Egypt tourist attractions

Cairo - City of the Thousand Minarets
Cairo is the largest city in Africa and Egypt's most populous city. Its official name is Al-Qahira, although the name informally used by most Egyptians is "Masr". The capital of the Arab Republic of Egypt has a population of about 7.7 million people, while its metropolitan area encompasses...

Aswan
Aswan is where Egypt travelers go for relaxation, besides shopping and sightseeing. About 680 km (425 miles) south of Cairo, just below the Dam and Lake Nasser, Aswan is the smallest of the three major tourist cities based on the Nile. You feel you have reached Africa (as most westerners imagine the continent), mainly because...

The Pyramids of Giza
The Giza pyramids stands on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments is located some eight km inland into the desert from the old town of Giza on the Nile, some 20 km...

Saqqara
The Egyptian Step Pyramid of Djoser was built for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser by his Vizier Imhotep. It was constructed during the 27th century BC at the Saqqara necropolis to the...

Alabaster Mosque
The Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali is the most popular Islamic mosque among Egypt travelers, because of its grandeur and its location at the Citadel in Cairo, making it the most visible of Islamic monuments in Cairo. It was built during the first half of the 19th century. Muhammad Ali Pasha, viceroy...

Philae Temple
The Philae Temple was constructed over a three-century period, by the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty and the Roman Principate. The principal deity of the temple complex was Isis, but other temples and shrines were dedicated to her son Horus and the goddess Hathor. Philae Temple In Ptolemaic times Hathor was associated with Isis, who was in turn associated...

Dahab
Dahab is a small village situated on the south eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Formerly a Bedouin fishing village, most visitors have been backpackers traveling independently and staying in hostels in the Masbet area. In recent years, new international chain-hotels in the Medina area...

Alexandria
Alexandria is Egypt's second largest city and the country's window on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is a faded shade of its former glorious cosmopolitan self, but still worth a visit for its many cultural attractions and memories of a glorious past. It remains an important city, as Egypt's chief seaport on the Mediterranean...

Luxor
Luxor is the premier travel destination in Upper (southern) Egypt and the Nile Valley. In antiquity, the city, known as Thebes by the greeks, was the dynastic and religious capital of Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Egypt. Today, it has much to offer the traveler, from vast temples, to ancient royal...

Valley of the Kings
Soon after the defeat of the Hyksos and the reunification of Egypt under Ahmose I, the Theban rulers realized the need for a new royal necropolis.The idea of pyramid tombs was abandoned, robberies being one...

Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments", which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae (near Aswan). The twin temples were...

Hurghada
Since the 1980s, Hurghada has become the principal bathing resort on the Red Sea, visited by American, European and Arabs. Holiday villages and first class hotels provide excellent aquatic sport facilities. What used to be a small fishing village is now a fully developed resort that...

Sharm-el-Sheikh
Sharm el-Sheikh is located on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It is known as The City of Peace referring to the large number of international peace conferences that have been held there. During occupation, the Israelis opened the first tourist-oriented...

The Red Sea Coast
The Red Sea coast is famed for its crystal clear blue waters and exotic marine life, attracting thousands of tourists yearly. The reputation is well deserved - in 1989, an international panel of scientists picked the north part of the Red Sea as one of the Seven Underwater...

Beni Hasan
Beni Hasan is a small village and an important archaeological locality in Middle Egypt, some 20 km south of the city of Minya. Located on the eastern bank of the river Nile, the small but interesting site consists of cliff-hewn tombs overlooking the river valley with truly magnificent...

Abydos
Abydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, about 11 km (6 miles) west of the Nile. The Egyptian name was Abdju, "the hill of the symbol or reliquary," in which the sacred head of Osiris was preserved. The Greeks named it Abydos, like the city on the Hellespont; the modern Arabic name is el-'Araba el Madfuna. Considered one of the most important archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, the sacred city was...

Ecotourism in the Desert
Where the irrigated fertile valley of the Nile changes abruptly into the barren Red Land, called "dashur" in Ancient Egypt, wonderful treasures await the adventurous traveler who dares enters into a spiritual journey of individual contact with nature in magnificent total isolation. Not many tourists ever venture into...

Siwa Oasis
The Siwa Oasis is located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert, approximately 50 km east of the Libyan border, and some 560 km from Cairo. About 80 km in length and 20 km wide, it is one of Egypt's most isolated settlements, home to about 23,000 people, the majority of whom...

Dendera
Dendera is an archaeological locality in Egypt just outside the town of Qena (62 km north of Luxor) in the region of Middle Egypt. Most travellers now arrive on a day-trip from Luxor...

Amarna
The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tell el-Amarna) is located on the east bank of the Nile River, some 58 km (38 miles)...