Saqqara Step Pyramid & Memphis

هرم زوسر المدرج، سقارة

Where pyramids began: the Step Pyramid and an empty desert

Hours

9am–5pm, winter to 4pm (per Wikivoyage)

Tickets

Foreigners: general entry incl. Imhotep Museum EGP 600, Djoser interior EGP 280, Serapeum EGP 340, inclusive ticket EGP 1,000; students half (per Wikivoyage, April 2026). Memphis is separate; check on site

Address

The desert ridge above Saqqara village, south of Giza; the Memphis (Mit Rahina) open-air museum is in the palm-grove village to the east

Djoser's Step Pyramid predates Giza by about a century. Its six stacked tiers look like a first draft of a pyramid, and you can go inside on a separate ticket. In the nobles' tombs nearby, 4,000-year-old reliefs still have their colour: herding cattle, fishing, butchering, all surprisingly lively. Far fewer people than Giza, so you get the desert mostly to yourself. Stop at Memphis on the way back for the reclining colossus of Ramses II and you've filled half a day.