Venue
Fifth Settlement, New Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
{{item.title}}
Cairo International Book Fair guide
Cairo's winter rush for books.
In short
Readers and anyone curious about Egyptian public life should visit the 58th Cairo International Book Fair, with Qatar as guest of honour. The Ministry of Culture has confirmed a January 2027 opening, listed here as 20 January to 2 February, but not exact dates. Expect huge halls, signings and packed poetry rooms, mostly in Arabic, and heavy weekend crowds.
Each winter Cairo hands itself over to readers. Publishers from across the Arab world and far beyond set up in vast exhibition halls, novelists sign, poets read, and millions of Egyptians come to argue, browse and fill their bags. It is the most important date in the Arabic-language book calendar, and a very public celebration of reading.
For a visitor it is a rare look at how seriously Egypt takes the written word: families hauling bags of children's books, students queuing for a signature, packed rooms for poetry. The 2027 edition is the 58th, with Qatar as guest of honour. Most of the talking happens in Arabic, but the international halls give foreign readers plenty to browse.
–/5
No reviews yet
Been to this event? Your review helps other travellers.
Key Facts & Stats:
Ends: Tuesday, 2 February 2027
Where: Cairo, Egypt
Venue: Egypt International Exhibition Center
Held: Every year
Type of event: Cultural Events, Exhibition, Fair
Currency: Egyptian pound (E£, EGP)
Time zone: UTC+2; daylight saving (UTC+3) from late April to late October
Language: Arabic
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
Avoiding the Friday and Saturday crowds
Friday is the heaviest day by a distance, and Saturday is not far behind, as whole families make the trip out together. Weekday mornings are the calmest time to browse, and the stands are easier to reach before the school groups and evening crowds arrive.
- Agree a meeting point inside the halls in case your group gets separated.
- Keep your bag zipped and your phone in a front pocket in the busiest aisles.
- If a famous author is signing, the queue may start well before the session.
How the exhibition halls are organised
The halls are divided by type: Egyptian publishers in their own spaces, Arab and international houses sharing others, and the children's books and the guest of honour pavilion set apart. Arabic titles far outnumber everything else, so readers looking for English or French should start in the international halls.
- If the organisers release an app, download it for the publisher map and the day's events.
- Wear comfortable shoes. Covering the whole fair is a serious walk.
- Bring a strong tote or a small wheeled bag if you plan to buy heavily.
Payment, discounts and behaviour at talks
Many publishers cut their prices for the fair, which is why so many visitors leave with heavy bags. Carry cash in small notes for the smaller stalls, since not every stand will take a card.
At readings and debates, arrive before the start and silence your phone. Dress as you would for a public event in Cairo, with shoulders and knees covered. Ask before photographing a speaker up close, and do not film whole sessions without permission.
What happens on the day
- Daytime
Browsing the halls
Publishers' stands open while the cultural programme runs alongside.
- Afternoons
Launches, debates and signings
The 2026 fair packed in about 400 cultural events, 100 signings and 120 art events, so several things happen at once.
- Evenings
Poetry
Mostly in Arabic, but worth sitting in on for the atmosphere.
- Fridays
Family day
Families pour in, and the trade show becomes a festival.
Choosing fair days and where to stay in Cairo
Treat the fair as a day out, or two, inside a longer Cairo stay. The exhibition centre is far out in the Fifth Settlement, so nobody sleeps next door unless they choose a New Cairo hotel, and most visitors are better off in the classic central districts. Downtown, around Midan Tahrir, has the big hotels and puts the Egyptian Museum on your doorstep. Garden City is quieter and close to the Corniche. Zamalek, on Gezira Island, has the leafy streets, the cafes and the city's best-known English-language bookshop.
Block out a full day for your first visit. The halls are large and the programme runs all day, and the journey out eats time at both ends. If you are serious about buying, plan a second trip once you know which publishers you want to come back to with a fuller bag.
Signings by well-known authors can draw long queues. Watch the daily schedule and arrive early for any name you care about. Our Egypt travel guide is the place to plan the days you spend away from the books.
How a 1969 anniversary event became the Arab world's largest book fair
In 1969 Cairo was marking a thousand years since its founding, and the culture minister Tharwat Okasha asked the writer and scholar Suhair al-Qalamawi to organise a book fair as part of the celebrations. The General Egyptian Book Organisation, the state publisher, has run it ever since. It is now both the oldest and the largest fair of its kind in the Arab world. In 2006 it was ranked second worldwide, behind only Frankfurt.
It has not always been a comfortable place for writers. In 2000, protests over a novel by the Syrian author Haidar Haidar ended in 75 arrests. Even so, Cairenes treat it as their own: a place to hear poets, argue about new novels and buy a year's reading at once.
Each edition honours a featured figure and a guest country. In 2026 the personality was Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel laureate whose novels map the alleys of old Cairo, and the guest was Romania. Qatar takes the honour in 2027, a role tied to the cultural year the two countries are sharing. Expect a sizeable Qatari pavilion mixing literature with heritage displays and performances.
