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The pyramids of Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum share the Giza Plateau, in the Giza Governorate of Egypt, so a single day can take in the ancient monuments and the new museum together. Most people come on a guided tour from a hotel in Cairo or Giza, on a long day out from the Red Sea, or on a day trip from Alexandria.
The Giza pyramid complex is an ancient Egyptian necropolis, a city of the dead laid out on the plateau. It holds three pyramids: the Great Pyramid of Giza, which the tours also call the pyramid of Khufu or Cheops, and the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, both within the city of Giza. Giza is the capital of the governorate, which belongs to Greater Cairo and shares a border with the Cairo Governorate, and most tours collect you from hotels in either city.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is a tomb that dates from around 2560 BC. It rises 137.5 m (451 ft) today, against 146.7 m (481 ft) when it was complete, and the ancient world counted it among its Seven Wonders. On the tours below you walk around the three pyramids with a guide, and some stop at a viewpoint where all three line up in a single photograph.
From the pyramids, the tours walk down to the Great Sphinx, which watches over the same plateau, and to the Valley Temple of Khafre right beside it. In this ancient mortuary temple the guides explain the funeral rites that came before a royal burial.
The Grand Egyptian Museum stands on the plateau too, and it officially opened on 1 November 2025. Do not confuse it with the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, in central Cairo: they are two different museums, and some day trips from the Red Sea go to the Tahrir Square one, so check which museum a tour includes.
Further south, the village of Saqqara is part of the Memphite necropolis. Here stands the Pyramid of Djoser, a step pyramid in the Giza Governorate designed by the architect Imhotep. Memphis, the city that gave the necropolis its name, was the capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt.
To see both in one day, the private tour of the Giza pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum picks you up at your hotel in Cairo, visits the three pyramids, the Sphinx and Khafre's temple, and ends in the museum with the Tutankhamun collection; it is rated easy. If the museum is your priority, the private visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum takes you through the galleries of the pharaonic period with your own guide and includes access to the conservation laboratories.
The private day at Giza, Saqqara and Memphis adds the Pyramid of Djoser, lunch at a local restaurant and the open-air museum of Memphis, with its colossal statue of Ramesses II; it is rated easy too. From the coast, the day trip from Alexandria with lunch allows a long visit to the plateau, from the Great Pyramid and the viewpoint down to the Sphinx and the temple, and the day by plane from Sharm El Sheikh combines the museum on Tahrir Square, a short boat ride on the Nile and the pyramids. For a longer trip, the seven-day tour with a Nile cruise spends its first day between the plateau and the Grand Egyptian Museum, then flies to Luxor and sails to Aswan by way of Edfu and Kom Ombo.
More trips that visit the plateau are listed on the Giza destination page.
Yes. Both stand on the plateau, and two of the private tours here combine them, with hotel pickup in Cairo.
No. One is on the Giza Plateau, the other on Tahrir Square in Cairo. Read each tour description to see where it goes.
Yes, though either way it is a long day: one trip flies out and back, the other goes by road.
Saqqara, with Djoser's step pyramid, and the remains of Memphis. One of the private tours here visits both after the plateau.
Sources: Wikidata (CC0).
