Hurghada Excursions to Cairo

Hurghada Excursions to Cairo are one option that allows tourists to travel to see the main attractions in Cairo and Giza from Hurghada.

Giza Pyramid Complex

Discover the Giza Plateau, the site of the ancient pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus; and six little pyramids, the great Sphinx, the ancient world’s most giant monumental sculpture, carved from a single ridge of limestone and the Valley Temple, which belongs to the Pyramid of Chephren. The complex dates back to the 4th Dynasty, 2400 years BC.

The Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian national museum is the home to the most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts; The museum displays a rare collection of 5000 years of art, including treasures from Tutankhamun and artefacts dating back to 4000 BC. Over 150,000 genuine artefacts are presented .lies in busy Midan al-Tahrir.

There are some options to make the Hurghada excursions  to the Pyramids:

One-day Hurghada Tours to Pyramids by bus

Enjoy a day trip to Cairo to visit The Egyptian Museum, Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx, then return to your hotel in Hurghada by air-conditioned vehicle.

Leave a day for  Cairo and head to Cairo on a luxury tour. Accompanied by your Egyptologist tour guide, who will pick you up from the hotel around 02:00 AM to start the journey to Cairo, driving 335 KM on the coast of the red sea towards Suez, then moving 120 KM from Suez towards Cairo, Approximately 5 hours driving plus a rest stop in the middle of the way in Zafarana rest house for 30 minutes for breakfast, coffee and bathrooms use, then continue driving to Cairo for two more hours to reach Cairo around 09:00 at morning.

One-day Private Hurghada Excursions to Pyramids

Suppose you would like to do it privately; in that case, we recommend enjoying a private over-day trip to Cairo from Hurghada to visit The Egyptian Museum and Giza Pyramids, then return to your hotel in Hurghada by a private air-conditioned vehicle.

Head to Cairo in luxury on a private tour. Accompanied by your private Egyptologist tour guide, who will pick you up from the hotel around 03:00 AM to start the journey to Cairo, driving 335 KM on the coast of the red sea towards Suez, then moving 120 KM from Suez towards Cairo, Approximately 5 hours driving plus a rest stop in the middle of the way in Zafarana rest house for 30 minutes for breakfast, coffee and bathrooms use, then continue driving to Cairo for two more hours to reach Cairo around 09:00 at morning.

Hurghada Excursions to Pyramids by Air

Enjoy a tour of Cairo by flight from Hurghada to visit The Egyptian Museum, Giza Pyramids and Khan El Khalily, then catch your flight back to Hurghada.

Leave the beach for a day and fly to Cairo in luxury on a private day trip. Your tour guide will pick you up in a private air-conditioned vehicle at Hurghada International Airport to fly to Cairo.

Upon arrival at Cairo Airport, you will be met by your private Egyptologist tour guide, who will join you to explore Cairo.

Private Two-day Hurghada Tours to Pyramids

Enjoy a tour to Cairo from Hurghada for one Night/two days to discover Cairo highlights. You will visit the Giza pyramids and the step pyramid, then overnights at the 5-star hotel. The next day, you will see the Egyptian museum, the citadel and Khan EL Khalily bazaar then we will drive you back to your hotel in Hurghada.

Two-day Hurghada Tours to Pyramids by Flight

Enjoy a tour to Cairo from Hurghada for 1 Night / two days to discover Cairo highlights. You will visit the Giza pyramids and the step pyramid overnight at the 5-star hotel. The next day, you will see the Egyptian museum, the citadel and Khan EL Khalily bazaar then we will drive you back to your hotel in Hurghada.

Find and book top tours in Hurghada and select the best activities in Hurghada and top things to do. Read customer reviews and plan lovely day trips from door to door. All our tours included transfers from Hurghada.

Pyramids of Giza

The Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx are among the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and indeed already were even in Roman times. Each of these spectacular structures served as the final resting place of a king of the 4th Dynasty (c.2613–2494 BC). The Great Pyramid of Giza was built for king Khufu (c.2589–2566 BC), and the other two were for Khafre and Menkaure, his son and grandson. Khufu’s Pyramid is the oldest and largest of the three, and the first building to exceed its height would not be built for another 3,800 years!

Although the three pyramids dominate the plateau, they are surrounded by many other monuments. Every king’s Pyramid was just one element, albeit the most important of a larger complex that included more minor, subsidiary, queens’ pyramids; an additional one that acted as a second, symbolic tomb for the king, called a satellite pyramid; mastaba tombs for nobility and other family members; burials of actual and metaphorical boats; and a pair of temples linked by a richly decorated causeway.

One of these temples called the valley temple, led into the pyramid complex, and was located on or near a body of water where boats could dock. The other, the funerary (or upper) temple, stood near the Pyramid’s base. Priests maintained the mortuary cult of the deceased king in these temples, where his divine aspect was worshipped, and rich and diverse offerings were presented to his soul so he could have a peaceful and luxurious afterlife.

The Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid, the tomb of King Khufu (c.2589–2566 BC), with its original height of 146.5 meters, was the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years. It remained the last surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and took an estimated 10 to 20 years to build. To this day, it is not entirely sure how this was done.

The Great Pyramid is made of local limestone, but its exterior was once entirely covered with high-quality limestone. These casing stones were brought by ship from Turah, south of Maadi. The Pyramid has three chambers, one cut into the bedrock underneath and two high up within the masonry itself, a feature no other pyramid possesses. The coffin in which Khufu was once laid to rest can still be seen in the upper of these two rooms, the King’s Chamber. This room is accessed through the Grand Gallery, a majestic corbelled ascending passage and a masterpiece of ancient engineering and architecture.

Two large and impressive ships were discovered in pits on the south side of the Pyramid in a dismantled state. These are believed to have been used to transport the royal mummy and burial equipment to the tomb.

Tomb of Queen Meresankh III

Under the shadow of the Great Pyramid lies the mastaba of Queen Meresankh III, the wife of Khafre and granddaughter of Khufu. Both very large and exquisitely decorated, this is indeed a tomb worthy of her rank and, fortunately, contains the best-preserved wall reliefs in the Eastern Cemetery.

These are decorated with diverse scenes, including bread baking, beer brewing, fowling, herding, mat making, metal smelting, and the sculpting of statues, apparently of Meresankh herself. These, along with the elaborate scenes of offering-bearers bringing all sorts of gifts to Meresankh, were intended to magically provide her soul with a continuous stream of food and goods in the afterlife. Interestingly, among the objects brought to her are a canopy with a bed set up, an armchair, and a carrying chair. Actual examples of similar things were discovered in the tomb of Hetepheres I, the mother of Kufu, and can be seen today at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Among the most striking features of Meresankh’s tomb chapel is a series of ten giant statues of women that are carved out of the northern wall. It is believed that they represent, in addition to, Meresankh herself, her mother, and her daughters as well.

Eastern and Western Cemeteries

Two of the largest preserved Old Kingdom cemeteries form a part of the pyramid complex of king Khufu (c.2589–2566 BC) in Giza. Called the Eastern and Western Cemeteries after their positions relative to the Great Pyramid, they include the tombs of members of the royal family and the highest-ranking nobles. As such, they contain some of the most beautiful tomb decorations from this period.

The cemeteries consist mainly of mastabas, but rock-cut tombs are also attested. The term mastaba (Arabic for “bench”) refers to a type of funerary structure that was generally rectangular and built over the tomb proper, which was underground. Most of the mastabas of the Eastern and Western Cemeteries were constructed during the reign of Khufu, in tandem with his pyramid complex, whereas the rock-cut tombs were mainly built later.

Most of the Eastern Cemetery’s tombs dating to Khufu’s reign were intended for his closest relatives. The rock-cut tomb of his mother, queen Hetepheres I, and her funerary equipment, was discovered here. It is the site of the mastaba of his half-brother Ankh-haf, who had an important administrative position in constructing the Great Pyramid. On the other hand, the mastabas of the Western Cemetery, which are primarily arranged in an orderly grid, were reserved for very high-ranking noblemen that were not as closely related to the king. Among them is the monumental mastaba of Hemiunu, who oversaw the building of the Great Pyramid.

Workers’ Town and Cemetery

The remains of an extensive settlement site, Heit al-Ghurab, were discovered in the southeastern area of the Giza Plateau. This was where the workers who built the pyramid complexes of Khafre (c.2558–2532 BC) and Menkaure (c.2532–2503 BC) lived. The tantalizing remains of an even older settlement underneath may date to Khufu’s reign (c.2589–2566 BC). Houses, magazines, three main streets, and a royal administrative building were discovered within the city walls, as were four huge galleries. These may have been the barracks where workers who built the pyramids slept and prepared food. An enormous amount of fish, bird, cattle, sheep, goat and pig bones were found, revealing that the state ensured the workers were in good health to fulfil their physically demanding responsibilities.

The town’s cemetery is on the hillside immediately west of Heit al-Ghurab. Low-ranking overseers of workers were buried in modest mastabas on the low slopes of the hill, surrounded by even smaller mastaba or domed tombs, possibly those of their extended families and the workers they supervised. These were built mainly of mudbrick, whereas the higher-ranking overseers and skilled artisans were buried in large stone mastabas higher up the slope. Among these is the beautifully decorated tomb of the overseer of linen, the overseer of the royal house of purification, Nefertheith. Most of the bodies discovered show evidence of hard physical labour, many even featuring broken bones. Most of these had healed correctly, indicating that the workers received excellent medical care and were well-fed.

Tomb of Khufukhaf I

The term mastaba (Arabic for “bench”) refers to a type of funerary structure that was generally rectangular and built over the tomb proper, which was underground. The mastaba tomb of Khufukhaf I is located in the Eastern Cemetery of the complex of the Great Pyramid of king Khufu (c.2589–2566 BC) at Giza. This cemetery was reserved for the closest relatives of the king and contained some of the largest mastabas on the Giza Plateau. The mastaba of Khufukhaf I includes two burial shafts, one for him and another for his wife, Neferetkau.

