Cairo has several hundred old mosques; if you visit only one, it probably should be the Al-Azhar Mosque. Founded in AD 970 as a place of worship and learning, the mosque remains one of the most important centres of Islamic theology more than a thousand years later, annually receiving a new intake of Muslim students from all over the world.

Throughout Cairo’s history, the holy men in their precincts have been a channel of communication between the country’s rulers and the ruled; sometimes a force for moderation, other times a focus for discontent. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 one of his first actions was to try to win over Cairo’s clerics. He failed, and resorted to ordering a cavalry charge into the mosque as the only way to subdue the rebellious city.

The sheikh of Al-Azhar remains the highest religious authority in the land, and pronouncements from his office carry more weight than governmental decrees. Al-Azhar is also a showpiece of Islamic-era Cairene architecture, as over the centuries a roll call of sultans and emirs added their imprint to the building.