Egypt 8-Day Itinerary: Cairo, the Nile, Luxor and Aswan

Built between 2560 and 2500 BC for pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Giza pyramids are the only Wonder of the Ancient World still standing. Khufu's pyramid originally stood 146 meters tall, a world record for nearly 4,000 years.

You can enter one of the inner chambers with a separate ticket, but the space is tight and there is not much to see beyond bare stone walls. Arrive in the early morning to beat the heat and the crowds.

Carved from a single block of limestone, the Sphinx has a lion's body and a face tradition links to Khafre. The broken nose, subject of legends about Napoleon, was actually already damaged centuries earlier, likely due to religious vandalism in the 14th century.

Until the Grand Egyptian Museum fully opens in Giza, the historic museum on Tahrir Square still holds the country's most complete collection, including the gold mask and treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb, found intact in 1922.

Set aside at least 2 hours and hire a local guide: the labels are sparse and outdated.

Built in the 12th century by Saladin to defend Cairo from the Crusaders, the Citadel houses the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, raised in the 19th century in Ottoman style with domes and two slender minarets.

From the mosque's courtyard, the view spans all of Islamic Cairo and, on clear days, the Giza pyramids on the horizon.

Founded in 1382, Khan el-Khalili is a maze of covered lanes with goldsmiths, spices stacked in colorful pyramids and perfume sellers. Haggling is expected and part of the experience.

Late afternoon is the best time, when the wrought-metal lamps light up and the streets get livelier.

About 30 km from Cairo, Saqqara holds the Step Pyramid, designed by the architect Imhotep around 2650 BC as six stacked mastabas, the oldest large-scale stone structure in the world.

Capital of Ancient Egypt for nearly three millennia, Memphis is now an open-air museum with a colossal reclining statue of Ramesses II and an alabaster sphinx, surrounded by palm trees.

Built over 2,000 years by successive pharaohs, Karnak is the largest religious complex ever raised. The Great Hypostyle Hall holds 134 columns up to 21 meters tall, so wide that five people holding hands cannot circle one.

Set aside at least 3 hours; the sound and light show at night is a different way to see the temple, narrated with Egyptian mythology.

Linked to Karnak by a nearly 3 km avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, Luxor Temple was dedicated to the cult of royal power. A 13th-century mosque was built over part of the ruins and is still in use.

Visit at dusk: the night lighting brings out the reliefs and the heat drops sharply after sunset.

On Luxor's west bank, the Valley of the Kings holds 63 tombs cut into the rock between 1550 and 1070 BC, most already looted in antiquity. The exception was Tutankhamun's, found intact by Howard Carter in 1922.

The standard ticket grants access to three tombs of your choice; Tutankhamun's and a few others charge an extra fee.

The only Egyptian funerary temple built to honor a woman, Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh for about 20 years. The temple, with three colonnaded terraces carved straight into the cliff, has inspired modern architects for its symmetry.

Dozens of balloons take off before dawn from Luxor's west bank, flying over the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the green fields along the Nile for about 45 minutes.

Booking ahead is required and takeoff depends on wind conditions; bring a jacket, the air before sunrise is cold even in summer.

All that remains of Amenhotep III's funerary temple, destroyed by an earthquake, are these two seated 18-meter statues. In antiquity, cracks made one of them emit a sound at dawn, drawing Roman tourists who believed they were hearing the voice of the Greek hero Memnon.

Preserved under sand for centuries until it was excavated in the 19th century, the Temple of Edfu is one of the most complete in Egypt, with a 36-meter pylon and a granite statue of the falcon god Horus at the entrance.

Built on a bend of the Nile where crocodiles used to sun themselves, the double Temple of Kom Ombo has two symmetrical axes, one for Sobek, the crocodile god, and one for Horus. A small museum next door displays crocodile mummies found on site.

Completed in 1970 with Soviet support, the Aswan High Dam controls the Nile's annual floods and created Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial reservoirs in the world. The view from the top spans the lake on one side and the green valley on the other.

Dedicated to the goddess Isis, the Temple of Philae was dismantled stone by stone and reassembled on Agilkia Island between 1972 and 1980, in an international operation to save it from the flood caused by the High Dam.

Ramesses II had two temples carved into the rock in 1264 BC, the larger one guarded by four seated 20-meter statues of himself. Between 1964 and 1968, an international team cut the temples into blocks and reassembled them 65 meters higher up, to escape the Lake Nasser flood.

Twice a year, on February 22 and October 22, the sun aligns with the entrance and lights up the statues in the innermost sanctuary, a phenomenon calculated by the ancient Egyptian engineers.

Along the banks of the Nile in Aswan, Nubian villages paint their houses in bright blue, yellow and orange. A sunset felucca ride, the wind carrying the boat with no engine, is the traditional way to get there.