topped tables and eclectic chairs that spill onto both sides of a narrow walkway, it is packed with locals sipping hibiscus juice, shishas and peppermint tea. El Fishawi's fame has made it acceptable for women to sit here and in the time it takes to drink our tea the persuasive street sellers have sold a carpet to four pretty Egyptian students, a fake Sphinx to a couple from Tunisia and I have two garlands of jasmine flowers threaded onto white cotton. There is so much to buy here, from battered copper trays and taps to jasmine perfume and spices that will blow your nostrils away. Decide what the item is worth to you and you'll never feel ripped off.
Elsewhere, in the unofficial "living room" of the city - the 30 000 coffee shops - men enjoy fruit shishas (meaning "glass", shishas are hookahs or water-cooled pipes used to smoke tobacco) and talk of how Cairo used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. There is also criticism of the government's attempts to decentralise the city by making satellite suburbs beyond the bustling decay that is obvious in downtown Cairo. But despite the grumbling, there is fierce pride that here you can find Islam's most famous mosques, the oldest universities in the East, and the noblest monuments of the Ottoman Empire. Even the city's park, Al-Azhar, is a case study of extremes: this 30-hectare landscaped green space now acts as Cairo's lungs after it was transformed from a vast eyesore of rubble into an elegant asset. Before leaving the Islamic district, step shoeless into at least one of the unbelievably dramatic mosques in the area. In the delicately decorative Mosque of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbey, if you ask at the door and the man is in the right mood, for R25 you can walk up a pitch-black spiral staircase and get a private view across the rooftops of this compelling city.
Alongside the bazaar is the best surviving example of a caravanserai or wikala in Cairo. Used in the early 17th century as a hostel for weary merchants arriving in caravans, Wikala of al-Ghouri has a central courtyard and would have had rooms, stables and safe storage space. Now it serves as a free theatre for the Sufi Whirling Dervishes on a Wednesday and Saturday at 8.30pm. The best seats in the house are in the old marble fountain right at the front, so don't worry about getting there too early. The show is long, but worth it if you've never seen this style of dancing - it is also much more authentic than the entertainment on the tourist boats or in the hotels. We sneak out a bit early and nobody even blinks an eye.
The most respected restaurants in Cairo are French, Thai and Indian, but I want to taste authentic Egyptian food and both Abou El Sid in Zamalek and the restaurant named after the Nobel Prize-winning writer Naguib Mahfouz in Khan el-Khalili are recommended to us. Naguib Mahfouz Café is closest and we're ravenous. Stepping through a massive carved door, we find we're the only foreigners in a café of trendy Egyptians (we initially think we're in the wrong place). There is a frenetic, friendly atmosphere and, although the lights are a little bright, the white guava juice, strawberry juice and meal of traditional bread, tahini or sesame paste, vegetables stuffed with scented rice and lamb are delectable.
Even at midnight, Cairo must have the most tightly packed traffic jams in the world. Locals joke about "rush hour" as the congestion is the same at any time of day - so you simply cannot rush anywhere. As a result, donkeys, pedestrians, rose sellers and cars move through the city at the same pace, all to a cacophony of a million car horns, referred to as the "Egyptian brake pedal" as drivers just hoot and skid artfully into gaps - no brakes, no indicators.
You don't really get more authentically Egyptian than the tranquil, faded glamour of the Mena House Oberoi. This remodelled royal hunting lodge is situated within strolling distance of the Great Pyramids; with its heritage, it makes sense that something as poignant as the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed here. The guest list boasts an astounding collection of presidents and prima donnas, and in the old palace's Carter Suite it is difficult not to feel truly spoilt. The suite's two private balconies peer through palm fronds at the misty geometry of the pyramids and, inside, the intricate gold-leafed panelling above the vast bed is genuinely palatial. Be warned though: the modern Garden Wing simply does not compare, so if the Palace Wing is not in your budget, stay in central Cairo where you'll be closer to the action and attractions of the city.
