Book Cairo's Big Sites the Smart Way
Bring only cash to Giza expecting to buy a ticket at the gate, and you may find yourself standing outside the fence while everyone with a Visa card walks straight through. Cairo’s attraction tours run on a handful of unmissable ticketed sites, and each one has its own rules for actually getting inside.
The Giza Pyramids Plateau
General admission covers the exterior of Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure, and the Great Sphinx for 700 EGP, roughly 15 US dollars. Entering the burial chambers costs extra and each pyramid is ticketed separately: around 1,500 EGP (about $30 USD) for the interior of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, and 200 EGP for Menkaure’s smaller chamber, which has been under restoration through 2026 and is not open every day. Buy interior tickets at the gate rather than ahead, so you pay only for what is actually open. Inside, a steep wooden-slatted ramp climbs the Grand Gallery to the King’s Chamber, where an empty red granite sarcophagus is the entire payoff, no mummy included. Pay by card at the gate or buy ahead through egymonuments.com.
The Grand Egyptian Museum
GEM sits 2 km north of the pyramids and holds the largest single-civilization collection on Earth: an 11-meter Ramesses II statue in the atrium, a Grand Staircase lined with 60 pharaonic statues, 12 galleries covering more than 24,000 artifacts, and the complete Tutankhamun treasure of over 5,000 objects. Adult tickets run $30 to $35 USD, and the museum requires booking online at tickets.gem.eg before you arrive. There is no reliable walk-in option here; showing up without a reservation risks a queue that eats your whole day.
National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
Over in Fustat, NMEC’s underground Royal Mummies Hall holds 22 kings and queens, including Ramesses II, Hatshepsut, and Seti I, inside climate-controlled vaults built to preserve them. Entry costs around 500 EGP, about 10 US dollars.
The Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square
The original 1902 neoclassical museum still holds the gold of Tanis and the treasures of Yuya and Thuya, for 550 EGP, about 11 US dollars, since the January 2026 increase. It is smaller and less air-conditioned than GEM, but its density of Old Kingdom pieces per room is hard to match.
The one rule that applies everywhere
Every ticket office listed here, plus Saqqara and the Citadel, has gone cashless. Bring a Visa or Mastercard, not a wallet of Egyptian pounds, or plan to buy online in advance.
Verdict: book GEM before you book anything else on this list, since it is the one site where showing up unprepared can cost you the whole visit; the rest can be handled with a card at the gate. If Saqqara is also on your itinerary, see the day trips guide for how it pairs with a Giza morning.