Cairo operates approximately 4,000 coffee shops ranging from traditional ahwas to European-style cafés, with the highest concentration in Downtown Cairo, Zamalek, and Heliopolis districts. El Fishawy, located in Khan el-Khalili bazaar, has served tea and coffee continuously since 1773, maintaining wooden furniture and brass fixtures from its founding period. The café occupies a narrow alley known as Sikka el-Badistan and operates twenty-four hours daily. Novelist Naguib Mahfouz, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, sat at the same table near the eastern wall most afternoons from the 1960s until his death in 2006, a seat now marked with a small plaque. El Fishawy serves Turkish coffee ground on premises using beans roasted in Alexandria, ahwa sada without sugar, ahwa mazbouta with one sugar, and ahwa ziyada with two sugars. Traditional glass cups cost fifteen Egyptian pounds as of late 2024. The café's mirrors retain beveled glass imported from Venice in 1881.
Café Riche opened on Talaat Harb Street in 1908 under Greek management and became the primary gathering place for Egyptian intellectuals during the independence movement of the 1920s and revolutionary period of the 1950s. The interior preserves art deco ceiling moldings installed in 1932 and photographs of Taha Hussein, Abbas el-Akkad, and Tawfiq el-Hakim seated at corner tables. The café closed from 1981 to 2004 after owner Avraham Cohen died without heirs. Current owner Mohamed el-Damaty, former Minister of Antiquities, restored the original chandelier and reopened the space maintaining the pressed tin ceiling and marble-topped tables. Café Riche serves espresso-based drinks alongside traditional Egyptian shay bil-na'na, mint tea using spearmint grown in Faiyum. Prices range from twenty to fifty-five Egyptian pounds.
Zamalek district on Gezira Island houses approximately sixty cafés within two square kilometers. Beano's, an Egyptian chain established in 1991, operates fourteen locations in Cairo with concentrations on 26th of July Street and Brazil Street. The company sources arabica beans from Ethiopian farms at elevations above 1,800 meters and roasts them at a facility in Sixth of October City. Beano's introduced pour-over coffee to Cairo in 2012 and maintains water temperature at ninety-three degrees Celsius for extraction. Single-origin Ethiopian medium roast costs sixty-five Egyptian pounds for 240 milliliters as of December 2024. The Brazil Street location displays rotating work from students at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Helwan University, with exhibitions changing monthly.
Cilantro, founded in Cairo in 2005, operates forty-two locations across Egypt including six in Alexandria and three in Sharm el-Sheikh. The company imports Colombian beans through Alexandria Port and Italian espresso machines from La Marzocco. Cilantro introduced Egypt's first cappuccino loyalty program in 2007 and serves approximately 18,000 customers daily across all locations. The flagship store on Road 9 in Maadi occupies 420 square meters across two floors and includes a performance space that hosts live music Thursday through Saturday evenings. Egyptian jazz guitarist Fathy Salama, who won a Grammy Award in 2006 for best Contemporary World Music Album, performed monthly at the Maadi location from 2014 to 2019. Current performance schedule features oud players, independent folk musicians, and poetry readings in Arabic and English.
Alexandria maintains distinct coffee culture centered on historic European cafés from the cosmopolitan period of 1860 to 1950. Délices, opened on Saad Zaghloul Square in 1922, occupies the ground floor of a belle époque building and preserves its original parquet flooring laid in a herringbone pattern. The café served Greek, Italian, and British expatriate communities until 1956 and continues to offer French-style café au lait using milk from farms near Rashid. Interior columns feature Corinthian capitals and the curved bar counter uses Egyptian marble from quarries near Gebel Elba. Délices closes Mondays and serves Turkish coffee in porcelain cups manufactured in Limoges prior to 1960. Espresso costs thirty-five Egyptian pounds.
Trianon, located adjacent to Saad Zaghloul Square, opened in 1905 and occupies a corner building designed by Italian architect Pietro Avoscani. The café maintains original Murano glass chandeliers and wall sconces that operate using converted gas fixtures. Trianon served as a meeting point for Constantine Cavafy, who lived three blocks away at 10 Lepsius Street from 1907 until 1933. The poet's preferred table, positioned near the northern window overlooking the square, is marked with a brass nameplate installed in 1963. Trianon's pastry kitchen produces gâteau Trianon, an almond cream cake developed in 1928, and millefeuille using butter from Danish dairies. The café operates from seven in the morning until midnight and serves Italian-style espresso using beans from Caffè Vergnano. Prices range from thirty to seventy Egyptian pounds.
The Egyptian contemporary art scene centers on galleries in Downtown Cairo and Zamalek, with approximately thirty-five established commercial galleries operating as of 2024. Townhouse Gallery, founded in 1998 on Mohamed Ali Street, occupies a renovated Ottoman-era mansion built in 1882. The gallery pioneered experimental art in Egypt and exhibited Huda Lutfi, Khaled Hafez, and Moataz Nasr during their early careers. Townhouse operates three exhibition spaces totaling 650 square meters and maintains an artist residency program that hosts six to eight international artists annually for three-month periods. The gallery closed temporarily in 2015 following regulatory disputes but reopened in 2018. Townhouse shows rotate every six to eight weeks and admission remains free.
