Tourist Attractions & Monuments Egypt

Solitary and majestic, the mausoleum of Agha Khan III, buried in 1959 (2 years after his death), overlooks the Nile with its pared-down architecture, inspired by the Fatimid tombs of Cairo. Erected at the request of his wife Begum, whose house lies below, the ^48th Imam of the Ismailis (a dissident sect of Shiite Islam whose 4 million followers are mainly in Pakistan) rests here "in the name of a merciful and clement God", in a marble sarcophagus. The mausoleum is located on the other side of the Nile, which is particularly photogenic.

About a hundred tombs, including four underground ones, of great architectural beauty make up this funerary site. Some of the outer tombs have retained their elegant pillars, allowing archaeologists to learn more about the funerary rites of Alexandria. It is also known that the choice of burial was linked to the social status of the deceased and that children and adults received the same funeral treatment (burial, mummification, etc.)

If you follow the pavement path straight on through the sand, you'll come to a small temple from the Ptolemaic period, in fact a tomb from the ^4th century BC, that of Petosiris and his family. High priest of Thoth, Petosiris is said to have been a great religious reformer. On his death, he is said to have become the object of a cult himself.

His well-preserved tomb is well worth a visit, if only for its Hellenistic-style reliefs (on the right as you enter the vestibule). The guardians will not fail to suggest that you visit Isadora, a mummified young girl who is said to have drowned in the Nile. It's not a very pleasant sight.

Retracing your steps, turn left and head towards a sort of half-buried mastaba, to descend into crypts carved out of the rock.

You'll wander in semi-darkness along vast, perfectly ventilated corridors lined with niches in which thousands of baboon and ibis mummies have been found. This is hardly surprising, given that Hermopolis worshipped Thoth in both forms.

In 2018, new excavations uncovered over 40 well-preserved mummies in four Ptolemaic burial chambers (323 to 30 BC). 12 of these were children's, six were animals' and the rest were adult men and women. It would seem that they correspond to a middle-class family from the last pharaonic dynasty.

Scribe and astronomer of Amun under Thutmes IV, eighth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. The first room is arranged as a kind of tiny museum. There are scenes of ploughing and duck hunting in papyrus thickets, as well as men, barefoot in the vat, treading grapes. These scenes were inspired by Nakht's property in the Nile Delta. The statue of the deceased is a copy; as for the original, it lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the ship that transported it to the United States having sunk.

Mahmoud Eed, a Bedouin artist from Bawiti, presents traditional handicrafts and makes naive figurines. Inspired by the artist Badr from Sarafra, he shapes clay to represent life in the oasis. Dioramas about the region are also on display. A visit to his museum takes no more than 10 minutes. It is free, but if you want to leave something, or even buy a piece of work (the handmade silver jewellery could be a very nice souvenir gift) it will undoubtedly please him.

The most important site in English for outings, fashion restaurants and cinemas.

This grave is 76 m deep. Like that of his son Amenophis II, it is dug into the cliff escarpment. Designed on the same model, the father's tomb is less decorated than the son's. The burial chamber contains a series of graffiti representing the complete deities of the Book of Amdouat (740!) which must have preceded the work of the painter. It is the oldest tomb in the valley. Its funerary chamber is characterized by its cartouche shape. Its red quartzite sarcophagus is still in place, beautifully decorated.

Forum of the House of French from abroad. Interesting and in French.

Association created to promote the creative scene in Alexandria and support its young artists by offering a space for contemporary visual and performing arts. It is particularly keen to encourage the emergence of the underground art scene, which, like that of Beirut, is particularly fertile. Performances, workshops, exhibitions and a wide variety of events: its interactive program is aimed at a broad public. It's a place of culture, of cultures; a lively place, a vibrant place... A good place to meet Egyptian youth.

It is called Nahdat Misr or the Awakening of Egypt. The granite statue was carried out from 1920 to 1928 by the sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar. A large sphinx representing Eternal Egypt is lying next to a right woman, testifying, symbolizing the awakening of the country. It was not until 1955 that the statue was moved from Bab el-Hadid to this square between Cairo University and the eponymous bridge. It is one of the symbols of modern Egypt.

The Museum of Medicine is within the university hospital of Qasr el-Aïny. It was created following the long medical tradition that Clot Bey introduced in 1827 under the reign of Mohammed Ali Pasha. There are memories and personal objects that belonged to the French doctor.

