Best Egyptian Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, Luxor Karnak, Valley of Kings, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Cairo Museum and Egypt Deep Pharaonic Heritage Tour Destinations
Browse more guides: Egypt travel | Africa destinations Best Egyptian Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, Luxor Karnak, Valley of the Kings, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Cairo Museum and Egypt's Deep Pharaonic Heritage Tour Destinations (UNESCO 1979, 2002, 2005) TL;DR I have visited Egypt across two extended research trips, and the country still rearranges my sense of scale every time I land in Cairo. The Great Pyramid of Khufu rises 138.5 m today, originally 146.6 m, and was built around 2570 BC out of roughly 2.3 million limestone blocks averaging 2.5 tons each. The Great Sphinx, carved from a single ridge of bedrock about 2500 BC, runs 73 m long and 20 m tall. Egypt holds seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites, six cultural and one natural: Memphis and its Necropolis at Giza (1979), Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis at Luxor (1979), the Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae (1979), Historic Cairo (1979), Abu Mena (1979, on the In Danger list), Saint Catherine Area at Mount Sinai (2002), and Wadi ...