Heading east we reached the medieval heart of the city, a labyrinth of cobbled alleyways dotted with mosques. Here, laden camels wait. This vast souk tempts the senses with spices, perfume and glittering gold, silver and brass. At its centre is the great bazaar of Khan-al-Khalili, the market where you can buy almost anything, particularly jewellery. Everyone wore jewellery in ancient Egypt as a reflection of wealth and a sign of status.

Visit the City of the Dead

Khan-al-Khalili is also home to Al Fishawi, Cairo?s oldest ahwa, or coffee house (that doesn?t sell coffee). We sat in the alley watching men smoking sheeshas, listening to water gurgle in glass bowls as they sipped tobacco blended with fruit and molasses. The ahwa is a great social institute in the Arab world, typically a collection of battered chairs and tables open to the street. Women rarely feature and animated conversation is complemented with the incessant clacking of slammed domino and backgammon pieces.

Flying to Egypt I had observed a large black area in Cairo. Later I learned that it is a cemetery on the outskirts of Khan-el-Khalili known as City of the Dead (Qarafa, Arafa). At 6.4km long it is home to more than one million people and is a bustling grid of tombs and mausoleums where people live and work amongst their dead ancestors. Many residents live here to be near their deceased loved ones, or because they were forced from more crowded areas in Cairo, while others have come from their villages to look for work.

In the centre of Cairo is the chaotic Midan Tahrir, the site of the greatest museum in the world. Arriving at the crack of dawn I fought my way to the front of the queue so that I would be first to see King Tutankhamen?s lavishly tooled death mask, the centrepiece of the exhibition found by Howard Carter in 1922.

"?10 years to empty his tomb?"

Although Tutankhamen is today one of the most well known pharaohs of Egypt, he only reigned for about 10 years and didn?t have much historical significance until the discovery of his intact tomb. The worldwide press coverage of the discovery sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt with the splendours of his tomb being among the most travelled artefacts in the world and is seen by millions of people. Allowing one minute to view each of the 136 000 artefacts would take nine months. And there are so many items stashed away that it took 10 years to empty the tomb.

It did not take long before the hallowed halls of the museum were filled to capacity with tour groups, school groups and a cacophony of mayhem and languages. And yet I had spent time with ?the mask?, with Tutankhamen, a picture I carry with me to this day. Another figure I had wanted to see, to conceptualise, was Hatshepsut — the female pharaoh.

Swamped by crowds and over-awed by so many pharaohs I was in need of sustenance. I tucked into a typical dish of potato, rice and meat. Street food typically consists of mashed fava beans, usually ladled into a piece of shammy, similar to a pita. Ta?amiyya is a large, flatter version of falafel, mashed chick pea and spices balled up and deep-fried. Pigeon is a delicacy usually served stuffed with rice and spices, or as a stew cooked in a clay pot with onions and tomatoes.

As the last rays of the sun set over the desert with its whispering date palms, it was time to leave. The pyramids glowed pink as they have for centuries past, and hopefully for centuries to come. I had experienced an ancient civilisation.