Tours to Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur

7 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

The Giza pyramids are only the northern end of a much larger cemetery. UNESCO lists the whole stretch from the Giza plateau south to Saqqara and Dahshur as one World Heritage site, Memphis and its Necropolis, with more than 38 pyramids. From the plateau, Saqqara is about 20 kilometres by road, roughly half an hour without traffic, and Dahshur about 28 kilometres. Memphis, the ancient capital, is at Mit Rahina.

The ministry describes Saqqara as a vast necropolis of Memphis and calls it an open-air museum. Its best-known monument is the Step Pyramid of Djoser; the Serapeum, where the Apis bulls were buried, and the Imhotep Museum are part of the same site. At Dahshur, according to the ministry, King Sneferu's first attempt at a pyramid was left unfinished and deformed: the Bent Pyramid. The Red Pyramid nearby was completed. The Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III stands there too, in poor condition.

All three sites, or Giza as well

The tour with site options lets you build the day: one, three or four sites, choosing from Giza, Memphis with its Ramses colossus and alabaster sphinx, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur. It lasts three to eight hours depending on what you pick, and a VIP option adds a felucca. Shared departures run in English only; private ones are available in several languages. Lunch comes with the VIP option or as an add-on.

Reviewers praise the guides and the freedom to decide which tombs to enter. In September 2026 one guest reported being left in a carpet shop without warning and not being taken to the Red Pyramid. Write down the sites you want when you book, and say that you want no shops.

If you only have one day in Cairo, the combined tour with Giza covers the Step Pyramid, Memphis with the Ramses colossus, lunch, the three Giza pyramids, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple in eight hours, transfers included. Dahshur is not in its programme, although its web address suggests otherwise. Another eight-hour tour with lunch covers Giza, Saqqara and Memphis, and its reviewers often describe the day as rushed. Its group version collects guests at fixed meeting points, the Ramses Hilton and the Giza Pyramids View Inn, and asks you to allow 15 to 30 minutes of waiting.

The private tour without bazaars

The private Saqqara and Dahshur tour spells out its timings. It plans an hour at the Step Pyramid, two hours around the complex of Unas with the tomb of Kagemni and the pyramid of Teti, and two hours at the Red and Bent Pyramids, with lunch on a local farm. The guide reads the hieroglyphic texts on site and says the tour wastes no time in bazaars. Water, snacks, the driver and parking are included, the entrance tickets are not, and the operator asks for a moderate level of fitness. It runs six to eight hours.

Shorter days and the Red Pyramid

The private day trip with the Red Pyramid lasts four to six hours. It starts at the Step Pyramid, continues about 8 miles to Dahshur, where you step inside the Red Pyramid and see the Bent Pyramid, and ends another 6 miles away at Memphis. Entrance fees for all three sites, a restaurant lunch and water are included; so is a shopping tour in Cairo; say when you book if you would rather skip it. It is not suitable for wheelchair users.

A five-hour tour of Memphis, Saqqara and Dahshur leaves out Giza. Its entry fees cover only the basic area of each site, and lunch is not included. The group version meets at the Ramses Hilton or the operator's office in Giza, and the operator warns of delays of 30 to 45 minutes in traffic; reviewers report late pickups, in one case 1.5 hours. A seven-hour trip pairs the Step Pyramid with the Bent Pyramid and Memphis, and a private five-hour trip covers all three sites.

Choosing a tour

Start with the sites. If Dahshur matters to you, check that the programme names it; the combined tour with Giza leaves it out, and one reviewer of another tour did not get to the Red Pyramid. Then look at what is included. The private tour with the Red Pyramid includes the entrance fees for all three sites and lunch, the five-hour tour without Giza only the basic area of each site, and the private tour without bazaars no tickets at all, which means paying at each gate. The tour with site options adds tickets only for the sites you select.

Then think about pace. Tours that add Giza fit five or six monuments into eight hours, including the drive and lunch, and reviewers of one of them found it rushed. A day that leaves Giza out gives Saqqara and Dahshur room, and Memphis, with its colossus of Ramses II and the alabaster sphinx, fits in between. Several tours are not suitable for wheelchair users or people with limited mobility.

Opening hours and the time of year

According to the official ticket portal, egymonuments.com, Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis all open at 8am and take their last visitors at 4pm, as of November 2026. If your tour leaves the tickets to you, the portal lists the Saqqara area at 600 EGP for foreign adults and Dahshur and Memphis at 200 EGP each, with half price for students. From May to September the average daily high in Cairo reaches 32 to 35 °C. In winter, sunset comes at about 5pm, an hour after the last entry at Dahshur.

For background on each site, see Saqqara and Memphis and Dahshur.

For the royal tombs of the New Kingdom at Luxor, further up the Nile, see visitvalleyofthekings.com.