History has always been one of my favorite subjects to study. I loved to learn about ancient civilizations from years ago, gobbling up as much information as I could about the Mayans, Aztecs, Native Americans, Romans, etc. But Egyptian history has always particularly intrigued me. I have always been fascinated by their culture, everything from mummification to mythology and more.
But, if you had asked me a few years ago if I would ever get to actually SEE the Pyramids of Giza with my own eyes…cross over the Nile River…or peer into the face of a delicately preserved mummy, I would have said no!
Because not only is Egypt quite far from the United States, but many consider it unsafe to visit.
Part of me wanted to believe it. But I still dreamed of visiting. And now here I am! Want to know the funny part? Several of the Egyptians we met said that they don’t consider the US safe. It is crazy how twisted the news and social media can be to make people form opinions about a place they’ve never been to.
I plan to write another blog post to further discuss my opinion about this country and anything you should know before visiting; but for now, let’s focus on the area around Cairo and everything you should see!
My dad and I spent two full days here in the city. If you plan to visit, I think 2-3 days should be plenty enough to see most attractions before you move on to another location.
During our first full day, we took a tour to Saqqara to see the Step Pyramid, the oldest known pyramid in the world, which was built for Pharaoh Djoser 4,700 years ago, making it about 200 years older than the famous pyramids of Giza. For an extra fee of 100 Egyptian Pounds (about $6-7) per person, you can even go inside the pyramid. Once inside, you’ll walk down a long hallway with several supporting beams to enter into a chamber and peer down into the center.
There are several other things to see around the Step Pyramid as well, such as the ruins of Mastbaba of Ti and the large open space that used to be a courtyard. There is also a smaller pyramid that is not in good condition called Pyramid of Unas that you can also go into. The paintings and inscriptions on the walls are in excellent condition, so it is very worth seeing. Keep in mind to get in, you’ll have to crouch down and carefully make it up and down a slanted walkway.
If you look around the area, you’ll see other small openings to tombs and places still being studied, but most you cannot get into. You can however visit the tomb of Princess Idut, the daughter of Djoser. We were in awe of how well these places are preserved with the colors and detail.
After Saqqara, you can go see the Bent and Red Pyramids. Our guide explained to us that both were ordered to be built by the same pharoah, Sneferu. There is a theory that they made a mistake while building the Bent Pyramid, which is how it got its strange, rounded shape, so he ordered them to build the Red Pyramid, which got its name from the coloration of the limestone.
After we snapped some pictures here, we headed to Memphis, which used to be the capital of ancient lower Egypt (fun fact: the Nile River flows south to north, so Egyptians considered the northern part of the country “lower” and the southern part “upper”). There is an open-air museum here with several artifacts, but the most popular are the colossus Ramses II statue and the small sphinx, both made from alabaster.
After the tour we had lunch and our guide took us to a papyrus shop where we learned how they made paper. I booked our tour for this day here. I will warn that while most of the day went very well, our tour guide’s attitude changed after he took us to his friend’s jewelry shop (not part of the tour) and got aggravated at me when I refused to buy a $65 bracelet. Our guide was really nice throughout the day and took great photos for us and was very informative at the sites, just became really pushy at the end, which kind of put us in a bad mood for our first full day and made us worry how the rest of our trip was going to go and if the other tour guides would be like this.
Thankfully, the next day went much better. Our tour guide Zenab was wonderful and not pushy at all and didn’t rush us anywhere. I booked this tour here.
We started off our second day by visiting the Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza. The most popular here is obviously the Pyramid of Khufu, which is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World at 4,600 years old. You can go inside if you wish but it costs extra; we chose not to since we already went into the Step Pyramid and our guide told us there wasn’t much to see anyway.
There are two other pyramids at this site, the middle one built for Khafre (son of Khufu), and the small one on the other side of it built for Menkaure (son of Khafre). The Sphinx is situated in front of the middle one, placed there as a guardian for the tombs and believed to have been modeled with the face of Khafre. Sphinxes are common throughout Egypt, shaped to have the body of a lion and the face of a man. The other multiple tiny pyramids built around them were burial sites for their wives. If you look across the desert, you’ll see them excavating other tombs; it’s amazing to think about how much more these archaeologists still have to discover.
I do recommend coming here as early as you can because the area fills up quickly with tourists, so make sure it is the first stop on whatever tour you book. Also, watch out as there are also a lot of hustlers trying to sell you jewelry or camel rides; they can be very annoying and don’t like to take no as an answer, so try to keep your distance to avoid them as much as possible. Make sure your guide takes you to all the best photo spots too, as there is a spot out in the desert that everybody visits for the panoramic shot of the pyramids!
After this site, our guide took us to a shop to smell and test out different handmade oils and perfumes, many which have medicinal uses such as being rubbed on sore muscles or as a sleep aid. We also got to walk around a store with items made from Egyptian cotton.
We then headed to the Egyptian Museum. This was actually one of my top 3 favorite things we did during our trip! My dad and I both agreed we could’ve spent hours here and still not have seen everything. It was so fascinating to walk around and see these artifacts from so long ago and read about where they came from. We got to see the mummies of Nuya and Thuya, some of the treasures of King Tut, hundreds of sarcophagi, and more.
They actually have so many artifacts to display that an even grander museum with more to see will be opening in 2022! We were told most of the mummies were moved there during a parade, including those of Hatshepsut (my favorite! I’ll talk more about her in my post about Luxor) and Ramses II. You can watch the video of the parade here.
After the museum, we visited Khan el Khalili, the oldest market in Egypt. Its unfortunately filled with fake trinkets brought in from China instead of authentic pieces, but you may still find some interesting souvenirs. Just don’t forget to haggle the price. There are also several small cafes throughout the market if you wish to sit and take a break during shopping.
Cairo is such a bustling, lively city full of things to see, so if you come to Egypt, it definitely needs to be placed on your itinerary. I recommend either staying somewhere nice downtown (such as the Four Seasons) or staying somewhere closer to the pyramids in Giza (not as nice of an area but worth the view). We stayed at the Hayat Pyramid View (which is technically in Giza; the city is split by the Nile) and while it was nothing fancy, our room was clean and spacious and the staff was friendly, and it has a rooftop with arguably one of the best views of the pyramids. This was especially great because we were able to watch the Sound & Light Show for free!
Though Egypt surprised me in many ways and was different than I expected, this trip was a dream come true and checked off a major destination on my bucket list! I hope this blog has been helpful in planning your trip to Cairo and persuades you to visit this beautiful country.
As I mentioned before, I intend on writing a guide for everything you need to know about visiting Egypt. But if you’re heading there before that blog is posted, my BIGGEST piece of advice for you is to book a private guide for visiting all the sites. They are not only essential in helping you understand the history behind these wonders, but also take care of tickets, transportation, language barriers, and can often help you skip waiting in line for everything. So worth it!
If you have any questions or things you would like to add, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading, and make sure you keep your eyes open for my next post!
