The greatest archaeological wonders in Egypt, the three Pyramids of Giza have become a symbol of the country. The largest, the Great Pyramid of Cheops, measures 230 metres along each side and is 137 metres high; it took 100,000 men twenty years to build.

Cairo is the largest city in Africa, a combination of an ancient Muslim city and a bustling modern metropolis. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life.

Aswan was a great trading centre in Pharaonic times and was especially famous for its stone quarries, the granite from which was used for obelisks, sarcophagi and the outer casing of the Mycerinos Pyramid.

Largely built by Ahmenotep III and Ramses IV, Luxor Temple has survived remarkably intact despite having been used as a fort by the Romans and later having had a mosque erected inside it.

Hieroglyphs were used for most of the surviving forms of written communication during the Old and Middle Egyptian eras. Images of heavenly bodies, natural phenomena, animals and plants, gods, humans, residences and households were used for 3,000 years for recording Egyptian.