Ancient Egypt · The site atlas
Sites of Ancient Egypt
19 of the great places of ancient Egypt, from the Delta to Nubia: where each one is, who built what, what is left, and 49 of the inscriptions you can see there, in hieroglyphs with their readings and translations. They run from north to south, from the Mediterranean upstream to Nubia.
Where they are
Tap a dot for a short note. Most of the sites cluster in two places: around Memphis, the old capital near modern Cairo, and around Thebes (Luxor) in the south.
The sites, north to south
All 19 sites
The Delta
Where the Nile fans out to the sea: the find-spot of the Rosetta Stone and a royal city of the Third Intermediate Period.
Memphis and its pyramids
The old capital and its cemeteries along the desert edge, from Giza south to Dahshur.
Mennefer; earlier Inbu-hedj, "the White Walls" Egypt's capital for much of its history and the city of the god Ptah. Early DynasticOld KingdomMiddle KingdomNew KingdomThird IntermediateLate PeriodPtolemaic 2 inscriptions Dahshur Sneferu's Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid, where Egypt learned to build a true pyramid. Old KingdomMiddle Kingdom 2 inscriptions
Middle Egypt
The river valley between Memphis and Abydos, where Akhenaten built a new city.
Abydos and Dendera
Two holy places in the north of Upper Egypt: the cult center of Osiris and the temple of Hathor.
Abdju The burial ground of the first kings, Osiris's holy city, and Seti I's temple with its king list. PredynasticEarly DynasticMiddle KingdomNew Kingdom 3 inscriptions Dendera
Iunet The temple of the goddess Hathor, with Cleopatra on its back wall and a famous zodiac. PtolemaicRoman 3 inscriptions
Thebes: the east bank
The city of the living and the great temples of Amun.
Ipet-isut, "the most select of places" The great temple of Amun-Ra at Thebes, enlarged by king after king for two thousand years. Middle KingdomNew KingdomThird IntermediateLate PeriodPtolemaic 4 inscriptions Luxor Temple
Ipet-resyt, "the southern sanctuary" Amenhotep III's temple for the Opet festival, with the pylon and obelisk of Ramesses II. New Kingdom 3 inscriptions
Thebes: the west bank
Across the river, toward the sunset: the royal tombs and the kings' memorial temples.
Djeser-djeseru, "Holy of Holies" (Hatshepsut's temple) Hatshepsut's terraced temple under the cliffs, with the reliefs of the voyage to Punt. Middle KingdomNew Kingdom 3 inscriptions Ramesseum
"The House of Millions of Years of Usermaatre Setepenre" The memorial temple of Ramesses II, with the fallen colossus behind Shelley's "Ozymandias". New Kingdom 2 inscriptions Medinet Habu
Djamet Ramesses III's memorial temple, with the great reliefs of his war against the Sea Peoples. New Kingdom 2 inscriptions
Edfu to Aswan
Temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman centuries, ending at the First Cataract.
Behdet (Greek Apollinopolis) The temple of Horus, the best preserved temple in Egypt, on the classic plan. Ptolemaic 2 inscriptions · 3-D model Kom Ombo
Nubt (Greek Ombos) A double temple: one half for the crocodile god Sobek, one for Horus the Elder. Ptolemaic 2 inscriptions Philae The island temple of Isis, where the last known hieroglyphic inscription was carved in AD 394. PtolemaicRoman 3 inscriptions
Nubia
South of the First Cataract, where Ramesses II cut temples into the cliffs.
How the inscriptions are shown
Each inscription is drawn in TRB Hieroglyphs, the site's own hieroglyph font, with royal names in their cartouches. Under it are the transliteration, the Egyptian sounds in the Egyptologists' alphabet, and a translation, and you can open a sign-by-sign table. The texts are short and their readings standard; each card names its source. Where a text's signs or layout can't be shown faithfully yet, the card gives the reading only and says why. To learn to read them yourself, start with Middle Egyptian I, or try reading a cartouche in the Young Explorers course.
Dates follow Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000); before 664 BC they are approximate. Site coordinates were checked against Wikipedia.