Top 10 Best Places To Visit In Egypt | Travel Guide

From diving the Red Sea's crystal blue waters and admire the vastness of the desert to floating down the Nile River and standing astonished before the ruins of one of the world's most ancient civilizations. When it comes to travel experiences, Egypt is a destination that leaves visitors spoiled for choice with its dazzling temples and tombs. So here's a look at the best places to visit in Egypt. 1. Cairo Cairo, located on the Nile River, is the capital of Egypt and called the city of a thousand minarets with a population of over 9 million people. For historical sightseeing, there are few cities that can compete with Cairo. The absolutely staggering collection of antiquities displayed in Cairo's Egyptian Museum makes it one of the world's great museums. The museum was founded in 1857 and moved to its current home in a distinctive powder pink mansion in downtown Cairo in 1897. The museum's major displays include the Tutankhamen Galleries and the Egyptian Jewelry Collection. At the foot of the Moqattam Hills, Cairo's citadel was built by Saladin in 1176. The Mosque of Muhammad Ali is the most famous monument and the main reason for visiting. Nicknamed the Alabaster Mosque, its white stone and tall disproportionately slender minarets are one of Cairo's major landmarks. 2. Luxor Luxor, a city in Upper Egypt, is characterized as the world's greatest open-air museum and is the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Wazit, which was known as Thebes during Greek's reign. The city is known as the religious hotbed of Egypt and features enormous temples, rivers, a sprawling desert, and the ruins of the famous Western Valley. The best places to visit here include the Luxor Temple, the Karnak Temple, and the Valley of the Kings and Queens. The Luxor Museum holds an enticing collection from local artists, uprising the story of ancient Thebes from the era of old kingdoms up to the Islamic period. The main attractions of this museum are the two royal mummies of Amos and Ramses and the exhibits of amulets, silver bowls, and graven tomb furnishings. 3. Alexandria This was the Mediterranean's dazzling jewel of a city, home to the Great Library of Alexandria and the colossal Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is one of Egypt's most important contemporary landmarks and the cultural heart of the city. It contains one of the modern world's most ambitious libraries and a host of museums exploring Alexandria's history and heritage. Its architecture is centered around a giant sun disk, which presides over the waterfront Corniche. Inside the huge main library and its reading room can hold up to 8 million volumes. Fort Capei has been standing guard over Alexandria since 1480 and was built by Mamluk Sultan Capei in an effort to fortify this important Egyptian port from attack, and rubble from the toppled lighthouse was used in its construction. Inside you can explore the series of stone-walled chambers and climb up to the roof to look out over the Mediterranean. 4. Aswan Aswan, which is spread out along the banks of the Nile, was once Ancient Egypt's gateway to Africa and is the best place to base yourself for exploring the temples and monuments in the southern parts of Upper Egypt and the area's distinctly different Nubian culture. Elephantine Island is Aswan's major landmark. At its southern end are Aswan Museum and the Ruins of Abu, Aswan's most ancient settlement, which contains the Old Kingdom Temple of Knum and the Temple of Sadat. The museum building, located in a beautiful late-19th-century villa, holds a collection of artifacts that span Elephantine Island's history up to the Roman era. Once you've finished exploring the ruins, head north into the island to wander the backstreets of the villages of Kodi and Su where the houses are painted with vibrantly colored designs. 5. Sharm el-Sheikh Sharm el-Sheikh is the Sinai Peninsula's major tourism center and one of the world's top diving destinations. Ras Mohamed National Park, surrounded by some of the world's most incredible dive sites. This peninsula, 38 kilometers south of Sharm, is home to glorious beaches with excellent snorkeling opportunities. The world's second most northerly mangrove forest, in a saltwater lake. While diving trips concentrate on the offshore reefs, land-based day trips to Ras Mohamed explore the peninsula's desert environment and its beaches with swim and snorkel stops along the way. The Sinai Peninsula's top historical destination, St. Catherine's Monastery, sits at the foot of Mount Sinai. As one of the oldest working monasteries in the world, this Greek Orthodox hermitage is home to the famous burning bush of the Old Testament. Its museum showcases a selected collection of some of the monastery library religious icons and one of the most important Christian ancient manuscript collections in the world. Now, before you plan your next trip to Egypt, make sure to check out the first link in the description where you can find the best deals for your flight, hotel, and car rentals in Egypt. 