Gypsum Gallery opened in Zamalek in 2009 and represents twenty-two contemporary Egyptian artists. The gallery occupies 180 square meters on Hassan Assem Street and focuses on emerging artists under forty years old. Gypsum introduced Egyptian artists to Abu Dhabi Art Fair in 2011 and Art Dubai in 2012. The gallery exhibited Basim Magdy before his selection for the Egyptian Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Works range from fifteen thousand to two hundred thousand Egyptian pounds for paintings and three thousand to thirty thousand pounds for prints. Gypsum maintains regular hours Wednesday through Sunday from two to eight in the evening.
Cairo's Museum of Modern Art, located in Gezira Exhibition Grounds adjacent to the Cairo Opera House, opened in 1931 and houses approximately 6,500 works. The museum building, constructed in 1902 for an agricultural exhibition, spans 2,400 square meters across two floors. Collections include paintings by Mahmoud Said, who worked from 1919 to 1964 and depicted Mediterranean Alexandria in hundreds of oil paintings. Said's Whirling Dervish, completed in 1929, hangs in the main gallery and measures 140 by 110 centimeters. The museum owns twenty-eight works by sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar, including Nahdat Misr (Egypt's Renaissance), a granite statue completed in 1928. The sculpture stood at Ramses Square from 1928 to 2019 before relocation to the Grand Egyptian Museum. Museum of Modern Art charges twenty Egyptian pounds admission for non-Egyptians and ten pounds for Egyptians. Photography requires additional fifty-pound permit.
Alexandria's Museum of Fine Arts, established in 1954, occupies two buildings in Moharram Bey district totaling 3,200 square meters. The museum houses works by Gazbia Sirry, who painted Egyptian landscapes and portraits from 1950 until her death in 2021. The collection includes 140 paintings spanning her sixty-year career. Seif Wanly's Bahariya Oasis, oil on canvas completed in 1943, depicts date palms and measures ninety by seventy centimeters. The museum owns seventeen sculptures by Gamal El Segini, who worked with bronze and granite from 1945 to 1977. Admission costs ten Egyptian pounds for non-Egyptians and five pounds for Egyptians. The museum closes Fridays and operates from nine to five Tuesday through Sunday.
The Cairo Opera House, rebuilt in 1988 after the original Khedivial Opera House burned in 1971, seats 1,200 in the main hall. The complex includes a small hall seating 500 and an open-air theater seating 600. Japanese government provided construction funding and Japanese architect Yoshinobu Ashihara designed the building, which opened on October 10, 1988. The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1959, performs weekly during the season from October through May. Principal conductor Ahmed El Saedi, appointed in 2019, leads seventy-eight musicians. The orchestra premiered Aziz El-Shawan's symphony Egypt at the opening ceremony in 1988. Ticket prices range from fifty to four hundred Egyptian pounds depending on seat location and performance type. The complex operates a ballet company that performs The Nutcracker annually each December.
Alexandria's Sayed Darwish Theatre, formerly the Alhambra Cinema built in 1921, converted to a performance venue in 1962. The building seats 320 and hosts Alexandria Choir, established in 1972 with fifty-two members. The choir performs Arabic classical music compositions by Sayed Darwish, who composed the Egyptian national anthem adopted in 1979. Darwish lived in Alexandria from 1892 until his death in 1923 and composed approximately 260 songs and operettas. The theater presents monthly concerts during the performance season and charges seventy-five to one hundred fifty Egyptian pounds for tickets.
Cairo Jazz Club opened in Agouza in 2004 in a converted villa and presents live music seven nights weekly. The venue capacity reaches 250 standing and books Egyptian jazz, rock, and electronic artists. Wust el-Balad, an alternative rock band formed in 1999, performed monthly residencies from 2005 to 2012. The club introduced open mic nights in 2007, occurring every Tuesday, and hosted over 400 first-time performers between 2007 and 2024. Cover charges range from one hundred to three hundred Egyptian pounds depending on the performing artist. The venue serves cocktails and Egyptian mezze, with food prices from eighty to two hundred fifty pounds per dish.
Egyptian cinema production centered historically in Studio Misr, founded in 1935 by economist Talaat Harb in Giza. The facility operated on twenty-four acres and produced 1,342 films between 1935 and 2024. Director Youssef Chahine, who worked from 1950 to 2008, filmed portions of Cairo Station (1958) and Alexandria... Why? (1979) at Studio Misr. Cairo Station competed at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1958. Chahine received the Cannes Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Contemporary Egyptian director Mohamed Diab filmed scenes for Clash (2016) in Downtown Cairo. The film runs ninety-seven minutes and takes place entirely inside a police van during 2013 protests. Clash premiered at Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard section in 2016.
