Cairo – Egypt's Pyramids and Museums
Giza Plateau and two museums – the way to the Mediterranean
Giza Plateau and two museums – the way to the Mediterranean
On the western edge of Cairo, on the rocky plateau of Giza, stand Egypt's pyramids – three royal tombs of the fourth dynasty, along with the Great Sphinx next to the Valley Temple of Khafre. The plateau closes daily in the afternoon. At the edge of the same plateau stands the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Cairo in Egypt hosts two major pharaonic collections, and what one shows has been provided by the other. The new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza now holds the complete Tutankhamun collection. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo remains open at Tahrir Square, featuring the statues of the three pyramid builders and the Narmer Palette.
Cairo marks the beginning of the journey through Egypt : three to four nights as a kick-off before the journey south to the Nile or to the Mediterranean in Alexandria. If one returns to the city at the end, an additional night is counted.
Best travel time
Arrival and routes from Cairo
From Cairo, the route leads south by night train or scheduled flight to Aswan, the route to the Mediterranean by private car to Alexandria. The night train runs daily, with dinner and breakfast included in the fare – a night trip replaces a hotel night and a domestic flight. The Nile cruises do not start in Cairo: The ships operate between Luxor and the first cataract, and those who connect the cruise to Cairo first travel south.
1# Night train south
Daily, overnight to Aswan, dinner and breakfast included in the fare.
2# Scheduled flight to Aswan
Flight time 1 hour 20 minutes.
3# Road to Alexandria
219.6 kilometers by private car, without a domestic flight.
4# Stay in Cairo
Three to four nights at the beginning, three to five in total, season October to April.
Pyramids of Giza – inside and outside
The Pyramids of Giza stand at the gates of Cairo on a plateau that opens every day and closes in the afternoon. Those who want to see the three royal tombs, the Sphinx, and one of the interiors in one day should start in the morning.
The area ticket for the plateau does not cover interior visits. According to the ministry, all three pyramids are excluded from interior views, as well as the tomb of Meresankh III. and the workers' settlement, and each of these visits requires a separate additional ticket. Therefore, anyone who wants to see the King's Chamber buys twice. This applies to every visit, as the authority bills the area and the individual monuments separately.
The Pyramid of Khufu contains three chambers – one carved into the rock, two high in the masonry. The upper one is the King's Chamber, where the sarcophagus still stands today, and the way there leads through the Grand Gallery. Authorized private visits also lead to the Queen's Chamber and Rock Chamber. The solar barque of Khufu is no longer at the plateau since the move, but in a specially built hall at the Grand Egyptian Museum.
The three pyramids and the Sphinx
The Pyramid of Khufu was built for King Khufu and was the highest structure in the world for 3,800 years, originally 146.5 meters high. Khafre stands at 143.5 meters and is on slightly higher ground, which is why it appears the same height from a distance. Menkaure remains significantly smaller, and the lower quarter of its casing features granite from Aswan, over eight hundred kilometers away from Giza.
The Great Sphinx structurally belongs to the complex of Khafre and stands next to its Valley Temple. Each king's pyramid was but one element of a larger complex of subsidiary pyramids, mastaba tombs, and two temples connected by an approach way, and the mortuary and valley temples of Khafre are considered by the authority to be among the best preserved of the Old Kingdom.
Grand Egyptian Museum – Egypt's new museum
The new Egyptian Museum in Cairo is not located in the city center but on the edge of the Giza plateau. It houses the complete Tutankhamun collection and the solar barque of Khufu. On November 4, 2025, the museum opened to the public, and since then, everyone who has a valid ticket can enter.
Since November 2025, a designated time window applies to all visitors; since December, online booking is the only sales method. One indicates when you enter, the other where you buy – sales at the museum counters ceased, even on weekends and holidays.
The time window does not limit the duration of stay but only the entry. The last entry is one hour before the galleries close. The authority describes this museum as a continuously digitally operated facility with time-slot entry, explicitly contrasting it with the older establishment at Tahrir Square in Cairo.
Guided tours can only be booked online in English and Arabic; everything else goes through an inquiry mailbox – a German-speaking tour, therefore, is an inquiry process and not a booking transaction. The trip “ Experience Egypt exclusively " takes three nights in Cairo, including this museum, and lasts a total of fourteen days.
Evening openings on Wednesdays and Saturdays
Two weekdays operate longer than the other five: The galleries otherwise close early in the evening, but on Wednesdays and Saturdays, they close at 9 PM, and the last entry is also one hour earlier. Those who want to see the house with structurally fewer crowd flows should come on one of these two evenings.
