_{Egypt is a place where you can travel across time, from ancient wonders to modern marvels.}

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I was awestruck by the world’s oldest pyramid, built more than 4,000 years ago, and then dazzled by the chaotic streets of Cairo, where cars weave and honk incessantly. I switched from noise to silence as I gazed at the mummified body of Ramses II, who ruled Egypt over 3,000 years ago and now rests with other Royal mummies. I continued my journey with a classic Nile cruise, a tradition that goes back to the 1800s when Thomas Cook introduced it to tourists. I was astonished by how much history I could discover in one trip, which made my visit unforgettable.

Egypt is a place where you can travel across time, from ancient wonders to modern marvels. I was awestruck by the world’s oldest pyramid, built more than 4,000 years ago, and then dazzled by the chaotic streets of Cairo, where cars weave and honk incessantly. I switched from noise to silence as I gazed at the mummified body of Ramses II, who ruled Egypt over 3,000 years ago and now rests with other Royal mummies. I continued my journey with a classic Nile cruise, a tradition that goes back to the 1800s when Thomas Cook introduced it to tourists. I was astonished by how much history I could discover in one trip, which made my visit unforgettable.

1. Pyramids

Seeing a pyramid was a top priority for me on my first trip to Egypt, but I didn’t expect how many of them there were. I knew about the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only remaining one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but I found out that there are actually around 118 pyramids in Egypt (depending on how you define them).

I was speechless when I saw one for the first time: on the way from Cairo to the ancient site of Saqqara, I glimpsed a sandy tip of a pyramid in the distance and thought I was hallucinating. It was one of the pyramids at Abu Sir, a group of 5th-dynasty pyramids that lie between Saqqara and Giza and are part of the massive 40,000-acre Unesco-protected ‘Pyramid Fields’ area.

This surprising view made me excited to see Saqqara itself, which is 19 miles (31km) south of Cairo and has the oldest stone structure in the world, the huge stepped Pyramid of Djoser, the model for all the others. Around the Step Pyramid, there are many tombs, smaller pyramids, and temples that reveal how Egypt’s pyramid history started.

After seeing Saqqara, I had to see the Pyramids of Giza next, and I also got my first glimpse of them from the road. It was true that Cairo had expanded close to the pyramids (I could see a house being constructed near the Sphinx), but that didn’t diminish the wonder I felt when I saw the huge shape of the Great Pyramid rising above the city’s highway. It was an amazing sight.

I was happily surprised by how calm and serene it was around the pyramids, and we had plenty of space, time, and quietness to admire the three enormous structures, which were much higher than I expected: the Great Pyramid reaches 454ft (138m) - and was the world’s tallest man-made building for more than 3,800 years - and stands proudly next to its smaller companions, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure.

It was an unforgettable experience to look at the pyramids and even walk up to the entrance of the Great Pyramid (which was closed when I was there) and a 10-minute camel ride with a friendly camel named Moses was a touristy but fun way to end the morning.

2. The Nile

One of my childhood (and Christmas) dreams was to sail on Egypt’s famous river - without the killings of the classic movie Death on the Nile.

The river varies depending on where you are: in Cairo, the Nile is a busy artery through the city but not as broad as I thought, because it splits to surround several large islands in the middle. One of these islands has the Cairo Tower, a 614ft- (187m) tall building that resembles a lotus flower, an ancient Egyptian symbol, and it helps you navigate this lively, chaotic city.

I went on a night cruise on the Nile and enjoyed watching the riverside sights - huge, international hotels mixed with lively shops and cafes - pass by more than the show inside, but the Nile is even better further upstream when it gets wider, quieter, and less crowded.

At Luxor, I took a boat across the Nile in the morning and the evening, which was a marvelous experience: watching the morning hot air balloons ascend over the Valley of the Kings and then later, switching off the engine and just drifting along the water in the warm, snug darkness of the Egyptian night.

3. Museums

A great way to begin your first visit to Egypt is with a morning tour of a museum in the capital, Cairo, where you can immerse yourself in its rich history.

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation opened just two years ago and is the first museum in the Arab world to focus only on Egyptian history - and what a history it is. This impressive, modern building covers the country from 5500 BC, before the dynasties even began, and then goes through Ancient Egypt and the Greek and Roman, Coptic, and Islamic periods before reaching the current Republic.

Visiting Egypt is like having your very own time machine - one that can take you forward and backward thousands of years in a moment The main attraction here has to be the Royal Mummies, which were moved here from the nearby Egyptian Museum in a spectacular Golden Parade of Pharaohs, and who now rest in cool, dark rooms, seen by hundreds of astonished visitors every day.

