Egypt

The land of the Nile, where the oldest wonders on earth still stand under the sun. Read the pyramids and the Sphinx on the Giza plateau, thread the medieval lanes of Islamic Cairo and the quiet old Christian quarter beside a Roman fort, walk the colossal temple-city of Karnak and the hidden royal tombs of Thebes at Luxor, and follow the Mediterranean memory of Alexandria from its new library to the site of the lost lighthouse. Some of the most tour-pressured, tout-heavy sites in the world, and all the better taken at your own pace, on your own schedule, lingering or moving on as you please.