Bayt al-Sinnari (Sinnari House)

Tucked into the Sayyida Zeinab quarter of old Cairo, Bayt al-Sinnari is a beautifully preserved 18th-century Ottoman house, built in 1794 by Ibrahim al-Sinnari, a man who rose from humble origins in Sudan to wealth and influence. Its cool courtyards, carved wooden mashrabiya screens and finely decorated reception rooms are a superb example of the domestic architecture of the era.

Its real claim to fame is what happened here soon after: during Napoleon's occupation, the house was requisitioned to lodge the French expedition's scholars and artists, the savants whose surveys produced the monumental Description de l'Égypte. To walk its rooms is to stand where modern Egyptology was, in a sense, born, a quiet gem away from the tourist crush.