Getting there
Flying in
Cairo International Airport is in Heliopolis, about 15 km north-east of the centre, on the same side of the city as New Cairo. There are direct flights from Dhaka among many others.
By app
Careem, Uber and inDrive all work in Cairo and are preferred to street cabs; Careem needs an Egyptian phone number, so buy a local SIM on arrival.
Shuttles
In past years the organisers ran shuttle buses from central pick-up points; look for an announcement closer to the fair.
Monorail
The East Nile monorail, open since May 2026, links Cairo Stadium in Nasr City with New Cairo. Ask locally which stop is closest to the halls before relying on it.
Where to stay during the festival
We have no hotels listed in Cairo yet, so the ones below are in Giza, the nearest area where we list hotels. The next edition runs from 20 January to 2 February 2027. Book as soon as your dates are fixed, since rooms close to the festival are the first to go.
Giza
Marriott Mena House, Cairo5-star hotel
No reviews yet
from$620.00/ night
- Internet – Wifi
- Swimming pool
- Car park
5 Rooms available
Book Now
Weather and what to pack
Late January is Cairo's coolest time of year. Average highs are about 19°C and lows about 10°C, with almost no rain (1991-2020 normals).
The halls are comfortable, but early mornings and evenings call for a jacket.
Worth packing
- A light jacket for the evening
- Comfortable shoes for long halls
- A tote bag for books
- Cash in small notes, as some stands do not take cards
Car hire in Cairo
Airport transfer to Cairo International Book Fair
Met at arrivals and driven door to door to Egypt International Exhibition Center.
Restaurants and food in Egypt
Places to eat in Egypt before or after the celebrations.
Mohamed Ahmed
17 Shakour Street, Raml Station, Alexandria, Egypt
Cuisine:EgyptianFul
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
Sofra Restaurant & Café
90 Mohamed Farid Street, Al Manshiya, Luxor, Egypt
Cuisine:EgyptianMiddle Eastern
- Dine-in
- Outdoor seating
Koshary Abou Tarek
Champollion Street, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt
Cuisine:EgyptianKoshary
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
Contribute:
Recently viewed events
Others of this kind you opened on this device, so you can get back to them quickly.
Travelers are asking
No questions yet about Cairo International Book Fair. Ask the community or our travel team, and the answer will show here once it is published.
Be the first to ask
Our team answers questions here
Explore Egypt
Nearby things to see
Sights within easy reach of the festival.
Egypt
Pyramids of Giza
The Pyramids of Giza are the tombs of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure on the Giza Plateau, at the western edge of Greater Cairo in Egypt, with the Great...
5.0 1 Review
Explore Egypt
Other festivals around the same time
Festivals held in the same weeks, if you want to plan more than one.
19
Jan, 2027
Jan, 2027
Cultural Events, Religious Festivals
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Explore Egypt
More events and festivals in Egypt
Festivals and events across Egypt, with dates, venues and ticket details where available.
18
Oct, 2027
Oct, 2027
Musical Events, Cultural Events
Cairo, Egypt
Save time: create a trip and get offers from locals
Tell us where and when you want to go, and local travel experts send you offers for your trip.
1 Create a trip
2 Get offers from locals
3 Pick the one you like
Create a trip
Need help?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
General
Qatar. Its turn comes with the Egypt and Qatar Year of Culture, and visitors can expect a large Qatari pavilion with literature, heritage displays and cultural events.
No. For decades it filled the exhibition grounds in Nasr City, much closer to the old centre. The move out east came in time for the 50th fair, in 2019, when Nasr City was left behind for good.
Greece held the role in 2022, when the novelist Yahya Haqqi was the featured personality. Norway followed in 2024, at a fair with about 1,200 publishers from 70 countries spread across five halls.
Booking
Organisers reported more than 6.2 million visits, with 6,637 exhibitors in total, among them 1,457 publishing houses from 83 countries.
A few. The programme is overwhelmingly Arabic, but some sessions run in English, and international publishers carry English-language stock. Check the daily schedule for the handful of English talks.
Yes. Children's books have their own hall, apart from the adult publishers, which makes it easy to let younger readers browse while adults explore elsewhere.
Yes, it was the one year the fair did not happen. The January 2011 edition was called off, and the event returned in 2012, when many new books reflected the uprising.
The book markets around Midan Ataba in Downtown have stalls full of inexpensive books. For English-language reading, Diwan in Zamalek stocks mainly English titles.
In 2006 it was ranked the second-largest book fair in the world, behind Frankfurt. It is also the oldest book fair in the Arab world, dating from 1969.
Getting there
The General Egyptian Book Organization, the state publisher, announces the dates and the year's slogan, usually a few months before opening. Until then, plan on the last third of January running into early February.