Capacity and crowds
The maximum daily capacity of the museum is cited by the Egyptian cabinet as around 15,000 visitors daily. For summer 2026, the operating authority cites an average of 7,000 to 10,000 visitors per day.
Egyptian Museum in Cairo – the collection at Tahrir
Cairo's pharaonic collections are now spread across three institutions. The Grand Egyptian Museum is located in Giza, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, and the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square in Cairo. Those who cannot distinguish between the three institutions will search for Tutankhamun in the wrong place and the royal mummies in the second wrong place – the house at Tahrir Square is the oldest of the three and has transferred major collections twice.
The complete Tutankhamun collection and the solar barque of Khufu were transferred to the new house in Giza, and on April 3, 2021, the authority moved twenty-two royal mummies and seventeen royal sarcophagi to the National Museum in Fustat. Among the mummies were eighteen kings and four queens from four dynasties, including Ramses II, Seti I, Thutmose III, and Hatshepsut. None of these collections remains at Tahrir Square today.
What remains is what the authority currently lists by name. At Tahrir Square stand the Narmer Palette for the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, the treasures of Tanis, and the complete burials of Yuya and Thuya. Statues of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, the builders of the three pyramids, including the granodiorite statue of Khafre with the Horus falcon behind his head, are also located there. Those who want to see the builders will not find them in Giza, but here.
The house traces back to an international architectural competition, the first of its kind, and was opened by Khedive Abbas Helmy II in 1902. Over a hundred exhibition halls are spread over two floors. It is open from 9 AM to 5 PM all seven days, with the ticket sales ending an hour earlier; during Ramadan, the house closes an hour earlier. According to the authority, it is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East and holds the largest collection of pharaonic antiquities in the world.
Those looking for short distances to this collection will find them in the The St. Regis Cairo – the house describes the museum and Tahrir Square as just a few minutes' walk, and Giza explicitly as a longer trip.
Access outside opening hours
The Giza plateau closes in the afternoon, and everything before and after lies outside opening hours. Three things fall under the same term: the actual special opening with official permission, the early entry for regular opening, and the private tour during opening hours – and only the first of these is a separate official procedure. The difference lies in the permission.
Actual special openings occur in the country at four sites. Two of them are located in Giza – the Pyramid of Khufu and the enclosure of the Sphinx – the other two are the Sekhmet Chapel in Karnak and the Osireion in Abydos. At the Pyramid of Khufu, a special opening lasts two hours without interruption, at night and outside official opening hours. An Antiquities Inspector must accompany the group, and the lead time is at least five working days.
The enclosure between the Sphinx's paws, which is closed during the day, opens in a window from 5 to 7 AM for one hour, with at least seven days lead time for the security permit. Neither at the Grand Egyptian Museum nor at the house at Tahrir Square is there such: Anyone selling 'VIP' there means a private tour within opening hours.
Cairo's museums and attractions
What can be seen in Cairo ranges from the plateau in Giza through the necropolis of Saqqara to the Khan el-Khalili bazaar and the neighborhoods by the river. The city is most densely covered in “ Egypt off the beaten path ", as Saqqara and Zamalek only occur in this trip.
Saqqara and Coptic Cairo
The necropolis of Saqqara is not an independent stay but part of the Cairo day, and the same applies to Coptic Cairo with the Fortress of Babylon.
Islamic Cairo and its mosques
Three mosques shape Islamic Cairo. The Ibn Tulun Mosque and the Sultan Hassan Mosque belong to the Cairo day, while the Muhammad Ali Mosque stands high above the city center in the Citadel.
Khan el-Khalili, Zamalek, and Gezira
Zamalek and Gezira are located on the island in the Nile, and both districts belong to the stay in the city along with the Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Those looking for the bazaar will find it in Old Cairo and not near the plateau. All three items thus belong to the city day and not to the day in Giza.
Alexandria on the Mediterranean
Alexandria in Egypt is located on the Mediterranean, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and, according to the ministry, the most significant city in the eastern Mediterranean until the 5th century. The sights of Alexandria belong to a different epoch layer than Giza, and the coast follows a different seasonal logic than the inland: Those who extend their journey to Alexandria from Cairo travel in the visiting season from October to April, not in a bathing season on the Mediterranean. The time span of the sites extends into the Byzantine period.
