Orientation
The relatively open vista of Tahrir Square affords the confused traveler a great opportunity to look about and gain some bearings within the bustling city center.
Perhaps the most prominent building bordering Tahrir Square is the now somewhat jaded-looking Nile Hilton, between the Square and the Nile Corniche. Immediately to the north and perpendicular to the hotel is the unmissable Egyptian Museum in reddish-pink stone. South of the Hilton Hotel stands the dingy Arab League Building and, somewhat further south-east, across the busy thoroughfare of Sharia Tahrir, the brutal Stalinist edifice of the Mogamma Building housing 18,000 employees of the Egyptian bureaucracy, together with the most convenient offices for visa renewal.
From here, Sharia Tahrir heads due west to cross the Nile over the Tahrir Bridge and into Gezira the island suburb, and beyond to Giza and the Pyramids several miles away Next to the Mogamma Building is a small but attractive Mosque of Omar Makram, in which many state and business funerals are held. Only slightly further south can be found the Intercontinental Hotel.
Bordering Tahrir Square to the east is a sizable frontage of large office buildings and stores, topped with neon signs. The downtown campus of the American University of Cairo lies across the busy Qasr al-Ainy.
