Pyramids of Giza Tickets and Entrance Fee 2026

Pyramids of Giza admission prices 2026

Prices in Egyptian pounds (EGP; EGP 100 is roughly US$2). Every ticket for a pyramid interior or a tomb is valid only together with the plateau ticket of the same day; the Grand Egyptian Museum has its own ticket.

* Inside the Great Pyramid: the Ministry portal egymonuments.gov.eg and the tariff list of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities say EGP 1,000; several 2026 guides report a rise to EGP 1,500 and a daily cap, without official confirmation. Budget for 1,500 and be pleased with 1,000. Khafre and Menkaure appear only in the tariff list of November 2024. The “Student” column applies to valid student ID up to age 24; children under 6 are free, older children pay full price. GEM prices follow the booking form of tickets.gem.eg (“Arab or Other Nationality”, adults over 24, children 6 to 12, students 13 to 24); from 1 November 2026 the museum board raises the foreigner price by the equivalent of US$5. Show prices from the operator. As of 25 September 2026; EGP 100 is roughly US$2, and the rate moves.

Inside the Great Pyramid: is it worth it, and which pyramid otherwise?

• Inside Khufu (EGP 1,000) if you want to stand in the Grand Gallery once in your life: The route goes through the robbers’ tunnel of Caliph al-Ma’mun, then bent double up the ascending passage, barely a metre high and 40 metres long, into the eight-metre-high Grand Gallery and the granite King’s Chamber with the empty sarcophagus. No paintings, no inscriptions, just stone, heat and stale air; anyone claustrophobic stays outside. The chamber is closed from 12 to 1 pm. Photography has been allowed since 2021, without flash.
• Inside Khafre (EGP 280) if you want the experience for a quarter of the price: A descending passage and a rock-cut burial chamber with the sarcophagus and Giovanni Belzoni’s inscription of 1818. Shorter, less crowded, as tight as Khufu. Some years it closes for restoration; then Menkaure opens instead, the Ministry alternates.
• Tomb of Meresankh III (EGP 200) if you want colour: The mastaba of Khufu’s granddaughter and Khafre’s wife in the Eastern Cemetery, found by George Reisner in 1927, has the best-preserved painted reliefs on the plateau: boats, craftsmen, musicians and, in the north wall, ten life-size statues of women. Rarely more than a handful of visitors.
• Workers’ Cemetery (EGP 400, five people or more): The tombs of the pyramid builders south of the Sphinx, excavated since 1990, with the mud-brick tombs of overseers; for groups and the truly interested only.
• Climbing the pyramids is forbidden and prosecuted; you may step onto the first courses of the Great Pyramid beside the entrance for a photo, no further.

Pyramids of Giza opening hours

The plateau hours are as printed on the ticket portal egymonuments.com; the Ministry’s plateau page says 8 am to 4 pm, the tariff list 7 am to 5 pm. Take 7 am as the ticket-office opening in summer, 8 am in winter, and be inside at least an hour before closing, as the portal requires. Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year (2027 roughly 8 February to 9 March). Egypt has had daylight saving time again since 2023, from late April to late October. The Grand Egyptian Museum sells entry slots of 8:30 to 11 am, 11 am to 1 pm, 1 to 3 pm and 3 to 5 pm; the slot limits only your entry, not how long you stay. The evening opening on Wednesday and Saturday is the calmest time for Tutankhamun.

Buying tickets: online at egymonuments.com, by card at the gate, GEM online only

Plateau and pyramids: The Ministry’s ticket portal, egymonuments.com, sells the plateau ticket online with a QR code; the add-on tickets for the pyramid interiors are bought at the ticket office in the Fayoum Road visitor centre, as is the plateau ticket if you do not pre-book. The offices take cards only (Visa or Mastercard); cash is no longer accepted according to consistent reports; have your student ID ready. The plateau never sells out, but there are queues in the morning.

Grand Egyptian Museum: Only at tickets.gem.eg, the one official ticketing site: date, entry slot, nationality, number, card payment, ticket by e-mail. Tickets are personal, non-transferable and non-refundable; ID is checked at the entrance. For the evening openings on Wednesday and Saturday and the holiday weeks the morning slots go early. If you want it simpler, take a package with a guide that combines plateau and museum in one day and handles the drive through Cairo traffic.

Note: At the entrance, at the Sphinx and on the way to the viewpoint, men will approach you as “official guides”, “ticket inspectors” or camel handlers; the real ticket checkers wear uniforms and stand at the turnstiles. Common tricks: “the pyramid is closed today, I’ll take you to the other entrance”, the free photo on the camel that costs money to get down from, and the ride where the way back is extra. Agree price and duration before mounting, include the return, pay in pounds with the exact amount. Drones are banned throughout Egypt without a Ministry of Defence permit and are confiscated at the airport.

