Egyptian site names and spellings: Saqqara or Sakkara?

Saqqara and Sakkara are two Latin spellings of the same place name; this site writes Saqqara, as the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' ticketing portal does. Many Egyptian sites carry two or three names: an Arabic place name, a Greek or English one, and the name of the king who built them. The tables below match the variants you will meet on tour pages and tickets.

Saqqara or Sakkara?

Both point to the same place, the site of the Step Pyramid of King Djoser. On this site it is Saqqara, and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities uses the same spelling for Saqqara, the Serapeum of Saqqara and the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara. Memphis, visited on the same day, appears on the portal as Memphis (Mit Rahina).

The pyramid kings: Egyptian and Greek names

The tours use both sets. Pyramids, Memphis and Saqqara names Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure; the Grand Egyptian Museum and the pyramids tour says Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus. They are the same three pyramids at Giza.

One place, two names

Names that sound alike but are different places

• Egyptian Museum and Grand Egyptian Museum. The Egyptian Museum is in Tahrir Square, Cairo; the Grand Egyptian Museum is on El Remayah Square, on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road near the Giza pyramids. The Tutankhamun galleries are at the Grand Egyptian Museum.
• The two Serapeums. The Serapeum of Saqqara and the Serapeum in Alexandria, where Pompey's Pillar stands among the ruins of the Serapeum temple complex, are separate sites, each with its own entry on the Ministry's portal.
• Deir al-Baramus and St Macarius. Two different monasteries: the Monastery of St Macarius is Deir Abu Makar. The Wadi El Natrun tour visits Deir al-Baramus.
• Gharb Soheil and Sehel. Gharb Soheil is a Nubian village on the Nile's west bank; Sehel is an island.
• Old Cairo and Islamic Cairo. Khan El Khalili is in historic Islamic Cairo; "Old Cairo" usually means the Coptic area. Each is a half day on this site: Coptic Cairo and Islamic Cairo and Al-Muizz Street; how they compare is in Coptic Cairo or Islamic Cairo.
• Two Dolphin Houses. On this site, Dolphin House is a boat day from Hurghada to the Dolphin House reef, and Samadai, also called Dolphin House, is a boat day from Marsa Alam: two trips from two resorts.
• Two citadels. In Cairo, the Citadel is the Salah al-Din Citadel; in Alexandria, the Citadel of Qaitbay is a 15th-century fortress on the coast.

For the words on a booking page, see the Egypt day tour glossary; for Giza the plateau and Giza the city, Giza plateau, Giza city and Cairo explained.