Cairo

The Great Pyramid of Khufu, built around 4,500 years ago, was the tallest structure on earth for nearly four thousand years. It stands on the Giza plateau with the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, smaller queens' pyramids and the Great Sphinx, carved from the bedrock. You can enter some pyramids for a separate ticket, though the narrow passages are hot and steep.

TipArrive at opening time, before the heat and the tour buses. Agree any camel or horse ride price firmly beforehand, and ignore anyone claiming to be an official guide.

The vast new museum near the pyramids, with a towering statue of Ramesses II in its atrium and a grand staircase lined with colossal sculpture, is the world's largest museum devoted to a single civilisation. Its highlight is the complete treasure of Tutankhamun, displayed together for the first time, including his golden mask.

TipBook tickets online, allow at least half a day, and combine it with the pyramids, which are a short drive away.

The historic pink museum, opened in 1902, still holds an enormous collection of antiquities, from statues and sarcophagi to papyri and jewellery, displayed in a gloriously old-fashioned way. Some of its most famous pieces have moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, but the royal mummies are in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

A modern museum in Fustat telling the story of Egypt from prehistory to the present. Its most remarkable room holds the royal mummies of pharaohs including Ramesses II, displayed in a dim, hushed gallery.

The great bazaar of medieval Cairo, a warren of alleys selling lamps, spices, perfume, brass and jewellery, has traded since the fourteenth century. Nearby, Al-Muizz Street is lined with some of the finest Islamic architecture in the world: mosques, madrasas and mausoleums from the Fatimid and Mamluk eras, beautifully lit at night.

TipStop for tea at El Fishawy, one of the city's oldest cafés, deep in the bazaar.

A medieval fortress built by Saladin in the twelfth century, crowned by the Ottoman-style Mosque of Muhammad Ali, with its tall pencil minarets and domes visible across the city. Its terraces have one of the best views over Cairo, to the pyramids on a clear day.

The Mosque of Ibn Tulun, completed in 879, is one of the oldest and largest in Cairo, with a vast courtyard and an unusual spiral minaret you can climb. Nearby, the fourteenth-century Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan is a masterpiece of Mamluk architecture, its soaring entrance and courtyard on a monumental scale.

The oldest part of the city, inside the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon, is the heart of Egypt's Christian community. Visit the Hanging Church, built over a Roman gatehouse, the Coptic Museum, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where a vast archive of medieval documents was found.

The vast necropolis south of Cairo is home to the Step Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2700 BC and the oldest of Egypt's great stone monuments. Its tombs have some of the best-preserved painted reliefs in Egypt. Combine it with nearby Dahshur, where the Bent and Red Pyramids stand almost alone in the desert.

TipHire a driver for the day; the sites are spread out and there's little public transport.