The Egyptian documentary tradition includes work by Tamer El Said, who directed In the Last Days of the City, shot primarily in Cairo between 2009 and 2010. The ninety-two-minute film screened at Toronto International Film Festival in 2016 and Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. El Said received the Caligari Film Prize at Berlin. Documentary filmmaker Salma El Tarzi produced Garbage Dreams in 2009, following garbage collectors in Cairo's Moqattam district. The seventy-nine-minute film screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009 and aired on PBS Independent Lens series in 2010.
The Egyptian literary scene continues to produce internationally recognized writers. Alaa Al Aswany, born in Cairo in 1957, published The Yacoubian Building in 2002. The novel sold over one million copies in Arabic and appeared in English translation in 2004. The work depicts residents of a single building in Downtown Cairo and runs 245 pages in the American University in Cairo Press edition. Al Aswany practiced dentistry in a clinic on 26th of July Street while writing during evening hours from 1985 to 2019. Ahmed Naji published Using Life in 2014, a novel set in contemporary Cairo that runs 176 pages. Egyptian courts prosecuted Naji in 2016 for excerpts published in Akhbar al-Adab magazine. The case resulted in a two-month prison sentence, which international writers' organizations including PEN America protested.
Poetry readings occur regularly at Rawabet Art Space, which opened in Downtown Cairo in 2012. The space occupies 320 square meters on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, known for protest murals created during 2011 and 2012 demonstrations. Rawabet hosts bilingual poetry nights featuring Arabic and English verse on the first Wednesday of each month. Egyptian poet Iman Mersal, born in 1966, read from These are Not Oranges, My Love (2008) at Rawabet in 2014. Mersal teaches comparative literature at the University of Alberta and publishes collections examining urban Cairo. Her work appears in English translation from Nightboat Books.
Cairo's comic art scene grew substantially after 2011. Tok Tok magazine, launched in 2011, published Egyptian graphic narratives and comics in Arabic. Mohamed Andeel, cartoonist at Mada Masr news website, draws political satire appearing daily on the publication's website. Andeel studied architecture at Cairo University and began publishing comics in 2012. His work depicts Egyptian bureaucracy and street life using single-panel format. Mada Masr, founded in 2013, operates as an independent news organization based in Cairo and publishes content in Arabic and English.
Street art transformed Downtown Cairo after 2011, with the highest concentration on Mohamed Mahmoud Street connecting Tahrir Square to the American University campus. Artists painted murals depicting protesters killed during demonstrations in November 2011 and January 2013. Ammar Abo Bakr, born in 1981, painted No Walls in 2012 on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, depicting protesters dismantling barriers. The mural stretched twenty-three meters and remained visible until 2014 when authorities painted over portions. Ganzeer, whose real name remains unpublished, created Tank vs. Bread Biker in 2011 on a wall near the 6th of October Bridge. The stenciled image measured four by two meters and showed a military tank facing a man on a bicycle carrying bread. Authorities removed the work within three weeks.
Traditional Egyptian crafts maintain workshops in historic Cairo districts. Tentmakers' Street (Sharia Khayamiya), located near Bab Zuweila gate built in 1092, houses approximately fifteen workshops producing appliqué textile work. Craftsmen create khayamiya panels using cotton fabric pieces sewn onto backing cloth in geometric and floral patterns. Traditional tent panels measure three by two meters and require forty to sixty hours of hand-stitching. Modern wall hangings cost between two thousand and twelve thousand Egyptian pounds depending on complexity and dimensions. Hassan el-Shaarawi operates a workshop at the street's northern end, continuing methods learned from his grandfather who worked from 1935 to 1988. The street maintains traditional wood lattice shopfronts and stone paving installed during Ottoman period.
Copperwork continues in al-Nahasin (Coppersmiths) quarter near al-Azhar Mosque. Approximately eight active workshops produce serving trays, lamps, and vessels using traditional hammering techniques. Craftsmen heat copper sheets over charcoal fires and shape them using steel hammers against formed anvils. A sixty-centimeter serving tray requires thirty-five to forty hours of work including engraving decorative patterns. Prices range from eight hundred to five thousand Egyptian pounds. Ahmed Moustafa operates a workshop on Souk El-Nahasin Street, continuing production methods practiced by his family since 1923. His grandfather supplied copper vessels to hotels in Downtown Cairo during the 1940s.
Egyptian glassblowing survives in one workshop located in Moqattam, operated by the El-Sharkawi family since 1908. The family moved from a Citadel workshop to Moqattam in 1965. The facility maintains a brick furnace reaching 1,400 degrees Celsius burning natural gas. Artisans produce colored glass vessels, lamps, and ornaments using traditional blowing pipes measuring 1.5 meters in length. Production includes reproduction of Islamic-era mosque lamps and decorative bottles. A medium-sized colored glass lamp costs approximately one thousand Egyptian pounds. The workshop operates Tuesday through Saturday and accepts visitors during production hours from eight to three.