Southern Nile Valley
Cut into the ridge across the road from the village of Al Kab is a row of tombs. The most interesting is No 2, from the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC), which…
Must-see attractions in Egypt
Luxor
This 91m-long tomb was built for Amenhotep II (sometimes also called Amenophis II), who succeeded his father, the great king Tuthmosis III. Amenophis died…
Luxor
Horemheb was Tutankhamun's general, who succeeded Ay, Tutankhamun's briefly reigning tutor. His tomb has beautiful decoration that shows the first use of…
Al Fayoum
The 'waterfalls' in the Wadi Rayyan Protected Area are a major attraction for weekend picnickers from Cairo. The waterfalls, where one lake drains into…
Luxor
Although only the burial chamber is decorated, this tomb, tucked away in the West Valley, is noted for its scenes of Ay hunting hippopotamus and fishing…
Cairo
Modelled on classic Ottoman lines, with domes upon domes upon domes, this alabaster-white mosque within the Citadel took 18 years to build (1830–48) and…
Sinai
Thirty-five kilometres north of Sharm El Sheikh, Nabq is the largest coastal protectorate on the Gulf of Aqaba. Named after an oasis that lies within its…
Cairo
The square between the two venerated mosques of Al Azhar and Sayyidna Al Hussein was one of the focal points of Mamluk Cairo and remains an important…
Cairo
The core of this luxury hotel is a lavish palace built by Khedive Ismail to house Empress Éugenie when she visited for the opening of the Suez Canal in…
Madrassa & Mausoleum of Barquq
Cairo
Sultan Barquq seized power in 1382, when Egypt was reeling from plague and famine; his Sufi school was completed four years later. Enter through the bold…
Madrassa & Mausoleum of An Nasir Mohammed
Cairo
Sultan An Nasir (‘the Victor’), was both despotic and exceedingly accomplished. His madrassa was built in 1304 in part with a Gothic doorway An Nasir…
Cairo
The only one of its kind in the Middle East, this interesting museum features textiles from ancient Egypt and the Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras. The…
Khanqah-Mausoleum of Farag Ibn Barquq
Cairo
Built by a son of Sultan Barquq, whose great madrassa and mausoleum stand on Bein Al Qasreen, this tomb complex was completed in 1411 because Barquq…
Cairo
This petite mosque, the oldest in Egypt with a stone facade, was built in 1125 by one of the last Fatimid caliphs. Several features appear here that…
Mosque-Sabil of Suleiman Silahdar
Cairo
This 19th-century complex, built by Mohammed Ali's chief of armoury, combines a baroque-styled kuttab (Quranic school) and sabil (public fountain) at…
Cairo
Just south of the Coptic Museum on Sharia Mar Girgis (the main road parallel with the metro), a stone facade inscribed with Coptic and Arabic marks the…
Sabil-Kuttab of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda
Cairo
The Sabil-Kuttab of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda is one of the iconic structures of Islamic Cairo, depicted in scores of paintings and lithographs. Building this…
Western Desert
The garrison’s massive outer walls enclose a 25th-dynasty sandstone temple, dedicated to the Theban triad Amun, Mut and Khons. In later centuries, the…
Cairo Outskirts & the Nile Delta
St Bishoi came to the desert in AD 340 and founded two monasteries in Wadi Natrun: this one and neighbouring Deir El Sourian. The fortified keep is…
Alexandria
Kom Al Dikka was a well-off residential area in Graeco-Roman times, with lovely villas, bathhouses and a theatre. The area was known at the time as the…
Cairo
One of the few well restored examples of Cairo's once vibrant hammam (bathhouse) culture, the Hammam Inal dates from 1456. The marble-clad central room is…
Aswan
Situated just north of the old Aswan Dam, the island of Seheyl was sacred to the goddess Anukis. Before the dam’s construction, the Nile would rush…
Luxor
The tomb of Tuthmosis IV (1400–1390 BC) is one of the largest and deepest tombs constructed during the 18th dynasty. It is also the first in which paint…
Cairo
The city’s oldest intact, functioning Islamic monument is easily identified by its high walls topped with neat crenulations that resemble a string of…
Cairo
Through a gateway to the south of the main entrance of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, this quirky museum gets its current name from John Gayer-Anderson, the…
Siwa Oasis
This small hill, at the northern end of Siwa Town, is honeycombed with rock tombs peppered with wall paintings. Its name, Gebel Al Mawta, means 'Mountain…
Church of St Sergius & Bacchus
Cairo
This is the oldest church inside Coptic Cairo's walls, built in the 11th century with 4th-century pillars. It honours the Roman soldiers Sergius and…
Tomb of Tawosret/Sethnakht (KV 14)
Luxor
Tawosret was the wife of Seti II and after his successor Siptah died, she took power herself (1188–1186 BC). Egyptologists think she began the tomb for…
Luxor
The second-largest tomb in the valley, Merenptah’s tomb has been open since antiquity and has its share of Greek and Coptic graffiti. Floods have damaged…
Northern Nile Valley
On rocky ground above the old Nile flood level, 6km northwest of Sohag, the White Monastery was founded by St Shenouda around AD 400 and dedicated to his…
Tombs of Menna, Nakht & Amenemope
Luxor
The beautiful and highly colourful wall paintings in the tomb of Menna and the tomb of Nakht emphasise rural life in 18th-dynasty Egypt. Menna was an…
Luxor
Originally intended to be much larger, KV 2 was cut short at 89m on the early death of the pharaoh (1147 BC) and a pillared hall was converted to be the…
Tombs of Ramose, Userhet & Khaemhet
Luxor
The tomb of Ramose, a governor of Thebes under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, is fascinating because it is one of the few monuments dating from a period of…
Southern Nile Valley
The only Nubian monument visible on its original site, Qasr Ibrim once sat on top of a 70m-high cliff, about 60km north of Abu Simbel, but now has water…
Alexandria
The Eastern Harbour is dominated by the bulky walls of Fort Qaitbey, built on a narrow peninsula over the remains of the legendary Pharos lighthouse by…
Giza
Immediately south of the Great Pyramid is this fascinating museum with exactly one object on display: one of Cheops' five solar barques (boats), buried…
Siwa Oasis
The 26th-dynasty Temple of the Oracle sits in the northwest corner of the ruins of Aghurmi village. Built in the 6th century BC, probably on top of an…
Cairo
At the very southern tip of Roda, inside the Monastirli Palace compound, the Nilometer was constructed in AD 861. Like others built millennia before, it…
Abu Simbel
Next to the Great Temple of Ramses II sits the smaller of Abu Simbel's temples. The Temple of Hathor has a rock-cut facade fronted by six 10m-high…
Cairo Outskirts & the Nile Delta
Deir Abu Makar was founded around the cell where St Macarius spent his last 20 or so years. Although structurally it suffered more than other monasteries…