6. Hergada Hergada is located beside the Red Sea and is considered to be Egypt's oldest and best-known resort town where all the best patches of sand have been claimed by the shoreside resorts that stretch along the coast, both north and south of town. Hergada Marina is a rather swish and modern addition to the central district of Sagala. Since it opened, it has become one of the city's major dining destinations and comes alive after dark. Head here at sunset to go for a walk next to the Red Sea or sit back with a tea and shisha or water pipe at one of the cafes while soaking up the last of the evening light. The best underwater sights of Hergada's coastline can only be accessed by diving. But if diving isn't for you, there are still plenty of shallow reefs that can be experienced by snorkeling such as the area surrounding the Giften Islands. 7. Giza Located on the banks of the River Nile, Giza is the third-largest city in Egypt and its Great Pyramid, also called the Pyramid of Cheops is not only this ancient site's most famous monument, but one of the most well-known monuments in the world. It was built by the pharaoh Khufu and according to Herodotus, 100,000 men worked on its construction for three months every year. This mammoth structure's cubic content is staggering. Excluding the rock foundation and the interior chambers, the Great Pyramid is 2.3 million cubic meters. The base measurement is 227 meters and the height is 137 meters. On the eastern side of the pyramid there are three smaller pyramids made as tombs for queens and a daughter of the pharaoh, and a large cemetery for other relatives. On the south side is a row of large mastabas or tombs belonging to high dignitaries. To the west of the Pyramid of Cheops is the extensive royal cemetery for members of the royal house and high state officials, established during the 4th dynasty and used until the 6th. Here you'll find the small-columned entry of the Tomb of Senech Mibinti, which contains some interesting wall carvings. Number 8. Alhassanah Dome Located in Abu Ra'ash, Alhassanah Dome, with its topographical merits and geological makeup, reflects a distinguished history. It is the sole location near Cairo that features revelations from the Higher Cretaceous Age that dates back to about 1 million years ago amidst surroundings of rocks from the Stone Age that were formed about 60 million years ago. The area is about 1 square kilometer and the highest point of the Alhassanah Dome is 149 meters above sea level in its western desert. What distinguishes this location is the excavational content whose components gather in the form of well-preserved cantons. It looks as if it were an open museum that shows full records of ancient life, its environment, and climate during the Late Cretaceous Age, 100 million years ago. Number 9. Dahab Located 60 miles north of the famous resort town of Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab was once a sleepy Bedouin fishing village. Today it's a laid-back bohemian beach town popular with backpackers and renowned as one of the best dive destinations in Africa. Although scuba diving is undoubtedly Dahab's premier claim to fame, there are plenty of other activities on offer in and around this Sinai Peninsula jewel. Many of them are inspired by the proximity of the Sinai Desert. Ras Abu Ghalem Protectorate is a natural paradise and Bedouin camp located just north of Dahab. The protectorate is defined by its breathtaking scenery, with plunging granite mountains meeting the Gulf of Aqaba in a dazzling contrast of ochre and blue. Flora and fauna include 167 species of desert plants and resident animals such as the Nubian ibex, the striped hyena, and the red fox. Number 10. Siwa Oasis The Shaili Fortress is at the literal heart of Siwa. Wandering through this ancient towering clay and salt city is like stepping back in time. The fortress, which is built on a hill, served as the center of Siwan life for over 800 years. As modern life encroached upon the ruins of the Shaili Fortress, many residents used walls from original houses to combine with their own more modern structures. This makes for a unique gradient of the ages as the new city slowly merges with the ancient one. Gebel al-Madha, or the Mountain of the Dead, is a Siwan mountain that is riddled with tombs. These tombs cover the mountain base to its peak. It is one of the most fascinating and mysterious places to visit in Siwa. During your visit to the Mountain of the Dead, you will be walking through tombs ranging from local villagers to that of a Pharaonic king and his family dating back as far as the Ptolemaic and Roman times.