The Giza plateau, the new Grand Egyptian Museum, a river boat between Luxor and Aswan, and the temple that was cut into blocks and moved uphill — two weeks along five thousand years.
Cairo and Giza
Go to the plateau first and early. The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure on earth for around 3,800 years and the scale does not translate through photographs. Entering it is possible, hot, cramped and worth doing once. The Sphinx enclosure is on the same ticket.
The Grand Egyptian Museum
Two decades in construction and the largest archaeological museum in the world, holding the complete Tutankhamun collection together for the first time — over 5,000 objects, most of which had never been displayed. Allow a full day and go at opening.
Islamic and Coptic Cairo
The Citadel and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali above the city, then Khan el-Khalili and the medieval streets around al-Muizz. In the south, Coptic Cairo holds the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra synagogue, whose geniza produced the most important cache of medieval Jewish documents ever found.
Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis
The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is the oldest large stone building in the world and has reopened after long restoration. At Dahshur, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid show the geometry being worked out in real time, and both are usually near-empty.
Night train or flight to Luxor
The sleeper train from Giza takes about ten hours and is an experience in itself; the flight takes an hour. Either way, arrive in Luxor, which sits on the site of Thebes and holds roughly a third of the world's known antiquities within a few kilometres.
The West Bank: Valley of the Kings
Sixty-odd royal tombs cut into a limestone valley, of which a rotating handful are open. Seti I's tomb, on a separate ticket, is the finest and the most expensive. Then Hatshepsut's terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari and the Colossi of Memnon.
Karnak and Luxor temples
Karnak was built and rebuilt over 2,000 years and the hypostyle hall — 134 columns, the tallest 21 metres — is the single most overwhelming interior in Egypt. Luxor temple, connected to it by an avenue of sphinxes reopened in 2021, is best at night when it is lit.
Board the boat: Esna and Edfu
Nile boats run between Luxor and Aswan over three or four nights, through the Esna lock and stopping at Edfu, where the Temple of Horus is the most completely preserved in Egypt because it was buried in sand until the 1860s. A dahabiya — a small sailing boat — is quieter than a cruiser and worth the premium.
Kom Ombo and on to Aswan
A double temple dedicated to two gods with two of everything, standing right on the riverbank, with a crocodile museum alongside holding mummified specimens. The sail on to Aswan runs through the most attractive stretch of the river.
Aswan
Granite country, Nubian villages and the river breaking around islands. Philae temple was moved block by block to Agilkia island when the High Dam flooded its original site, and is best reached by motorboat in the late afternoon. Feluccas sail around Elephantine at sunset.
Abu Simbel
Three hours south by road, leaving before dawn. Ramses II's temple was cut into 20-tonne blocks and reassembled 65 metres higher when Lake Nasser rose behind the High Dam — an engineering operation that founded the modern idea of world heritage. The scale of the four seated colossi is the point.
The High Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk
The dam that created Lake Nasser, displaced 100,000 Nubians and changed the hydrology of the whole river. The Unfinished Obelisk in the granite quarry would have been the largest ever raised and cracked before it could be freed, leaving the working method visible in the rock.
To the Red Sea at Marsa Alam
Four hours east to the coast for two days of decompression and some of the best reef in the world — Elphinstone for pelagics, Marsa Mubarak for dugong and turtles, and shore entries straight off the beach at Abu Dabbab.
Depart
Fly out of Marsa Alam directly, or back to Cairo for a connection. If the flight is from Cairo, the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir still holds a great deal that has not moved to the new building and is a better museum than its reputation.
Good to know
Most nationalities buy a visa on arrival at the airport for US$25 in cash, or use the official e-visa portal in advance; a Sinai-only entry stamp exists for Sharm arrivals and does not cover the Nile valley. Hire a guide for the archaeological sites — the difference between looking at a wall and reading it is entirely the guide, and a good Egyptologist costs less than most people expect. Tipping (baksheesh) is a structural part of the economy rather than a bonus; carry small notes constantly. Persistent selling at the sites wears people down; a firm repeated no works and eye contact does not. Heat governs the calendar: Luxor and Aswan pass 40°C from May to September and the season is October to April, with December and January busiest. Women travelling alone report a high level of street harassment in Cairo, which is worth knowing and planning around rather than being surprised by. Photography permits are charged separately at some tombs and enforced.
Shorter or longer?
Four days from Cairo to Bahariya, the White Desert's chalk formations and Farafra, camping among wind-carved rock. Requires a permit and a licensed operator, and the security situation in the western oases should be checked before committing.
Two days north of Cairo by train — the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa and a Mediterranean city that feels nothing like the rest of the country. Best in the spring.
A small sailing boat with six to twelve cabins takes longer between Luxor and Aswan, moors at villages the large boats cannot reach, and costs roughly double. It is the single biggest upgrade available on this route.