Cairo Outskirts & the Nile Delta

Covering a 7km stretch of the Western Desert, Saqqara, the huge cemetery of ancient Memphis, was an active burial ground for more than 3500 years and is Egypt’s largest archaeological site. The necropolis is situated high above the Nile Valley’s cultivation area, and is the final resting place for deceased pharaohs and their families, administrators, generals and sacred animals. The name Saqqara is most likely derived from Sokar, the Memphite god of the dead.

About 10km south of Saqqara lies this impressive 3.5km-long field of 4th- and 12th-dynasty pyramids. Although there were originally 11 pyramids here, only the two Old Kingdom ones remain intact. Pharaoh Sneferu (2613–2589 BC), father of Khufu, built Egypt’s first true pyramid here, the Red Pyramid, as well as an earlier version, the Bent Pyramid. These two striking pyramids are the same height, and together are also the third-largest pyramids in Egypt after the two largest at Giza.

This Unesco World Heritage Site is home to the earliest prehistoric whale fossils ever discovered. The more than 400 basilosaurus and dorodontus (both rather fierce water predators) skeletons found here are around 40 million years old and show the clear evolution of land-based mammals into sea-going ones, as they have vestigial front and back legs.

The sands are also studded with the remains of manatees and big bony fish – which look very out of place in the vast desert.

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 at the hands of raiding Bedouin, it has been carefully restored and the monks here give excellent tours of the complex for visitors. Deir Abu Makar is famous as most of the Coptic popes have been selected from among its monks, and most are buried here.

Egypt’s largest camel market is held at Birqash (pronounced Bir’ash), a small village 35km northwest of Cairo, just on the edge of the Delta’s cultivated land. It's not for the faint of heart – many traders treat the camels with intense cruelty – but it's a very local experience. Hundreds of camels are sold here every market day, with the liveliest action between 7am and 10am.

Just outside the village of San Al Hagar, 70km northeast of Zagazig, are the partly excavated ruins of Tanis, a city known as Djanet to the ancient Egyptians and Zoan to the Hebrews. Some call it the Saqqara of the Delta because of its impressive scale. Although it is not so well preserved as that ruin and only shattered remnants of its temples remain, the statuary, obelisks and stelae scattered across the vast sands here are incredibly atmospheric.