Cairo

Cairo stretches along both banks of the Nile in northern Egypt, and nowhere else in Africa sets the ancient against the modern quite so vividly. The Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx rise on the city’s edge, their silhouettes sharing the skyline with a thoroughly modern capital beyond. The scent of spice drifts through the old souks, and the call to prayer carries over rooftops at dusk. It is a capital that rewards a guide who knows which rooftop to watch the sunset from.