Giza

Giza is probably the most iconic archaeological site in human history. On a desert plateau that once overlooked the Nile delta, three giant pyramids built 4,500 years ago — Khufu (the Great Pyramid, originally 146 m high, the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World), Khafre (still crowned with its original limestone casing at the apex) and Menkaure (the smallest of the three but often the visitors' favourite for its architectural balance) — sum up by themselves three centuries of Egyptian civilisation under the Old Kingdom. At their feet, the Sphinx, carved from the bedrock, has stood silent guard for forty-five centuries.

Giza is not only an ancient site: since 2024, it is also the home of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), the largest archaeological museum in the world. Two decades in the making and officially inaugurated in 2024 (after several postponements), the GEM brings together in a 92,000 sq m building designed by Heneghan Peng more than 100,000 pieces of pharaonic art, including the entire Tutankhamun treasure (5,400 objects) until now scattered between Cairo and several storerooms. The view from the main atrium frames the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre directly through a monumental window — one of the finest architectural gestures of the 21st century. A visitor who combines the plateau and the GEM achieves in a single day what once required multiple trips across Cairo. Giza is a fragile site, beset by commercial pressure (touts, insistent camel drivers, fake guides), but minimal planning is enough to fully enjoy one of the great moments of any trip to Egypt.