🇪🇬 Cairo

Cairo uses the Egyptian General Authority of Survey method (method 5 in our calculator), a 19.5° Fajr and 17.5° Isha convention developed by the Egyptian state survey authority and calibrated to the latitudes of the Nile Valley. The method is the official Egyptian standard, used by Al-Azhar Mosque in the heart of historic Cairo, the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in the Citadel and the network of state-administered mosques across the capital, and is mirrored by the Ministry of Awqaf in its published prayer-time calendar. The 19.5-degree Fajr angle is on the deeper end of mainstream conventions, reflecting a more conservative reading of when twilight begins to appear, and produces Fajr times noticeably earlier than the 18° Muslim World League or Karachi methods. The same convention is used in Jordan (alongside MWL), Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and parts of Sudan. Apps configured for MWL or Umm al-Qura will show Fajr a few minutes later and Isha a few minutes earlier than Cairo's official timetable.

Prayer times in Cairo shift most between the long summer days of June and July and the short winter days of December and January, with the swing driven by Cairo's 30.0°N latitude on the Nile delta. In late June, Fajr is called shortly before 03:30 and Isha around 20:15, stretching the daylight fast in Ramadan to over fifteen and a half hours when the month falls in summer. By late December, sunrise slips toward 06:50, Maghrib arrives around 17:00, and the gap between Fajr and Maghrib compresses to about ten and a half hours under the cooler dry winter, with desert temperatures dropping sharply at night. The equinoxes in March and September are the most stable periods, with daily times drifting only a minute or two each day. Cairo's khamsin sandstorms in spring occasionally darken horizons enough to alter visibility of the muezzin's call, though calculated times follow the Egyptian survey tables.

Yes, Egypt is overwhelmingly Muslim-majority — roughly 90 percent of the country's 110 million population identifies as Muslim, predominantly Sunni following the Hanafi, Shafi'i and Maliki schools, with a substantial Coptic Orthodox Christian minority of around 10 percent that has been continuously present since the early Christian era. Cairo as the capital concentrates the major institutions of Sunni Islamic scholarship: Al-Azhar University and the office of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar — historically one of the most influential positions in Sunni Islam — Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, which issues fatwas, and the Ministry of Awqaf, which administers state mosques. Friday and Saturday form the official weekend, with the working week running Sunday to Thursday, and government offices and most businesses close for Jumu'ah. The five-times-daily adhan is publicly broadcast across the city — Cairo is sometimes called 'the city of a thousand minarets' — and Islamic and Coptic Christian public life coexist in the historic core.

Friday prayers can be attended at hundreds of mosques across Cairo, with Al-Azhar Mosque in the Khan el-Khalili district hosting one of the largest Friday congregations and serving as the principal state Friday venue for major national religious occasions. Founded in 970 CE during the Fatimid construction of Cairo and converted to a Sunni teaching mosque after Saladin's reconquest in the 12th century, Al-Azhar is the world's oldest continuously operating university and one of the most influential institutions in Sunni Islam. The Mosque of Muhammad Ali atop the Citadel of Saladin, with its Ottoman-style cascading domes and twin slender minarets, is one of the most architecturally recognisable landmarks of Cairo and hosts a significant Friday congregation. Other major mosques include Sultan Hassan Mosque (Mamluk, 14th century), Ibn Tulun Mosque (876 CE, the oldest in its original form) and the Sayyida Zeinab Mosque. Khutbas are delivered in Arabic, typically starting around 12:00 to 12:30.

Prayer times differ between cities because they are calculated from the apparent position of the sun, which depends on each city's latitude, longitude and the date. Cairo sits at 30.0°N, 31.2°E in the Africa/Cairo time zone, on the Nile delta, so its sunrise, solar noon, sunset and twilight angles produce a daily timetable that no other city shares exactly. Two cities at very different latitudes — say London at 51°N and Riyadh at 24°N — experience twilight over very different durations, so Fajr, Maghrib and Isha can sit hours apart on the same calendar date. Even cities at similar latitudes drift if they sit in different time zones or follow different calculation conventions for the Fajr and Isha twilight depression angles, which is why Cairo, Amman and Damascus — all between 30°N and 33°N — publish slightly different daily timetables despite their similar latitudes, with Cairo's 19.5° Fajr angle producing notably earlier Fajr times than neighbours using 18°.