The 10 Best Travel Experiences in Egypt

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still standing, built as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BC.

The three pyramids on the Giza plateau, together with the Great Sphinx, are the most recognisable ancient monuments on earth.

Built on the site of ancient Thebes, Luxor holds more of the world's ancient monuments than almost anywhere else on Earth — Karnak Temple's forest of towering columns, Luxor Temple lit dramatically at night, and across the Nile, the Valley of the Kings, where Tutankhamun's tomb and dozens of other pharaohs lie buried in the desert hills.

A hot-air balloon ride at dawn over the West Bank is one of Egypt's most memorable experiences.

A classic river cruise between Luxor and Aswan, tracing the same stretch of the Nile that carried travellers to Egypt's temples for millennia.

Days combine sailing with shore visits to Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Philae, often timed for sunrise to beat the heat.

Traditional felucca sailboats still cross the river alongside the larger ships.

Palm-lined banks and desert cliffs frame the water throughout.

A surreal expanse of chalk-white rock formations near Farafra Oasis, carved by millennia of sand-wind erosion into shapes resembling mushrooms, camels, and icebergs scattered across pale desert sand.

Camping overnight among the formations, with no artificial light for miles, is the main way to see it - the white rock glows almost blue under a full moon.

It remains one of the least-visited major landscapes in Egypt outside the Nile corridor.

Four colossal 20-meter statues of Ramesses II guard the entrance to this rock-cut temple complex, built to intimidate travelers approaching from the south and, remarkably, entirely relocated in the 1960s to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after the Aswan Dam was built.

Twice a year, sunlight penetrates 60 meters into the temple to illuminate statues in the inner sanctuary — a feat of ancient astronomical engineering.

At the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Gulf of Suez meets the Gulf of Aqaba, Ras Mohammed protects some of the Red Sea's most vivid coral reef, with underwater visibility regularly exceeding 20 meters and walls that drop dramatically into deep blue water just offshore.

The Shark and Yolanda Reef dive sites are considered among the best in the world for the sheer density and variety of reef fish.

Egypt's sprawling capital is an overwhelming mix of ancient and modern — the Egyptian Museum's trove of pharaonic artifacts (including much of Tutankhamun's treasure), the medieval alleys and mosques of Islamic Cairo, and the chaotic bargaining of Khan el-Khalili bazaar, all set against relentless traffic and one of the world's largest urban populations.

The density of history alongside the Giza Pyramids nearby makes it hard to skip.

Dedicated to the goddess Isis, this graceful temple was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt on higher ground at Agilkia Island to save it from flooding after the Aswan High Dam was built, in a UNESCO rescue project that ran alongside Abu Simbel's.

Reached by a short boat ride across Lake Nasser's reservoir, its columned courtyards and hieroglyph-covered walls are less crowded than Luxor's temples and set in a genuinely scenic island location.

Isolated deep in Egypt's Western Desert near the Libyan border, Siwa is a genuine oasis town of mudbrick ruins, freshwater springs and palm groves surrounded by dunes, significant enough that Alexander the Great made the arduous journey to consult its oracle temple.

The ruined hilltop fortress of Shali, built entirely from local salt-clay, dominates the town, while nearby salt lakes and hot and cold springs offer a stark contrast.

A laid-back diving town on the Gulf of Aqaba, Dahab trades Sharm el-Sheikh's resort scale for a mellow, backpacker-friendly waterfront lined with low-key restaurants right on the reef edge.

It's best known for the Blue Hole, a dramatic underwater sinkhole that's become one of the world's most famous — and most dangerous for unqualified divers — dive sites, alongside gentler reef diving and snorkeling directly off the shore in town.