The oldest large stone building on earth, a necropolis older than Giza, and the flattened capital of Old Kingdom Egypt.
Saqqara was the necropolis of Memphis, the capital of Egypt for most of the Old Kingdom, and it was in use for over three thousand years — longer than almost any burial ground anywhere.
It is older, larger and far less crowded than Giza.
The Step Pyramid
The Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2670 BC by the architect Imhotep, is the oldest large-scale cut-stone structure in the world. It began as a conventional flat mastaba tomb and was enlarged in six stages into a stepped tower about 60 metres high — the first pyramid, and the moment monumental stone architecture begins.
Imhotep was later deified, which is rare for an architect.
A fourteen-year restoration finished in 2020, and the interior is now open: you can descend into the burial chamber and the corridors beneath, which was not possible for decades.
The enclosure around it is enormous, with a colonnaded entrance hall, dummy chapels and a heb-sed court — buildings made of stone imitating the reed and timber structures they replaced, right down to carved bundles of reeds.
The Serapeum
An underground gallery holding twenty-four granite sarcophagi, each weighing around seventy tonnes, cut for the sacred Apis bulls — animals worshipped as manifestations of Ptah and mummified on death.
The scale and precision of the boxes is startling and has generated a great deal of speculative nonsense online. What is not in dispute is that they are extraordinary objects.
Reopened after restoration and worth the extra ticket.
The tombs
The Mastaba of Ti, the Tomb of Mereruka and the Tomb of Kagemni have painted reliefs of daily life — cattle, fishing, boatbuilding, harvest, dancing — of a quality and liveliness that the royal monuments do not have. These are the best thing at Saqqara and most visitors skip them.
Discoveries continue: sealed coffin caches, animal mummies and workshops have been found here through the 2010s and 2020s, and it remains an active excavation.
Memphis
Three kilometres away, the capital itself is almost entirely gone — mudbrick, dismantled and farmed over. What survives is an open-air museum with a colossal fallen Ramesses II in limestone, ten metres long, lying in a purpose-built shelter, and an alabaster sphinx.
It takes forty minutes and is worth it for the statue.
Dahshur
A further ten kilometres south, and much less visited. The Bent Pyramid, whose angle changes halfway up because the builders realised it was too steep, and the Red Pyramid, the first successful true pyramid, both built for Sneferu, Khufu’s father.
The Red Pyramid can be entered and is usually almost empty.
Practicalities
Hire a car and driver for the day. Uber will not wait; a negotiated day rate with a driver is standard and cheap.
Separate tickets at each site, and additional tickets for the Serapeum and some tombs. Bring cash.
There is no shade. Water, hat, and an early start — this is a full day outdoors and from May to September it is punishing.