From Cairo to Alexandria
Two nights, not one day. This resolves “ From the Pyramids to the Mediterranean Coast ", a journey with a separate stay in Alexandria: four nights in Cairo beforehand, two in Alexandria, one after that, totalling a minimum of eight days. The distance is covered by private car over 219.6 kilometers without a domestic flight.
Alexandria's Old Town and the Qaitbay Fortress
The Qaitbay Fortress stands on the remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, built between 1477 and 1479 from limestone over approximately 17,550 square meters. The main tower in the northwest features four semicircular corner towers. At the Kom el-Dikka theater, which according to the ministry is the only one of its kind in Egypt, lie marble seating rows and mosaic-clad galleries from Roman and Byzantine times, along with Roman baths featuring underfloor heating.
The Catacombs of Kom al-Shoqafa date back to Roman times, and their sculptures blend Egyptian and Greek traditions in a tomb. The Pompey’s Pillar from the late 290s AD is correctly referred to as Diocletian’s Pillar, and the authority explicitly mentions this naming error. The associated Serapeum fell victim to the prohibition of the old cults in 391 AD. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina features four museums and a planetarium, and on Fridays, the reading room, museums, and planetarium are closed.
Three houses in Cairo and Alexandria
The St. Regis Cairo offers 360 rooms, suites, and serviced apartments. The Metropolitan Suite measures 66 square meters, the Deluxe room 46, and the windows extend from floor to ceiling with views of the Nile or historic Old Cairo. Seven dining establishments and a spa spread over two floors are included, and the butler service is provided as an in-house offering.
The house describes the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square as a walk of just a few minutes, Islamic Cairo and the bazaar as a drive – and Giza expressly as a longer excursion. Those wishing to see the collection at Tahrir Square twice will find it here. Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza also lies right on the riverbank, with views of the Nile, the city, or the pyramids.
The Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria at San Stefano stands with 29 floors at the site of the former San Stefano Grand Hotel, designed by interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon. The house features its own private beach of 500 meters and a tunnel under the waterfront road, so guests do not need to cross traffic. The spa spans two floors with fourteen treatment rooms, and three pools are distributed across the roof, house, and beach.
Trips with a Cairo segment
Three of the six trips with a Cairo segment are listed here. Two of them set four nights at the beginning and return for another, the third involves three nights and includes the Grand Egyptian Museum in its Cairo segment. Which sites are included in which trip is detailed in the respective itinerary.
on request
Hotels in Cairo and Alexandria
Two of the three houses are in Cairo – The St. Regis Cairo and the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza – the third, the Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria at San Stefano, is in Alexandria on the Mediterranean.
Frequently asked questions about Cairo and Giza
How old are the Pyramids of Giza?
The three pyramids are tombs of kings of the 4th dynasty. For the Pyramid of Khufu, the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry cites the years c. 2589–2566 BC and estimates the construction time at ten to twenty years.
When were the Pyramids of Giza built?
For the Pyramid of Khufu, the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry cites the years c. 2589–2566 BC and estimates the construction time at ten to twenty years. How this happened remains unresolved according to the same authority up to this day, and there is no exact date for the start of construction.
How tall are the Pyramids of Giza?
The three Pyramids of Giza bear the names of their builders: Khufu was originally 146.5 meters high, Khafre 143.5 meters, and Menkaure 65 meters. Khafre only appears to be as tall as Khufu because he stands on slightly higher ground. All three values are sourced from the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry.
How many days are needed for Cairo?
Three to four nights at the start of the trip, with an additional night if the route returns over Cairo at the end. During this time, the Giza plateau and Saqqara are accessible, as well as the bazaar and the neighborhoods by the river. If Alexandria is added, two more nights must be counted, with a minimum duration of eight days.
How to book tickets for the Grand Egyptian Museum?
Tickets for the Grand Egyptian Museum are available exclusively online, for a fixed time slot that applies to all visitors – even on weekends and holidays, online booking is the only sales method. The time window controls entry but does not limit the duration of stay. The last entry is one hour before the galleries close.
When does the Giza Plateau open?
The Giza plateau with the three pyramids and the Sphinx opens every day and closes in the afternoon. The area ticket does not cover interior visits – anyone wanting to see one of the three pyramids from the inside needs a separate additional ticket.
What can still be seen at Tahrir Square after the move?
Tutankhamun and the solar barque are in the Grand Egyptian Museum, the royal mummies in the National Museum in Fustat. At Tahrir Square, the Narmer Palette, the treasures of Tanis, the burials of Yuya and Thuya, and the statues of the three pyramid builders remain. The house opened in 1902 and is considered by the authority to be the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East.
