The last surviving wonder of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Pyramids of Giza are one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.
Having awed travelers down through the ages, these tombs of the Pharaohs Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren), and Menkaure (Mycerinus), guarded by the enigmatic Sphinx, are usually top of most visitor’s lists of tourist attractions to see in Egypt and often the first sight they head to after landing.
Famed for the Valley of the Kings, Karnak Temple, and the Memorial Temple of Hatshepsut, the Nile-side town of Luxor in Upper Egypt has a glut of tourist attractions.
This is ancient Thebes, the power base of the New Kingdom pharaohs, and home to more sights than most can see on one visit.
Egypt is defined by the Nile. For many visitors, a multi-day cruise upon this famed waterway that saw the rise of the Pharaonic era is a highlight of their Egypt trip.
Cruising the Nile is also the most relaxing way to see the temples that stud the banks of the river on the route between Luxor and Aswan, plus sunrise and sunset over the date-palm-studded river banks, backed by sand dunes, is one of Egypt’s most tranquil vistas.
Egypt’s most tranquil town is Aswan, set upon the winding curves of the Nile. Backed by orange-hued dunes, this is the perfect place to stop and unwind for a few days and soak up the chilled-out atmosphere.
Take the river ferry across to Elephantine Island and stroll the colorful streets of the Nubian villages. Then ride a camel to the desert monastery of St. Simeon on Aswan’s east bank. Afterward, relax in one of the riverboat restaurants while watching the lateen-sailed feluccas drift past.
Even in a country festooned with temples, Abu Simbel is something special. This is Ramses II’s great temple, adorned with colossal statuary standing guard outside, and with an interior sumptuously decorated with wall paintings.
Justly famous for its megalithic proportions, Abu Simbel is also known for the incredible engineering feat carried out by UNESCO in the 1960s, which saw the entire temple moved from its original setting to save it from disappearing under the rising water of the Aswan Dam.
Below the Red Sea’s surface is another world as fascinating as the temples and tombs on land.
The coral reefs of the Red Sea are renowned among scuba divers for both the soft corals on display and the vast amount of sea life, ranging from colorful reef fish and nudibranchs to sharks, dolphins, turtles, rays, and even dugongs.
The atmospheric, narrow lanes of the capital’s Historic Cairo district are crammed full of mosques, madrassas (Islamic schools of learning), and monuments dating from the Fatimid through to the Mameluke eras.
Egypt’s South Sinai region, on the Sinai Peninsula, offers a beach for every type of traveler.
Sharm el-Sheikh is a European-style resort town packed full of luxury hotels, international restaurants, and bags of entertainment options. A favorite with Europeans on winter-sun vacations, many of the resorts here cater to families on one- or two-week sun-and-sand breaks.
Everyone’s heard of Giza’s Pyramids, but they’re not the only pyramids Egypt has up its sleeve. Day-tripping distance from Cairo, Saqqara is a vast necropolis of tombs and pyramids that was utilized during every era of Pharaonic rule.
A treasure trove of the Pharaonic world, Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is one of the world’s great museum collections. The faded pink mansion in downtown Cairo is home to a dazzling amount of exhibits.
Egypt’s kookiest natural wonder is White Desert National Park, out in the Western Desert, just south of Bahariya Oasis. Here, surreally shaped chalk pinnacles and huge boulders loom over the desert plateau, creating a scene that looks like icebergs have found themselves stranded amid a landscape of sand.
Alexandria has a history that not many others can match.
Founded by Alexander the Great, home of Cleopatra, and razzmatazz renegade city of the Mediterranean for much of its life, this seafront city has an appealing days-gone-by atmosphere that can’t be beaten.
The Temple of Osiris in Abydos is one of Ancient Egypt’s most fascinating artistic treasures.
The temple, begun by Seti I, sits amid a vast necropolis site where archaeological excavations are ongoing. There a various other temple remnants to see here but for most visitors, the Temple of Osiris is the main reason to visit.
Sitting in isolation, in the western corner of the Western Desert, Siwa is the tranquil tonic to the hustle of Egypt’s cities. This gorgeous little oasis, surrounded by date palm plantations and numerous hot-water springs, is one of the Western Desert’s most picturesque spots.
One of the oldest monasteries in the world, St. Catherine’s stands at the foot of Mount Sinai, amid the desert mountains of the Sinai Peninsula, where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments.
Egypt’s Red Sea coastline offers swaths of sand for travelers who want a time-out from temple viewing.
During winter, the resorts scattered along the shore surrounding Hurghada jump into life as European families arrive on package tourism breaks.
The Cairo district known as Coptic Cairo is one of the most important Christian sites in the country.
Originally the Fortress of Babylon, dating back to the Achaemenid Empire’s conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE, this district is home to Cairo’s oldest surviving church, synagogue, and mosque, as well as the excellent Coptic Museum, which holds the world’s largest collection of Coptic Christian art and antiquities.
Wadi Al-Hitan is in the Fayoum area, a lush and fertile depression fed by ancient canals and surrounded by desert.
The Fayoum itself, with Lake Quran, the pottery village of Tunis, and Pharaonic ruins scattered across the hinterland, is an interesting place to visit, but the main tourist attraction here, in the nearby desert, is the UNESCO World Heritage site of Wadi Al-Hitan.
The Temple of Hathor at Dendara was built in the late Pharaonic era and extended during the Roman period, though Dendara itself was an important cult center from early on in the period of Ancient Egypt.
Secreted within the jagged northern mountains of the Red Sea coast, the Monastery of St. Anthony has been a working monastery since the 4th century, and today is still home to around 120 monks.