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MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
Middle East & North Africa
From Istanbul and the Nile to Morocco’s medinas and Jordan’s Petra, first learn the customs around prayer times, dress and Ramadan.
City guides
Start with a city
Every city guide has a timeline, stories of local figures, must-see sights, festivals and local etiquette.
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İstanbul
Istanbul
2 places
A thousand-year imperial capital spanning two continents: Byzantium, the Ottomans and the Bosphorus
القاهرة Cairo
Cairo
3 places
'The Victorious City': Islamic Cairo, Khan el-Khalili and the pyramids of Giza
الأقصر Luxor · 古称底比斯
Luxor
1 places
Thebes, 'City of a Hundred Gates': Karnak and the Valley of the Kings
أسوان Aswan
Aswan
2 places
Ancient Egypt's southern gateway: Nubia, Philae and Abu Simbel
مراكش Marrakech
Marrakesh
3 places
The 'Red City': the night market of Jemaa el-Fnaa and the old city at the foot of the Atlas
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فاس Fès
Fez
1 places
A thousand-year-old university and a labyrinthine medina: al-Qarawiyyin and the tanneries
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أبوظبي Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
3 places
'Father of the Gazelle': from pearling village to capital of the UAE
البتراء Petra · Wadi Musa
Petra (Wadi Musa)
2 places
The rose-red Nabataean city, and the Valley of the Moon to the south
Arabic coffee
Pale coffee with cardamom, served with dates — the Gulf's gesture of hospitality.
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Jordanian mansaf
Lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yoghurt — Jordan's national dish and way of welcoming guests.
Moroccan tagine
A North African stew slow-cooked in a pointed clay pot — the dish is named after the pot.
Koshari
Rice, macaroni, lentils and chickpeas topped with tomato sauce and fried onions — Egypt's national dish.
Turkish coffee
Unfiltered coffee — and when you finish, the grounds in the cup can 'tell your fortune'.
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Jerash
Hadrian's Arch, the Oval Plaza and a well-preserved Roman theatre — a complete Roman city from the empire's eastern provinces.
Wadi Rum
The red desert mountains, Bedouin camps and starry skies of the 'Valley of the Moon' — the setting of Lawrence of Arabia.
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Petra
After 1.2 km through the Siq, the Treasury suddenly appears between rose-red cliffs — the wonder of the Nabataean trading capital.
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Aït Benhaddou
An 11th-century earthen village — a thousand-year-old staging post on the trade route from the Sahara to Marrakesh, and a location for Gladiator…
Hassan II Mosque
A 210-m minaret, the tallest in Africa, and prayer halls built right over the sea — one of the few Moroccan mosques open to non-Muslims.
Chefchaouen
A mountain town painted blue since the 1930s, where the culture of Andalusian exiles meets Berber mountain culture.
Fez medina and Chouara Tannery
Coloured dye vats in use since the 11th century, in the same city as the world's oldest university, founded in 859 and still teaching.
Marrakesh medina and Jemaa el-Fnaa
UNESCO Oral and Intangible Heritage — a thousand-year-old open-air theatre of storytellers, snake charmers and Gnawa musicians.
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Louvre Abu Dhabi
A history of human civilisation under Jean Nouvel's 'rain of light' dome, arranged by theme rather than by region.
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
82 white domes and the world's largest hand-knotted carpet — the culmination of contemporary Islamic architecture.
Old Dubai: Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood
Wind-tower houses built by Persian merchants in the 1890s, and the spice and gold souks of Deira across the creek — Dubai before oil.
Aswan and the Temple of Philae
The Temple of Isis on a Nile island — ancient Egypt's last temple, on the border of Egyptian and Nubian culture.
Old Cairo: Khan el-Khalili bazaar
One of the oldest markets in the Middle East, dating from 1382, where spice and copper workshops continue the commercial fabric of the Mamluk er…
Abu Simbel
Four 20-m statues of Ramesses II guard the lakeshore; in the 1960s UNESCO cut up and moved the whole temple to save it from the rising reservoir…
Luxor: Karnak and the Valley of the Kings
Karnak's hypostyle hall of 134 columns and the pharaohs' tombs in the Valley of the Kings across the Nile — the complete story of ancient Egypt'…
The Giza pyramids and the Sphinx
The three Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure and the Sphinx — humanity's first great state project, 4,500 years ago.
Ephesus
The two-storey façade of the Library of Celsus and a great theatre for 25,000 bear witness to the prosperity of Rome's eastern provinces.
Pamukkale and Hierapolis
Snow-white travertine terraces cascading down the hill, with the Roman spa city of Hierapolis on top.
Cappadocia
At dawn hundreds of balloons rise over valleys of 'fairy chimneys', above cave churches carved by Byzantine monks.
Old Istanbul: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar
Religious layers of a capital that ruled empires for 1,600 years — a Byzantine church, an Ottoman mosque and a bazaar open since 1461 in one nei…