Saqqara, Memphis og Dahshur: dagstur

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Giza has the biggest pyramids; Saqqara and Dahshur have the story of how they got there. On most days you will share the Red Pyramid's burial chamber with a handful of people.

Pickup at 08:00. The road runs 30 km south along the palm groves of the Nile to Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient capital Memphis. Here Imhotep built the Step Pyramid for King Djoser around 2670 BC, the first large stone building in the world, set inside a walled complex you enter through a colonnade of 40 columns. The guide takes you into one of the noble tombs (Kagemni, Ti or Mereruka, depending on the day) where the painted reliefs of fishing, hunting and feasting are the freshest in Egypt, and, when open, into the pyramid of Teti with its Pyramid Texts.

Dahshur is 10 km further south. Sneferu, Khufu's father, built two pyramids here: the Bent Pyramid, whose angle changes halfway up, and the Red Pyramid, the first true pyramid, whose descending passage and three corbelled chambers you enter with the ticket included in this tour.

After lunch at a village restaurant among the palms, the last stop is Memphis at Mit Rahina: the open-air museum with the 10 m limestone colossus of Ramses II lying under its roof and the alabaster sphinx in the garden. Back in Cairo about 15:00.