Tour Overview
This private layover tour picks you up at Cairo International Airport and drives you south to the oldest pyramid fields in Egypt: the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the ruins of Memphis, and the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur. After lunch in Giza you are taken back to the airport for your onward flight. A private Egyptologist guide, car, lunch and entrance fees are included. It suits travelers who have seen Giza before, or who want a quieter pyramid day between two flights.
Tour Highlights
- See the Step Pyramid of King Djoser at Saqqara, designed by the architect Imhotep around 2650 BC and the first large building in Egypt made entirely of stone.
- Visit Memphis, the first capital of united Egypt, where a fallen colossus of Ramses II and an alabaster sphinx are kept in an open-air museum.
- Compare the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, two attempts by King Sneferu that show his builders learning how to make a true pyramid.
- Walk through sites that are usually far quieter than Giza, which gives you space to look, ask questions and take photos.
- Have entrance fees and lunch already covered, with pickup and drop-off at Cairo Airport, so the only thing left to watch is your flight time.
Tour Route
Can you visit Saqqara and Dahshur during a Cairo layover?
Yes, with a long enough layover and permission to enter Egypt. The three sites lie south of Cairo, roughly 20 to 40 kilometers from the city center, while the airport is northeast of it, so the driving is a real part of the day. We plan the route so you are back for your flight with margin.
Leaving the airport means passing arrival formalities like any visitor. Check the visa rules for your nationality, and your airline's transit conditions, before you fly; the visa is not part of the tour price.
How long a layover do you need for this tour?
We do not quote a single number of hours, because flight times, terminals and traffic change the picture. Send us your arrival and departure times before you book, and we will tell you plainly whether the full program fits or whether a shorter day makes more sense.
What happens to your bags while you are out?
The simplest layover is one where your checked luggage is booked through to your final destination and you leave the airport with a small bag. That depends on your ticket and airlines, so ask your airline before you travel, and tell us when you book if you will have your suitcases with you.
Saqqara and Dahshur or Giza: which is better for a layover?
If this is your first time in Egypt and you only have one layover, Giza is usually the one people want, because the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx are what they came to see. If you have already been to Giza, or prefer quieter sites, this tour shows where pyramid building began.
- First visit: the Giza Pyramids tour from Cairo Airport covers the plateau, the Sphinx and the Grand Egyptian Museum.
- The full sweep: the Cairo stopover tour combines Giza, two museums and the old bazaar in one day.
- Staying in Cairo: the Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur day trip from Cairo visits the same sites with pickup from your hotel, and has its own price and inclusions.
Tour Itinerary
A day south of Cairo: Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur in the order the program sets, then lunch in Giza on the way back to the airport.
When you have cleared arrival formalities, your private Egyptologist guide meets you at the airport and your driver heads south in an air-conditioned car. Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur lie beyond the southern edge of greater Cairo, so expect a real drive; your guide uses it to set out the story of the day.
Around 2650 BC, Imhotep, vizier to King Djoser of the Third Dynasty, stacked six stone platforms into a stepped tower. It is the earliest monumental stone building in Egypt and the start of pyramid building. You also walk through the enclosure around it, with its colonnaded entrance and ritual courtyard.
Tradition credits King Menes with founding Memphis around 3100 BC, and it stayed one of Egypt's great cities for thousands of years. Little of the city survives above ground, but the open-air museum at Mit Rahina keeps a huge fallen statue of Ramses II and an alabaster sphinx.
King Sneferu, father of Khufu, built the Bent Pyramid with a steep lower slope that changes angle halfway up, probably because the structure showed signs of strain. Much of its outer casing survives, so it shows better than most how a finished pyramid face once looked.
Sneferu's next attempt, the Red Pyramid, was built at a gentler angle and is generally seen as the first successful smooth-sided pyramid. Across the desert you also see the dark, eroded Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III, a Middle Kingdom king, built centuries later of mud brick.
On the way back north you stop for lunch at a local restaurant in Giza, which is included. After a morning on open desert sites it is a welcome break in the shade, and a good time to ask your guide about anything you saw.
Your driver takes you back to Cairo International Airport for your departure. The guide, car, lunch, bottled water and entrance fees are already covered, so tips and any extras you choose are the only costs you still need to plan for.
What's Included
What the tour price covers, and what to plan for separately.
Paid
★
Your
Own
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers about this tour. For anything else, message us on WhatsApp — we reply fast.
At Cairo International Airport. Your guide meets you after arrival formalities, and the tour ends back at the airport in time for your next flight. When you book, send us both flight numbers and times, and your arrival terminal if you know it, so the day can be planned around them.
Yes. The price covers entrance fees to the sites in the program, lunch at a local restaurant in Giza, a private Egyptologist guide, a private air-conditioned car with airport pickup and drop-off, bottled water, taxes and service charges. Tips, extras outside the program and your Egypt entry visa are not included.
Yes, the guide and car are reserved for your group only. The per-person price drops as the group gets bigger, because the cost of the car and guide is shared, and it varies a little by season. Prices start from {price} per person.
Yes, that is who it suits best. Saqqara and Dahshur show the steps that led to Giza: Djoser's stepped tower, then Sneferu's bent and smooth-sided pyramids. Seeing them makes the Great Pyramid easier to understand, and the sites are usually much less crowded.
Yes. Avicon Travel is a Class "A" travel agency licensed by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism under License No. 1962 and registered since 2010. Our office and team are in Karnak, Luxor, so the guides, drivers and cars on this tour are our own local team, not a booking desk abroad.
