Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, home to more than 9.8 million residents within the city proper and over 22 million people across its greater metropolitan area — making it one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Situated near the Nile Delta, the city traces habitation back approximately 6,000 years, with the ancient sites of Giza, Memphis, and Heliopolis now absorbed within its modern boundaries. Gates describes it as "the dusty, beating heart of modern Egypt" — a place of "momentum and mystery" where 23 million people live in the shadow of antiquity. Its historic center, celebrated for its Islamic architecture and earning the nickname "the city of a thousand minarets," was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Gates has used Cairo as both a base of operations and a destination in its own right, exploring its oldest neighborhoods while investigating the historical Moses and the enduring mysteries of the Great Pyramid.
Areas of modern Cairo are inhabited during pre-dynastic and early-dynastic ancient Egypt, per Wikipedia.
Pharaoh Narmer unites Upper and Lower Egypt, anchoring the civilization that would build Memphis and later Heliopolis, both now within Cairo's boundaries.
The city of Cairo is formally founded, later becoming a major center during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods.
Cairo's historic center receives UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
Gates investigates Cairo's Coptic quarter and the Moses story in Expedition Unknown S10E11 "Mysteries of Moses."
Gates returns to Cairo as the launch point for Expedition Unknown S16E01 "Mysteries of the Great Pyramid."
Cairo's role as both a modern megacity and an archaeological crossroads is well established among historians. Egyptologist Aidan Dodson, who joins Gates on camera in Coptic Cairo, helps illustrate how the city layers millennia of history: the neighborhood of Old Cairo alone contains Roman fortifications, a Byzantine-era hanging church, one of Egypt's oldest mosques, and a synagogue dating to 1115 AD. Dodson notes that this district sits close to where biblical tradition places the discovery of the infant Moses — a reminder that Cairo's streets themselves are primary sources for understanding the ancient and medieval Near East.
Mainstream Egyptology positions Cairo as the successor to a chain of earlier capitals and cult centers — Memphis, Heliopolis, and the Roman garrison of Babylon — all of which now fall within the city's sprawl. The city was formally founded in 969 AD and rose to regional dominance under the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties. Its historic center was recognized by UNESCO in 1979 for its extraordinary concentration of Islamic architecture, though scholars emphasize that the city's significance stretches far deeper into antiquity through the monuments on its doorstep.
The genuinely contested questions Gates investigates here — whether there is archaeological evidence for Hebrew slaves in Egypt, and what secrets remain inside the Great Pyramid — are ongoing debates within mainstream archaeology and Egyptology. Neither episode claims definitive resolution; rather, Cairo serves as the human-scale context from which those deeper investigations depart. As Gates frames it in S16E01, the local bazaar's avalanche of pyramid merchandise is itself a testament to the Great Pyramid being "the single most unforgettable structure on earth" — a monument so dominant it has shaped the entire economy of a 23-million-person city.
Gates' episodes contribute less a new archaeological finding about Cairo itself and more a vivid portrait of the city as a living interface between the ancient and the modern. By beginning in the bazaar or walking the alleyways of Coptic Cairo, Gates grounds his investigations in present-day Egypt before venturing into the deeper historical record — a journalistic approach that defers to the experts he meets on site rather than advancing his own claims.
Cairo's metro system, opened in 1987, is the oldest in Africa and ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides.
The city is nicknamed 'the city of a thousand minarets' for its exceptional concentration of Islamic architecture.
Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, is one of the oldest universities in the world and Egypt's oldest university.
The Greater Cairo metropolitan area is one of the largest in the world by population, with over 22 million people — and the ancient Giza pyramid complex now falls within the city's boundaries.
Cairo is generally accessible to international visitors, with Cairo International Airport serving as a major regional hub and the city offering a wide range of accommodation options. Key sites — including Coptic Cairo, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, the Egyptian Museum, and the nearby Giza Plateau — are reachable by the Cairo Metro (Africa's oldest, opened in 1987) or by taxi. Visitors should check current travel advisories before their trip, as conditions can vary.
Cairo is itself the nearest major city; the Giza Plateau is approximately 15 kilometers southwest of the city center.
October through April tends to offer the most comfortable temperatures for sightseeing, with lower humidity and cooler days. Summer months can be extremely hot, and major holidays may bring larger crowds to popular sites.
Cairo's historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1979).
Ancient Egyptian tomb (Moses investigation)
Gates' Moses investigation in S10E11 moved from Coptic Cairo outward to other archaeological sites connected to the Exodus story, making this tomb site a direct continuation of the same expedition.
Jerusalem
Jerusalem figures centrally in the broader Abrahamic historical arc that Gates traces from Cairo's Coptic quarter — connecting the three faiths whose earliest Egyptian roots he examines with Aidan Dodson.
Alexandria
Alexandria, also in Egypt, appears in Gates' investigations of ancient Egypt and represents another major node in the country's layered history of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian civilization.
Historical data sourced from Wikipedia