The chapel of Khufukhaf I, inside the mastaba, where his funerary cult was conducted, is well preserved. Many beautiful scenes survive that show him and his wife receiving a wide variety of offerings, which they would both need in the afterlife.

A scene in the chapel depicts him holding his mother’s hand. The hieroglyphic inscriptions beside her reveal that she was the mother of a king, but her name is missing. It is thought that this is Henutsen, one of Khufu’s wives, who is believed to have been buried in one of the three queens’ pyramids next door. The inscriptions in Khufukhaf I’s mastaba also identify him as a vizier, the highest-ranking official in ancient Egyptian administration. As a vizier and the son of a queen, there is no doubt that Khufukhaf I was one of the most influential people in the kingdom during his lifetime.

Pyramid Complex of Menkaure

Menkaure (Mykerinos to the ancient Greeks; c.2532–2503 BC) is the builder of the third of the three large Giza Pyramids. He was most likely the son of Khafre (Khefren) and grandson of Khufu (Cheops). With a base area that is less than a quarter of their pyramids’ and with an original height of 65 meters, Menkaure’s is by far the smallest of the three. This size reduction is due to several factors, including the limited space left on the Giza Plateau. The material used for the outer casing of Menkaure’s Pyramid is another. Whereas his predecessors had used limestone, Menkaure employed granite quarried in Aswan, over 800 km away. In addition to the logistics involved in transporting the granite blocks, the material itself is much more complex than limestone. However, only the bottom quarter of the casing stones is granite. However, the rest is limestone.

Like the Great Pyramid, three smaller pyramids can be seen next to Menkaure’s as well, which were used for the burials of his queens. No satellite pyramid has been discovered, but it is believed that the largest of the three queens’ pyramids was initially intended to have been the satellite pyramid.

Menkaure died before his pyramid complex was completed, and much of the Pyramid’s granite casing blocks were not smoothed. His mortuary and valley temples were intended to consist of colossal limestone blocks encased in granite but were completed with whitewashed mud brick. Despite this, however, the mortuary cult of Menkaure was practised for another 300 years after his death.

The Great Sphinx

Colossal statues are one of the hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, and the Great Sphinx of Giza is the most famous. It was carved directly from the bedrock during the 4th Dynasty (c.2613–2494 BC), making it the oldest. Ancient Egyptian sphinxes represented the king with the body of a lion in a clear demonstration of his power.

The evidence points to the Great Sphinx being carved during the reign of Khafre (Khefren to the ancient Greeks; c.2558–2532 BC), the builder of the second of the Giza pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the temple in front of it, called the Sphinx Temple, lie directly next to Khafre’s valley temple and the lower portion of the causeway leading up to his mortuary temple and Pyramid. Careful archaeological analysis revealed that the valley temple was finished before work was begun on the Great Sphinx and its temple. Research of the Great Sphinx’s facial features has also shown striking similarities with those of Khafre’s statues.

The Great Sphinx has captured the imagination of travellers and explorers for millennia, even in ancient Egyptian times. During the 18th Dynasty (c.1550–1295 BC), it came to be seen as a manifestation of the sun god and was called Horemakhet, “Horus in the Horizon”. King Amenhotep II (c.1427–1400 BC) built a temple next to the Sphinx, which he dedicated to this god. His son, Thutmose IV (c.1400–1390 BC), erected a monumental stela between its front paws, called the Dream Stela, on which he recorded a fascinating event.

Pyramid Complex of Khafre

Khafre (c.2558–2532 BC), whom the ancient Greeks knew as Khefren, was a son of King Khufu (Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyramid. He built the second pyramid complex at Giza and constructed his tomb on slightly higher ground, making it appear just as tall as his father’s. At 143.5 meters in height, however, his Pyramid is only marginally shorter and a tremendously impressive monument. Its core masonry is made of blocks of local limestone. The top of the Pyramid still preserves the beautifully polished blocks of high-quality limestone that once encased most of the structure’s towering height. This white stone was quarried in Turah, south of Maadi, and transported here by ship.

Another development in the reign of Khafre is the complexity of their layout, with the elements constituting his mortuary temple becoming the new standard that its later Old Kingdom counterparts would follow. The mortuary temple of Khafre at the foot of his Pyramid and the valley temple at the end of the causeway is more significant than any of those older pyramids and among the best preserved of the Old Kingdom. The valley temple comprises massive limestone blocks encased in granite, floors made of alabaster, and its vast hall features monolithic granite pillars. A unique feature of Khafre’s complex is the inclusion of a colossal statue beside his valley temple, the Great Sphinx.

The symmetrically arranged niches along the hall’s walls once accommodated statues of the king, some of which are currently on display in the Egyptian Museum. One of these, the famous granodiorite statue of Khafre with Horus as a falcon perched behind his head, is widely considered one of the masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art.