The former home of the Royal Mummies, the Egyptian Museum is also a must-see, with the largest collection of ancient objects related to Egypt’s ancient kings, the Pharaohs. With statues, mummies, and most importantly, some of the 5,000 items that Howard Carter found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, including the beautiful golden death mask and his gold-covered sarcophagi, this is a stunning collection.

And after many years of waiting, the Grand Egyptian Museum is set to open in Cairo later this year and will have more than 100,000 ancient artifacts, including King Tut’s whole treasure collection.

4. Tombs

Luxor is often the next stop after Cairo in a tour of Egypt’s highlights, and that’s because seeing the treasures of Ancient Egypt in a museum makes you want to see them in real life.

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is where the kings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties are buried, in a dry river valley across the Nile from the old city of Thebes (now Luxor), and more than 60 tombs are hidden under the rock, with more maybe still to be discovered. There’s also a smaller, nearby, Valley of the Queens.

Visitors are taken from the ticket hall (which has interesting 3D models of the tombs, plus video footage of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb) to the Valley itself where many of the tombs are, and can choose which ones they want to see. Our guide suggested the three with the most beautiful decorations, the tombs of Rameses IV, Merenptah, and Rameses III, and we went down the steep paths into the warm air of the tombs where the kings had rested for thousands of years.

Each tomb was amazing in its own way, but what they shared were lovely detailed hieroglyphs and images of the gods, life in Ancient Egypt, and the afterlife in colors so bright you can hardly believe they were painted thousands of years ago.

5. Temples

After being underground in the tombs of ancient Pharaohs, it was nice to see above ground - even if it was very hot.

The Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak are huge, open sites where you can walk on the same steps as the ancient Egyptians, under impressive columns, and under the gaze of statues of kings, queens, and the Sphinx.

The huge Temple of Karnak was built by more than 30 pharaohs, so it has gods and stories from the earliest to the latest times of Ancient Egypt, and it is an amazing sight from the beginning, with the Great Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re having 134 big stone columns, from 10 to 21 meters tall.

While many visitors hurry straight down the middle and back again (maybe to avoid the harsh heat) the best experience is when you leave the crowds and turn right or left off the main path, where you will find yourself among columns - and quiet.

It’s surprising how fast you can be alone in such a big place and it’s worth doing to really feel the historic atmosphere. Linking the Temple of Luxor to the Temple of Karnak is the special Avenue of the Sphinx, a 1.7-mile- (3km) long straight road that has an amazing 1,057 sphinx and rams’ head statues. The road was under sand, rock, and water for more than 2,000 years and was only officially opened again in 2021 after 70 years of restoration work.

Photos of the Temple of Luxor taken just a hundred years ago show how much sand covered the site, with the 14m- (46ft) high sitting statues of Ramses II almost completely buried before being fully dug out.

6. The Red Sea

Egypt has more than just ancient history and the popular Red Sea resorts of Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab and Hurghada attract many tourists every year, who come for the sunshine, clear water, luxury hotels, and many snorkeling and scuba-diving options with coral reefs and shipwrecks to see.

I stayed in the town of Hurghada, a beach resort town that goes for 40km (25 miles) on the Red Sea’s western coast, and went swimming and snorkeling on a glass-bottomed boat to enjoy the views of the coral and sea life.

It isn’t always safe though - a Russian tourist in the hotel next to mine died in a horrible shark attack while I was there - so for activities on land, there’s a modern and lively marina, a big new market building for fresh fruit and veg, and the old town, El Dahar, which has many traditional shops selling coffee, spices, and local food and is great for a night’s walk.

7. Egypt's cuisine past and Present

You can have and enjoy traditional Egyptian food easily, made with fresh produce common in the Middle East such as hummus, falafel, shawarma, kofta, stuffed vine leaves and vegetables, fava beans, and my favorite breakfast, the spiced eggs and tomatoes of shakshuka, but there is also a new and lively food scene, which is creating Egypt’s culinary future.

I was in Cairo during its first-ever Cairo Food Week festival and met many chefs and start-ups working to make modern food styles, from handmade chocolates (yes, some looked like pyramids) and honey to spiced hibiscus lemonade and Japanese/Italian-inspired pomegranate balsamic.

‘Until a few years ago, fine dining was only really in hotels, but now there’s a really vibrant food scene using local ingredients and skilled chefs which is really growing,’ one restaurant owner told me. ‘We want people to like our food as much as they like our history.’

Sarah Bridge is a travel writer and founder of travel website aladyofleisure

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