شارع المعز

Al-Moaz Street is the great spine of medieval Cairo, a largely pedestrianised thoroughfare that functions as an open-air museum of Islamic architecture. Along a single walkable stretch you pass mosques, madrasas, fountains, merchant houses and monumental gateways spanning a thousand years of Fatimid, Mamluk and Ottoman building.

By day it's a working street of coppersmiths and shops; after dark the restored facades are floodlit and the atmosphere turns magical. Landmarks like the Qalawun complex, Al-Hakim Mosque and the medieval gates of Bab al-Futuh and Bab Zuweila bookend the route.

It flows straight into the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, making one continuous journey through old Cairo.