Last Updated on March 18, 2023 by PowersToTravel
When I travel I want to take the best possible pictures of the amazing sights I visit. I’m not a professional photographer, but I do have a more-than-average-quality zoom camera. I don’t want to cut off people’s ankles, and I don’t want bits of strangers intruding into the frame, or to see the wonder of the world in shadow.
When I planned to visit the Pyramids of Giza, I Googled,
“When is the best time of day to photograph the pyramids?”
I found zilch to help me. Everyone will tell me what time of day to avoid crowds, or heat, but not when to get the sun lighting up the gorgeous angled sides of the pyramids, or the best color.
I did find most tours start at the Pyramids of Giza, then head out to Dahshur and Sakkara to see the older pyramids, and I figured experience had taught something to these tour operators, and that I would trust my own tour operator, Emo Tours, to be on top of whatever elements were most important.
Hint: I’m not providing the link to Emo Tours because I can’t recommend them. They are the single worst decision in an otherwise amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience in Egypt.
I hedged my bets however, by staying the night before in Giza.
Stay in Giza one and only one night
I had hoped to see the Pyramids in the late afternoon, and in the early morning, and that one of the two times would be optimal. Now, if that had only worked to plan… Sadly, Egypt Air rescheduled our flight from Amman Jordan that day from an arrival at noon (which would have put my arrival in Giza mid-afternoon), to late afternoon (which put our arrival in Giza after dark.)
Hint: If you book your international or domestic Egypt travel on Egypt Air, expect to be rescheduled at least once per flight before you actually fly.
In addition, I had read that it was possible to view the Sound and Light Show from the terrace of the Best View Pyramids Hotel. We booked the best room in the hotel, the Deluxe King Suite with direct views to the Pyramids. A short digression here: the hotel and room does have excellent, if not the Best Views, however the Deluxe room looks out over the bar and is very noisy, the breakfast is late and awful, that is, inedible, and the service terrible if you tell them you don’t want any of their offered tours. (Perhaps even if you do? Who knows.) In addition, although it says there is an elevator, it doesn’t reach to the top – it stops one floor below the bar level, and your room is one floor above the bar level – that’s two full flights of luggage dragging!
Hint: A hotel such as the Best View is a good idea to get maximum exposure (like the pun!) of the pyramids, but don’t bother to splurge on fancy rooms – just go to the terrace for the view.
Well, I’ll move on with my story. The disappointment came when for no known reason the Pyramid people chose to cancel the Sound and Light Show which is advertised to take place every night. We waited and waited with our dinner on the terrace. Finally we asked, “Where is the show?”
“Oh,” said the waiter, “I guess there is no show tonight.” And thus we wasted approximately two hundred dollars.
After that fitful night’s noisy sleep, we woke to dawn on the pyramids.
Morning is the best time to photograph the Great Pyramids of Giza
Hint: Why did I say “one and only one night in Giza”? Unless you are staying at a very fine hotel and don’t need to leave it for anything, you want to get out of that Best View hotel district as fast as you can. It is filthy. It is where the camels and horses are stabled; the streets are muddy and the flies are thick. You can’t safely walk out of your hotel.
We took our pictures, and headed down for the pitiful breakfast, and our guide.
After breakfast, the sun was up but I didn’t get as sharp a definition as I would like on the sides of the pyramids. They say it can be hazy in the early morning.
Hint: You need a strong zoom and steady camera to get a close-up clear picture from the Best View Hotel.
Our guide seemingly had not been told that we would not return to Giza that night, that we had arranged for a hotel in Zamalek (a residential area not far from downtown.) Even with this knowledge, he still insisted that we first drive to Dahshur, Memphis and Sakkara, and then return to Giza and then drive into Cairo itself. This is the route one might take if one were reading the pages of a text book, following the history of the pharoahs and their pyramid-building. However, we learned to our dismay, that this is not the route the tourist should take to get the best pictures. We had stayed in Giza on purpose to be able to be first at the pyramids in the morning to beat the crowds, not drive through the morning traffic away from them!
