Egypt
Egypt
Five thousand years of building along one river, with the Red Sea reef at its eastern edge.
- DestinationEgypt
- CountryEgypt
- TypeInternational holiday
Overview
About Egypt
Almost all of Egypt is desert, and almost all of Egypt lives on the Nile. The river runs the length of the country and the inhabited land is a green strip a few kilometres wide on either bank. That arrangement has held for five thousand years, which is why the monuments line up along the water rather than spreading across the map.
The sites are strung out rather than clustered: Giza at the edge of Cairo, Luxor and Karnak several hundred kilometres upstream, Abu Simbel further still. East of the valley the desert runs to the Red Sea, where reef sits close to the shore.
Good to know
Worth Knowing Before You Go
- The Giza pyramids were built around 2500 BC, and the Great Pyramid was the tallest structure on earth for nearly four thousand years.
- Luxor stands on the site of ancient Thebes, with Karnak and the Valley of the Kings on opposite banks of the Nile.
- Abu Simbel was cut apart and moved to higher ground in the 1960s before its original site was flooded.
- The Red Sea coast has reef close inshore and stays warm through the northern winter.
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