Thirteen centuries old, Cairo hopes to build a prosperous future even as it preserves its layered past. Susan Hack offers an updated guide to a remarkably revitalized city

Cairo's pharaonic site—the Pyramids and Sphinx on the Giza Plateau and the Sakkara complex—as well as the King Tut treasures in the Egyptian Museum, attract a rising flood of tourists: Egypt expects a record 12 million in 2008. While seeing them is a must, especially for first-time visitors, take time to wander off the pharaonic grid—preferably without a guide. From November through early February, skies are clear and temperatures are mild, making long strolls a pleasure. The crowds and noise may intimidate at first, but Cairo has less crime than many Western capitals. And although not everyone approves of U.S. government policy, Egyptians value hospitality and happily give directions to visiting Americans.

The country and city code for Cairo is 20-2. Prices quoted are for January 2008 and do not include the hotel tax of about 25 percent.

Tour 1: Islamic Cairo
The Museum of Islamic Art, with the world's finest collection of Fatimid and Mamluk masterpiece—more than 1,700 objects sourced from Cairo—is scheduled to reopen in February 2008; start here for a historical overview and a visual sense of Cairo's Islamic heydays.

The mile-long Sharia Al Mu'izz Li-Din Allah, which has been Cairo's Main Street since the time of the Fatimids, is a recently declared pedestrians-only zone with 34 registered monuments, including the sabil-kuttab of Tusun Pasha and its new textile museum, the tourist zone of the Khan al-Khalili, and still-working souks such as the copper and the abaya markets. Starting at Bab Al-Fotouh, walk south to Bab Zuweila, pass under the massive stone arch, and turn left along Darb al-Ahmar Street to the Blue Mosque, whose minaret affords a view of rooftop life and which has a cenotaph of a nine-year-old Mamluk sultan assassinated by his older brother. A few blocks west, Sharia Suyufia Street brings you to the 19th-century Dervish Theater, where Sufis once whirled, and the Amir Taz Palace, the digs of a 14th-century Mamluk poison taster, newly restored and used by contemporary artists. End your tour at the Gayer-Anderson Museum, next to the 9th-century Ibn Tulun Mosque; the museum is housed in a pair of Ottoman-era houses and contains an eclectic Islamic and pre-Islamic art collection. El Gahsh (see "Dining") is a short walk away—down Abdel Meguid Al-Labban in the direction of the Saida Zeinab Mosque.

The Islamic quarter has more than 600 registered monuments. It's easy to plan your own itinerary using the Society for the Preservation of the Architectural Resources of Egypt's set of four maps (available at Khan Misr Tulun, opposite the Ibn Tulun Mosque) and Caroline Williams's Islamic Monuments in Cairo, available in local bookstores and hotels (American University in Cairo Press, $23). This is a densely populated area, so plan your walk in the quiet morning hours, before noon prayers.