It's fun to look at a map of Cairo from the Guide Joanne of 1900, or a good old Baedeker of 1908, to find the correspondence between the Cairo of today and the city of a century ago. At that time, Ramses Square and Ramses Avenue, which runs from behind the Egyptian Museum to the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, did not exist. Instead, there is a canal, the Ismaïleya Canal, which the Khedive had dug between 1864 and 1866 to provide fresh water for the digging of the Suez Canal. On the south side of the canal is a small square called Bab el-Hadid. The canal was finally filled in in 1921, while the adjacent districts of Fagalla and Abbasseyah had already been built.

The firstrailway station was inaugurated in 1856, just as the first rail link between Cairo and Alexandria was being completed, and a bridge linked the two banks of the canal. The present central station was built between 1891 and 1893, in neo-Arabic style and decorated with blue ceramics; it is close to the Railway Museum. In 1958, it served as the location for Youssef Chahine's film Central Station. The station was renovated again in 2011.

The terminus of the tramway to Heliopolis is on the same side of the avenue; the line was created in 1909 to link Cairo to the new city built by Baron Empain.

The el-Fath mosque was completed in 1990. It is close to late ^19th-century arcaded buildings flanking Rue Clot Bey, named after the famous physician to the Pasha of Egypt, and opened in 1872 to link the station to Avenue Mohammed Ali.

Ramses Square and Avenue lost the meaning of their name in July 2006, after the removal of the monumental statue of the Pharaoh, seriously threatened by pollution from the street and the 6-Octobre auto-bridge built in 1970, through which hundreds of thousands of cars pass every day. The statue of Ramses II was placed there in 1954; it is now in Giza, in the great Museum of Egyptian Art, part of which is due to open soon.

To theeast of Ramses Square, in the Fagalla district, are numerous churches and the headquarters of the Armenian and Greek Catholic patriarchates, as well as renowned French-speaking schools such as the Sainte-Famille run by the Jesuits and the Collège du Daher run by the Frères des Écoles chrétiennes.

Along Ramses Avenue and el-Galaa Street, which runs parallel to it towards the Nile, Egypt's major newspapers have taken up residence: El-Goumhorreya, El-Ahram, El-Akhbar.

The funerary temple of Ramses II, originally a splendid structure designed to remind his descendants of the glory and prestige of his reign, is today rather dilapidated, but still imposing.

The average archaeologically-inclined traveller will see almost as much of it from the outside as he will by entering the enclosure, and will thus make substantial savings. The facades of the two pylons, partly destroyed, depict the pharaoh's warlike exploits against the Hittites. Every year, from October to January, the Ramesseum conservation team resumes its excavation and restoration work. You can play your part in safeguarding the site by purchasing a Ramesseum excavation booklet, the proceeds of which are donated to the association in charge of promoting the site.

In the first courtyard between them, the upper part of a colossal pink granite statue of Ramses II lies on the ground. With its pedestal, it must have measured some 18 m, and its weight is estimated at at least 1,000 tonnes.

The great hypostyle hall preserves 29 columns (out of the original 48) supporting a few fragments of ceiling. It is followed by two chambers, the first of which retains a ceiling decorated with astronomical scenes. The brick stores behind the temple (clearly visible from the mound alongside the road) served as warehouses. They are the only visible remains of the extensive outbuildings that surrounded the Ramesseum. For Marguerite Yourcenar, it was the most romantic temple in Thebes.

Multiple amusement park, the most fashionable in Cairo. It is not advisable to go there at the weekend, as it is very crowded. The amusement park officially opens at 10 am, but the attractions only start running at 3 or 4 pm. There is not really logic, it will be necessary to be armed with patience! Children's attractions are often paid for even when buying a all-inclusive ticket. Many adult and children's games are closed due to breakdowns. The wait to play the games is not very long.

Fatimid tombs whose domes can still be seen are located behind the Nubia Museum, and a few metres from the unfinished Obelisk, the largest carved monolith lying on the ground. The marble plaques that adorned the tombs are mostly in Cairo, they bore the names of the deceased. The authorities do not appear to have marked the locations. The tombs are topped by a dome and small cement walls that delimit their rectangular contours. Some marble slabs have calligraphy on them.