Grand Egyptian Museum: Tutankhamun, the Khufu ship and a day with both

• What is inside: The Grand Egyptian Museum on the edge of the plateau, fully open since 1 November 2025, is at about 50 hectares the largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilisation. The ticket covers the Grand Hall with the colossus of Ramesses II, the Grand Staircase, twelve main galleries, the two Tutankhamun galleries with the complete tomb treasure together in one place for the first time, and the Khufu Boats Museum. No surcharge for Tutankhamun; photography without flash is allowed, except in parts of the Tutankhamun galleries.
• The Khufu ship: The 42-metre cedar boat, found by Kamal el-Mallakh in 1954 in a pit beside the Great Pyramid, stood until 2021 in a museum right next to the pyramid. It was driven to the GEM in 48 hours; the old boat museum on the plateau is closed, and its separate ticket no longer exists. The second boat has been reassembled in front of the public since 2026, from 1,650 pieces, planned to take four years.
• A day with both: Plateau at 7 or 8 am while light and air are still soft, three hours with the Great Pyramid inside and the Sphinx, around noon an Uber for the two kilometres to the museum, lunch in the complex, entry slot 1 to 3 pm, galleries until 6 pm, on Wednesday and Saturday until 9 pm. The other way round, museum first, you end up on the plateau in the midday heat. With two days, give the museum half a day and the plateau a whole one.
• Price and increase: EGP 1,500 for adults, 750 for children aged 6 to 12 and students up to 24, under-6s free; Egyptians 200. In April 2026 the museum board decided to raise prices from 1 November 2026: foreigners by the equivalent of US$5, Egyptians to EGP 220. The museum’s own guided tours are a separate ticket type in English and Arabic.

Pyramids of Giza with a guide: from Cairo, with the museum or with the Great Pyramid inside

Nothing is labelled on the plateau, and for many visitors the touts at the entrance are the most tiring part of the day. In three hours a guide explains why the pyramids stand here, how they were built and what the Sphinx has to do with Khafre, keeps the camel handlers away and knows which pyramid is open. The packages also solve the drive through Cairo and, at the museum, the entry slot. Almost all tours run in English; choose the language when booking.

Affiliate links to GetYourGuide: we may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. Prices, languages and availability change; the provider’s listing prevails. Selection checked on 25 September 2026.

How to get to the pyramids from Cairo

The pyramids stand on the western edge of Giza, about 13 km south-west of central Cairo, where the city turns into desert. The easiest way is Uber or Careem: fixed prices in the app, air conditioning, no haggling; guides quote EGP 150 to 250 from Giza metro station and correspondingly more from downtown, 45 to 90 minutes depending on traffic. Enter the visitor centre on Fayoum Road as your destination, not “Pyramids”, or you will end up in the village of Nazlet el-Semman by the Sphinx. Black taxis run without meters; fix the price first.

The metro does not reach the plateau: Line 2 ends at Giza (El Giza station), still five to eight kilometres away by taxi or Uber; Line 3 from the airport has ended at Cairo University since May 2024 and will only be extended towards the pyramids around 2028. From the airport allow 60 to 90 minutes by Uber. If you stay in a Giza hotel with a pyramid view, you walk to the Sphinx. The Grand Egyptian Museum lies two kilometres north at Al Remaya Square on the Alexandria Desert Road; between museum and plateau an Uber takes ten minutes, and there is no official shuttle.

Entrance, visitor centre, electric buses, camels

Fayoum Road entrance

Since the 2025 overhaul by Orascom Pyramids Entertainment the main entrance, south of the pyramids on the road to Fayoum: visitor centre, ticket offices, parking for 1,200 cars and 200 coaches, toilets, cafés. The old entrance by the Mena House at the top of Pyramids Road has been replaced; the pedestrian access at the bottom by the Sphinx in Nazlet el-Semman is still mentioned in guides, check on the spot.

Electric buses

45 electric buses run every five minutes on a hop-on hop-off loop to seven stops: the Great Pyramid, Khafre, Menkaure, the viewpoint in the desert, the Sphinx. Included in the plateau ticket; private cars and coaches stay at the visitor centre. On foot the loop is about five kilometres.

Camels and horses

The operators were moved into fixed zones in 2025, for instance at the viewpoint; the ride from there back to the Sphinx is the classic stretch. There is no official tariff: agree price, duration and return first, or book the tour with a camel ride, and the price is fixed.

Sphinx and Valley Temple

You see the Sphinx from the terrace by Khafre’s Valley Temple, the route all guided tours take; the Sphinx enclosure itself is open only to private groups after closing, for a fee. The viewpoint in the desert, where all three pyramids line up, is to the south; our photo above was taken there.

The entrance, bus stops, viewpoint, Sphinx, tombs and museum are on our map of the pyramids of Giza. How Khufu had the pyramid built, why the white casing is missing and what happened in 1798 is told in our history of the pyramids.

Heat, clothing, best time to visit, an evening at the Sphinx and the visa

From October to April Giza is pleasant: in December and January around 20 °C by day, 9 at night, clear skies. From June to August the plateau passes 35 °C by midday, in the shade, of which there is none; then the visit belongs in the first hour after the ticket office opens. Clothing: light, pale, long for sun and respect, hat, sunscreen, closed shoes for sand and stone steps. In Ramadan (2027 roughly 8 February to 9 March) the plateau closes earlier and the restaurants around it open only in the evening.

The sound and light show by the state operator Misr Sound and Light floods the Sphinx and the pyramids for an hour every evening, with the voice of the Sphinx as narrator; headsets in ten languages. Regular US$20, children aged 6 to 12 US$11, VIP seat US$26, booking on soundandlight.show or as a package with transfer. Start time according to guides 7 pm in the winter half-year and 7.30 pm in summer; a table on one of the rooftop terraces in Nazlet el-Semman shows the same illumination for free. The visa: EU, UK and US citizens get it on arrival at the bank counter before passport control for US$30 in cash (since 1 March 2026, previously 25) or in advance as an e-visa for US$30 on visa2egypt.gov.eg; the passport must be valid for six months.