At Dahshur our guide led us to the Bent Pyramid. As I paused to take the picture I found I was looking directly into the sun:
Then he led us closer and while we were able to stand in the shade for his lecture, I found the photography uninspiring. I felt as if he had designed our time and positioning to avoid the scorching heat of the desert, which might have be acceptable if it had been hot, but it was November and it certainly wasn’t!
I turned to look behind me, at the Red Pyramid, to find the sun bleaching out the completely flat surface:
Lesson Learned for Dahshur and the Bent and Red Pyramids: The Best Photography is in the afternoon
As we drove away from this very unsatisfactory experience, the road curved around the Red Pyramid and I was able to see it in good light.
“Stop the car!” I implored.
The guide seemed unhappy but did so. I was able to get a good picture:
So the bottom line for the Red Pyramid is that the road curves around the pyramid and allows for a good picture in the morning, and probably a good picture in the afternoon.
There are no good pictures of the Bent Pyramid in the morning.
Our guide seemed uninterested in my photography success. Would he have been interested in photography success if my husband had been the photographer? I got the impression he might have been. All our guide cared about at this point was getting us to the pyramid and providing the lecture, which honestly, I could have read, and have since read, on Wikipedia.
Next we went to Memphis, which is not a pyramid, but certainly a worthwhile stop.
Then we went to Saqqara and the Step Pyramid of Djoser. By this time it was about 11am and the light was stronger. Here is the pyramid from where the guide positioned us:
Here it is from the road where once again I had to force our guide to stop for a picture. It is a similar position, but with the little bit of greenery it provides some relief from the bleaching of the desert:
But it is equally clear to me that there are two access roads with two different aspects, so if the view from one is too flat, the other might give definition to the angles. The guide of course had no interest in showing us multiple views. I’m pretty sure we parked at the “Pyramid of Djoser Parking Lot” on the map above.
Morning and mid-day are best for photography at Saqqara and the Step Pyramid of Djoser
Hint: It was now that we finally learned what motivated our guide: it was not our well-being or our pleasure with the visit, or even his opportunity to show off his licensed Egyptologist skills. It was the commissions he would receive from taking us to shops and tourist restaurants. Finally, after stops at the Carpet Shop, the Papyrus Shop and lunch, we returned to the Great Pyramids of Giza.
At this point in the day, perhaps 2-3pm?, the front of the Great Pyramid was in shade:
Shade would have been good if we had been avoiding heat, and the crowds were less than mid-morning, I’m sure. But so was the quality of the pictures.
We drove to the “Panoramic View of the Pyramids” (label on Google maps), a distance to the west. At this point the pyramids were in direct late afternoon sun. I’ve seen pictures on Google which were clearly taken from this spot in the morning, and although the left side of the pyramids are shadowed, the southern side is bright, and the angles are clear.
The last item of the day was a view of the Sphinx, his face now in total shade:
The best time of day for photography of the Great Pyramids of Giza is morning
It is probably very clear to you by now that I felt that our guide was worse than useless, that he detracted from our experience and ruined what would otherwise have been a well documented Bucket-List experience.
What would I have done if I had known these lessons learned? My instant answer is “hired a taxi”. But at the time I didn’t know where I was going or what time of day to do it.
I guess I still would have hired a tour guide for the day and made it clear the order of events and my priorities. That can be difficult because although Egypt has a long tradition of English-speaking tourism, the guides’ pronunciation and English skills seemed lacking. Sometimes I felt that to be on purpose, so that they didn’t have to do what we wanted them to; we would just give up asking them to stop for something.
I also would have spent more time at the Great Pyramid – perhaps taken an overpriced camel ride, or a carriage ride – something to prolong our experience and give us more angles for photography.
As it was, we walked from the car to the pyramid and back. By this point in the day it was not too hot, but we were too tired to try to walk further on the plateau in search of angles.
I had previously worked with the sales person at the tour company in detail regarding our itinerary, and he had given us the itinerary in writing which said we would first go to Giza, then Dashshur and Sakkara. But the guide over-rode the published itinerary and said his was better. It wasn’t for us!
