Best time of day to visit the Giza pyramids

Plan the plateau early in your day, well ahead of the 4 p.m. cutoff. The opening hour depends on which official source you read: 7 a.m. on the Ministry's ticketing portal, 8 a.m. on its Giza site page. In Ramadan (the Muslim month of fasting) the gates close to new visitors at 3:30 p.m. To see the pyramids after dark, take the evening sound and light show.

Opening hours: two official versions

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities publishes the Giza plateau's hours in two places, and they don't match. Both are official, so plan around the later opening, 8 a.m., unless you confirm the earlier one. Neither version opens the plateau at dawn. Last entry, the latest time the gate lets visitors in, is 4 p.m. on the portal; the site page gives 4 p.m. as closing time.

The Ministry also advises arriving at least one hour before a site's closing time, so count back an hour from 4 p.m. Ramadan has its own hours at each site, published per site on the ticketing portal.

Where Giza sits in our tours' days

On every one of our full-day Cairo tours that includes Giza, the pyramids are the first stop after hotel pickup, followed by the Great Sphinx; on three of them the Valley Temple, part of King Chephren's funerary complex, and lunch come next. The order suits the hours. On the Grand Egyptian Museum and pyramids tour, the plateau comes first and the museum after lunch: the Grand Egyptian Museum's galleries take visitors until a 5 p.m. last entry, or 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Wednesdays, later than the plateau's 4 p.m. The Giza pyramids and Egyptian Museum tour and the Pyramids, Memphis and Saqqara tour open the day at Giza the same way, and so does pyramids and both museums in a day. If you only want the plateau, the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx half day, about 4 hours, covers the three pyramids, a viewpoint on the plateau, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple, which leaves room to go well before the 4 p.m. cutoff.

The times on our tour pages are approximate, so ask for the pickup time when you book. The hotel pickup guide gives the drive to the plateau from three Cairo hotel areas. If you are choosing between Giza and Saqqara for your day, see Giza pyramids or Saqqara.

Temperatures by month

Our climate source, World Meteorological Organization normals supplied by Egypt's national meteorological service, gives the average daily high and low for each month in Cairo. They are monthly averages, not forecasts or records, and not hour-by-hour readings, so they show the range of a typical day rather than the temperature at any one hour.

From June through September the average high is 33.1°C or more; from December through February it is 20.4°C or less.

After dark: the sound and light show

The plateau's day hours end at 4 p.m., but our pyramids sound and light show with dinner takes you back in the evening. A representative meets you at your hotel in Cairo or Giza. You watch a light and audio show on the Giza Plateau, narrated in the voice of the Sphinx, about the pyramids and the pharaohs, then have dinner of Egyptian food at a local restaurant. From Downtown or Zamalek the drive is 16.5 km, about 20 minutes without traffic. The tour page shows approximate times only, and our checked sources don't give the show's schedule, so ask for the pickup time when you book. In winter, note the lows in the table: 9.7°C on average in January. Other evening tours are on the evenings page.

A late-day ride with the pyramids in view

The quad bike ride at the Giza pyramids is offered as an afternoon or sunset ride, with no start time stated. It is about two hours of riding in the desert with the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus in view, after a safety briefing from a Bedouin desert guide. Its included list has no entrance ticket to the plateau.