Ancient Egypt

Egypt kept reimagining eternity.

For more than two thousand years, Egypt's kings kept finding new ways to build for eternity, and each age answered the one before. Here are four chapters of that story, each told through places you can stand in, and the tours that take you there.

Chapter 1 · c. 2600 BC
They built to be seen
At Giza and Saqqara, royal tombs became monumental landmarks. Their scale made the relationship between kingship and the afterlife visible across the landscape.
The paperwork
Its sides are aligned to true north within a twentieth of a degree. We know how part of it was supplied because an inspector named Merer kept a logbook: in Khufu’s twenty-seventh year his team of about 200 men worked the limestone quarries at Tura and moved the stone to the pyramid.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu
Places in this chapter
- Dahshur
  Where the Egyptians learned how to build a pyramid, by getting it wrong first.
- Giza Plateau
  Three generations of kings built here; the plateau asks who did the building, and how they lived.
- Pyramid Complex of Khafre
  The pyramid that looks tallest at Giza and isn't.
- Pyramid Complex of Menkaure
  The smallest of the three Giza pyramids, and the most revealing, because it was never finished.
- Pyramid Complex of Teti
  From outside, a heap of rubble; inside, one of the oldest libraries of religious writing.
- Saqqara
  If Giza is a single statement, Saqqara is a conversation that lasts nearly four thousand years.
- Step Pyramid Complex of Djoser
  The first building in Egypt of truly monumental scale built throughout of stone.
- The Bent Pyramid
  A pyramid that changes its mind halfway up.
- The Great Pyramid of Khufu
  The largest pyramid in Egypt, and the last of the Seven Wonders still standing.
- The Great Sphinx
  A king's head on a lion's body, cut from the living rock at the foot of Khafre's causeway.
- The Red Pyramid
  The first pyramid that worked.
Tours that walk through this chapter
- Giza Pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum
  Full day · about 7 hours
- Giza Pyramids Half-Day Private Tour
  Half day · about 4 hours
- Inside the Great Pyramid: Giza Private Tour
  About 5 hours
- Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur: The First Pyramids
  About 6 hours
- 10 Days in Egypt: Cairo and a Nile Cruise, with Flights
  10 days · 9 nights
Chapter 2 · c. 1500 BC
They built to be hidden
At Thebes, royal burial chambers were cut into the hills, separate from the temples where kings were commemorated. Enter the valley to see how the story moved underground.
The secret that did not keep
Painted corridors take the journey into the afterlife beneath the mountain. Ancient tomb-robbery records also reveal how vulnerable these burials remained.
Valley of the Kings
The instrument
A hall of 134 columns where the twelve down the centre stand six metres taller than the rest. That difference made room for clerestory windows, and light entered the hall through their stone grilles.
Karnak
Places in this chapter
- Karnak
  Not a temple. A temple city.
- Luxor Temple
  The temple the god came to visit.
- Temple of Hatshepsut
  Hatshepsut's terraced temple against the cliffs, facing Karnak across the river.
- Valley of the Kings
  The royal cemetery of the New Kingdom, cut into a dry valley beneath a pyramid-shaped peak.
Tours that walk through this chapter
- Luxor West Bank: Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut
  5–6 hours
- Luxor East and West Bank Private Day Tour
  Full day · about 8 hours
- Luxor Day Trip from Cairo by Flight
  Full day · about 12 hours
- Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor: 3 Nights
  4 days · 3 nights
- 10 Days in Egypt: Cairo and a Nile Cruise, with Flights
  10 days · 9 nights
Chapter 3 · c. 1264 BC
Power carved into a cliff
Royal tombs and public temples served different purposes. At Abu Simbel, Ramesses II made a monumental statement in stone: kingship and the gods, facing the river.
The announcement
Four seated colossi of the king, each nearly 21 m high, above rows of foreign captives carved on their pedestals. Between 1964 and 1968 both temples were dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground, above the lake of the Aswan High Dam.
Abu Simbel
Places in this chapter
- Abu Simbel
  Two temples cut into a cliff above the Nile, taken apart and rebuilt higher to save them.
Tours that walk through this chapter
- Abu Simbel Day Trip from Aswan
  About 10 hours
- 10 Days in Egypt: Cairo and a Nile Cruise, with Flights
  10 days · 9 nights
Chapter 4 · c. 200 BC
They built to remember
At Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae, temple building continued under the Ptolemies. Greek rule did not end Egyptian religious traditions: old forms found new patrons.
Places in this chapter
- Edfu Temple
  The temple of Horus, whose walls are a library turned outwards.
- Kom Ombo Temple
  A temple built twice over, side by side, for the crocodile and the falcon.
- Philae
  The island that was moved.
Tours that walk through this chapter
- Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor: 3 Nights
  4 days · 3 nights
- Philae Temple, the Unfinished Obelisk and the High Dam
  About 4.5 hours
- 10 Days in Egypt: Cairo and a Nile Cruise, with Flights
  10 days · 9 nights