At 8.30am the light is still smoky and soft on the 4500-year-old pyramids and it is an awe-inspiring sight: more than 2 million blocks that took 100 000 builders 20 years to erect, and that's just one of them. Unsurprisingly, the precision of the build has fascinated Egyptologists for centuries - you cannot slip a piece of paper between any of the stones and the sides vary by only 4.4cm. One theory controversially declares that the stones were cast using a powdered cement-like mortar, but it is difficult to get out of your mind the stirring images of Cecil B DeMille's film The Ten Commandments, with thousands of slaves and a fierce pharaoh. Alongside these iconic structures, as if lying in wait for something dark and menacing, is the world's largest single slab sculpture - the Sphinx. Its unworldly, weathered face has watched generations of tourists pass by. Get there early, before the heat is overwhelming, and take your own water and sunscreen. I recommend hiring a horse or camel inside the pyramid grounds and riding to the view site. Enjoy the haggling - it's part of the experience.
The best contender for the Egyptian national dish, koshary, is described passionately as "part of the Egyptian identity". There is much debate as to where to get the best koshary in Cairo, despite its unfussy list of ingredients that includes rice, black lentils, pasta, garlic, onions and spicy tomato salsa. It is typically served in casual canteen style from rows of metal pots, with a cook noisily banging a spoon after each serving - this unique koshary symphony adds another layer to the bizarre soundtrack of Cairo. At the popular Koshary Abou Tarek, you pay, hand over your receipt and five seconds later you're served (make sure you order a small or medium portion, as the large is huge). Or do what some locals recommend: simply go down the tightest, narrowest unpaved road in the smallest neighbourhood and look out for a shiny hot-dog stand where taxi drivers are clamouring for a plate - you'll get the real stuff.
There is something timeless about the evocative sight of feluccas sailing on the Nile. And better yet is the experience of sailing in one. On the river, near the Four Seasons Hotel, there are a few places to select a boat and a sailor. Dok Dok, which has been there for generations, also sells ice-cold soft drinks to take with you. For an hour you can drift with the wind, getting a unique perspective of the city's cupolas, minarets and slick glass buildings turning shades of amber as the day ends.
In the muting light of dusk, Cairo's romantics walk and flirt conservatively on the bridges of the Corniche el-Nil. But walk towards Zamalek, the glossy one of the Nile's two urban "islands", and get a taxi down the boulevards to the very tip of it - then lounge in a chair in the surprisingly chic, tented restaurant Sequoia, and suddenly Cairo looks different. With sleek people in sexy dresses and even sushi on the menu, it feels worlds away from the gritty, spicy blur of the markets. This is authentic Cairo, a city of intoxicating contrasts, the home of noxious exhaust fumes and delicate plumes of apple shishas.
* Khan el-Khalili, Sekket el-Badistan; 0020 2 590 3788.
* Al-Azhar Park, Salah Salem Street; 0020 2 510 3868; www.alazharpark.com.
* Mosque of Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbey, corner of Nahasiyeen and Muski streets, Khan el-Khalili.
* Wikala of al-Ghouri, Muhammad 'Abduh Street; 0020 2 511 0472.
* The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, Giza.
* Abou el Sid, 157 26th of July Street, Zamalek; 0020 2 735 9640.
* Naguib Mahfouz Café, 5 Sekket el-Badistan, Khan el-Khalili; 0020 2 590 3788.
* Koshary Abou Tarek, 16 Maarouf Street, Champillion; 0020 2 577 5935.
*Sequoia, 53 Abou el-Feda, Zamalek; 0020 2 735 0014.
* Mena House Oberoi Palace Wing doubles from R2200. Pyramids' Road, Giza; 0020
2 33 77 3222; www.oberoihotels.com.
Best price: Joburg to Cairo with Egypt Air, from R5333 return; www.egyptair.com. With SAA: Joburg to Cairo, from R6721 return; www.flysaa.com.
Travel notes: both the above are daily, direct flights. Other airlines sometimes offer equally good rates, but involve a stopover.
When to go: the hottest season is from June to September. Avoid April when the hot and dusty khamsin wind blows in from the Sahara. www.travelstart.co.za.
Photography: David Crookes
Published in arrangement with National Geographic Traveller, South Africa - Issue 7 now out
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com
