Cairo & Giza

Up close the plateau surprises people: the pyramids rise straight off the edge of Giza's suburbs, not deep desert, and the sheer scale of the two-and-a-half-tonne limestone blocks only registers when you stand at the base. A general plateau ticket covers the grounds; going inside the Great Pyramid needs a separate, limited-number ticket, and the climb is a hot, stooped scramble up the Grand Gallery to a bare granite chamber, thrilling but not for the claustrophobic. Walk or take the new electric shuttle out to the panorama point on the southwestern ridge, the one spot where all three pyramids line up for the classic photo. The Sphinx sits lower by the Valley Temple, smaller than imagined but hauntingly expressive. Camel and horse handlers are persistent and their prices vague, so settle everything first or wave them off. An evening sound-and-light show lights the monuments after dark.

Opened in full in November 2025 after years of anticipation, the GEM is built on a scale that matches its subject. You enter past a soaring atrium where a towering statue of Ramesses II stands, then climb the Grand Staircase, a processional flight lined with royal statues and sarcophagi that ends at a wall of glass framing the pyramids themselves. Twelve chronological galleries trace Egypt from prehistory to the Romans, but the reason to come is the two Tutankhamun galleries: for the first time all five thousand-plus objects from his tomb, the gold mask, nested shrines, chariots and jewellery, are displayed together rather than split up. The reassembled Khufu solar boat has its own building. It is genuinely vast, so pace yourself over at least half a day, wear comfortable shoes, and book a timed-entry ticket online before you go. The building itself, glass and honey-coloured stone, is worth the visit alone.

The grand old pink building on Tahrir Square has been Egypt's treasure house since 1902, and even after Tutankhamun's gold moved to the GEM and the royal mummies to NMEC, it still holds a staggering collection. This is old-school museum-going: crowded halls, handwritten labels, statues packed cheek by jowl, a cabinet-of-curiosities atmosphere the sleek new museums lack. Seek out the Old Kingdom masterpieces on the ground floor, the diorite statue of Khafre, the astonishingly lifelike painted Rahotep and Nofret, the seated scribe, and the eerie Amarna colossi of Akhenaten. Upstairs the tomb goods of Yuya and Tuya and rooms of jewellery, papyri and Fayum mummy portraits reward slow browsing. The Narmer Palette, arguably the oldest historical document in the world, is here too. Allow two to three hours, more if you love antiquity, and expect to make discoveries in dim corners no guidebook mentions.

Down in historic Fustat, beside the Ain el-Sira lake, NMEC is the calm, modern counterpoint to the crowded Tahrir museum, and its centrepiece is unforgettable. The Royal Mummies Hall is a deliberately dim, hushed, underground gallery where twenty-two kings and queens, among them Ramesses II, Seti I, and the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, lie in individual climate-controlled cases, arranged almost like a crypt. They arrived here in the 2021 Pharaohs' Golden Parade, a televised procession across Cairo that captivated the country. Photography is banned in the hall, which only deepens the reverent hush; you stand face to face with the actual features of rulers who lived three thousand years ago. The upper main gallery takes a thematic rather than chronological approach, tracing Egyptian civilization through crafts, writing, textiles and belief. It is spacious, beautifully lit and rarely crowded, an easy two to three hours and a genuinely moving experience.

Trading since the fourteenth century, Khan el-Khalili is less a market than a medieval quarter you get pleasantly lost in. The main lanes near Al-Hussein are the touristy face, souvenir lamps, alabaster, papyrus and cartouches, but push into the side alleys and you reach the real working souk: goldsmiths hammering in the gold district, coppersmiths, the spice and perfume-oil sellers with their walls of glass bottles, and tiny workshops making the same wares they have for generations. At its heart sits El-Fishawy, a gloriously cluttered coffee house of tarnished mirrors and brass that has poured mint tea and lit shisha for over two centuries; grab a seat, order a karkade, and watch Cairo drift by. Come late afternoon into the evening when the lanes are lit and buzzing. Bargaining is expected and part of the fun, so start low, stay friendly, and never look too keen.

This is really two historic quarters, and both deserve time. Up on a limestone spur stands the Citadel of Saladin, a fortress-city begun in 1176; inside, the domed and minaretted alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali dominates the skyline, and its terrace gives the classic panorama over Cairo's rooftops to the pyramids on a clear day. Below sprawl the great medieval mosques, the vast Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai facing each other, and pedestrian Al-Muizz Street's parade of Mamluk facades. A short drive south, Coptic Cairo huddles inside the Roman walls of Babylon fortress: the beautiful Hanging Church suspended over a gatehouse, the ancient Church of St Sergius where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, and the Coptic Museum. Together they tell Cairo's Christian and Islamic story in a few walkable blocks. Dress modestly, cover shoulders and knees, and carry a scarf for the mosques.