Distance from Cairo to Cape Town
The great-circle distance between Cairo, Egypt and Cape Town, South Africa is 7,242 km (4,500 mi · 3,910 nmi) — the shortest possible route over the Earth's surface, the path aircraft approximately follow.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 7,242 km · 4,500 mi · 3,910 nmi
- Initial bearing Cairo → Cape Town
- 192° (SSW)
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Cairo
- 12° (NNE)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 9 h 11 min
- Time zones
- Cairo UTC+03:00 · Cape Town UTC+02:00 (-1 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 135 min — the sun rises earlier in Cairo
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cairo
- 30.0626, 31.2497
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 03:19 UTC / 16:44 UTC
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.