Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Saqqara & Memphis

We pick you up from your hotel in Cairo or Giza and start where everyone should: at the foot of the Great Pyramid, early enough to beat the worst of the heat and the coach crowds. Your guide, a licensed Egyptologist, explains how these tombs were built and who really built them — not slaves, but organised crews of paid workers and craftsmen.

From the panoramic viewpoint you see all three pyramids lined up against the open desert, then walk down to the Sphinx and the granite halls of Khafre's Valley Temple. After lunch in a local restaurant, we drive south through palm groves and canals to Saqqara, where Djoser's Step Pyramid — the oldest stone pyramid in Egypt — rises above a necropolis that archaeologists are still excavating.

The day ends at Memphis, once the capital of Egypt and now a quiet open-air museum among the palms. Here a colossal statue of Ramses II lies on its back under a shelter, close enough to see the fine carving on his belt and jewellery. You're back at your hotel in the late afternoon.