Egypt. *Sigh* Where do I start?
So, first things first, I am obsessed with ancient Egypt. Like, obsessed. I am not some casual visitor who thinks, “Huh, wouldn’t it be cool to see the pyramids.” I am the visitor who can tell you the name of the king who built the Great Pyramid (Khufu), the pharaoh who fought in the Battle of Megiddo (Thutmose III), and the year Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb (1922), not to mention a whole bunch of other things that you probably don’t care about as much as I do.
Needless to say, I have wanted to visit Egypt for quite some time, but there were a few issues that meant putting off this trip longer than I would have liked.
First, I was not sure about the safety situation in Egypt. I am generally not a traveler who is put off by negative news, but Egypt has had kind of a bad reputation that last couple of years as not the safest destination for tourists. Through my own research and understanding of the situation, we decided we felt safe to go, and I can now report that I never once felt unsafe in Egypt. There are risks to visiting any country in the world, just like there are risks driving to the grocery store, but if you’ve ever wanted to go to Egypt, don’t be put off by all the naysayers who would tell you Egypt is not safe.
With that being said, Ben and I ended up decided to visit Egypt on a group tour rather than traveling on our own. There were a few reasons for this. First, safety. We liked the idea that a local would be looking out for us. Second, transportation. Getting around Egypt and getting to all the different sites seemed kind of intimidating, especially in Cairo. Taxis are available, but booking a tour felt like it would take some of the hassle out of getting around. We chose a tour company called On The Go Tours based on a YouTube series I watched, and while there were definitely pros and cons to being on a group tour, I have no reservations about recommending this company.
The next issue we faced was something we never could have predicted: the Covid-19 pandemic. In an ironic joke of the universe, we booked our trip to Egypt in March, 2020, literally the same week that the entire world shut down. Needless to say, the trip got postponed. We finally made it to Egypt over a year later, in November, 2021. After waiting so long to go to a place I have wanted to visit so badly, I was beyond excited when we touched down in Cairo.
I have several blog posts coming soon about other areas to visit in Egypt, but this post is specifically dealing with what it is like to travel in Cairo and which ancient sites you should visit. There are lots of good things about Cairo, along with some frustrating things, but we’ll get to all that.
A representative from On The Go Tours met us at the airport and helped us get through immigration, then put us on a shuttle to our hotel. The next day, we did a tour with them called “Backstreets of Cairo,” in which our guide took us to some lesser explored areas of the city. We visited a mosque and a church and got to know the modern city a little bit. The tour was really interesting, and gave us insight into what life is really like in Cairo. At the time, my hair was dyed blonde, and children kept approaching me and asking to take selfies. The tour was great, but this guide is really more about the ancient sites to visit around Cairo. After all, that’s probably why you came to Egypt in the first place.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser
The first ancient site we visited in the Cairo area was the step pyramid of Djoser. This is the first pyramid ever built in Egypt, and the oldest stone structure still standing in the world! I could gush about why this pyramid is so significant, and I did pretty much the whole time we were there, but even if you’re not as excited about ancient Egypt as I am, you can definitely appreciate how impressive this structure is.
You can wander around the Step Pyramid and its surrounding mortuary temple. For a small extra fee, you can also go inside. There aren’t any paintings or anything like that inside the pyramid, but it’s still a very cool experience.
Once you are done at the Step Pyramid, there are tons of other tombs, temples, and pyramids to see in the Saqqarah necropolis. Definitely don’t miss Unas’s pyramid, which is beautifully decorated with hieroglyphs of the Pyramid Texts. Our tour guide also showed us several of the other noteworthy tombs in the area.
The Pyramids of Giza
It’s what you came for, after all.
I can’t imagine anyone comes to Egypt and doesn’t visit the pyramids. The Great Pyramid is the only Ancient Wonder of the World still standing, and the whole Giza complex is absolutely amazing for a million different reasons. I’m trying to make this post a “things to do in Egypt” post and not a “here’s a brief history of ancient Egypt” post, but let’s be honest, you were already planning to go to the pyramids without me telling you all about how cool they are.
The three main pyramids of the Giza complex are close enough for you to walk between (regardless of what all the people with horses and camels try to tell you). There are also a number of smaller pyramids in the vicinity. For an additional fee, you can go inside the pyramids. A ticket to go inside Khafre’s pyramid (the one that still has some of its casing stones) was included with our tour.
After getting up close and personal with the pyramids, we made our way to a viewpoint for some spectacular views of the whole complex. If you put “panoramic view of the pyramids” into Google Maps, it will take you to the right place. We spent some free time taking pictures and wandering around in the desert. If you want to ride a camel, now is your opportunity, but we generally do not support animal tourism, and it did not seem to us like the camels are very well cared for. Always think twice before taking part in these kind of experiences.
The Sphinx
Besides the pyramids, the other most famous landmark in the Giza area is the Great Sphinx, another monument that really needs to introduction Besides the Sphinx itself, take the time to really admire the temple complex. We arrived just before sunset, which was absolutely magical!
For a totally different experience viewing the Sphinx and the pyramids, you can book a seat at a light show where colorful lights and videos are displayed on the monuments themselves after dark, accompanied by a brief history lesson. The show was only okay in my opinion, but when in Egypt, right?
Go to a Museum
While all these tombs are amazing, they are empty. For a deeper look into some of Egypt’s art and artifacts, visit a museum.
When our trip got postponed, the only silver lining (I thought) was that the Grand Egyptian Museum was supposed to open before our trip. Well, it’s been supposed to open for over a decade, and it keeps getting postponed over and over again. The latest rumors are for a 2023 opening, but I’ll believe it when I see it. If you are lucky enough to get to visit this brand-spanking new museum, I am super jealous! Sadly, it was not yet open when we visited Cairo.
Instead, we went to two other museums: the Cairo Museum and the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
The Cairo Museum has been open for over 100 years, and basically feels like you walked into a warehouse of artifacts. There is an overwhelming amount of stuff to see, and it’s not organized in a very intuitive way. The artifacts from this museum are slowly being moved over to the new Grand Egyptian Museum, but at the time of our visit, there were still a ton of things to see!
The highlight of the museum (again, when we visited) was definitely the Tutankhamun exhibit, but I also loved the Akhenaten exhibit and seeing the Narmer Palette. I think I got more out of this museum than many other people because I knew what I was looking for and recognized many of the major artifacts from my personal research, but hopefully the new museum will be more informative for visitors.
The other museum we visited was the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which in my opinion, was the perfect museum for someone only casually interested in ancient Egypt. It is very small, with a select number of artifacts from each time period throughout the last 6,000 or so years of Egypt’s history. And the royal mummies are on display here. If you are the kind of person who gets bored of museums after only an hour or so, I suggest coming to this one. It has a little taste of everything you might want to see, but doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Well, that’s it for my quick guide to the ancient sites around Cairo. There are hundreds of other places you could visit, but these are the main highlights you definitely shouldn’t miss on your trip to Egypt. It was a dream come true getting to see all these places, and someday I’ll have to go back after the Grand Egyptian Museum finally opens.
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