Middle East Travel Guide

The Middle East is the cradle of human civilization — the region where writing was invented, where the world's three great monotheistic faiths took root, and where some of history's most enduring monuments still stand. From the Great Pyramids of Giza to the rock-cut temples of Abu Simbel, from the Ottoman grandeur of Istanbul to the layered millennia of Jerusalem's Old City, this region rewards travelers who approach it with genuine curiosity and intellectual engagement. The hospitality is extraordinary, the food is some of the best in the world, and the monuments are genuinely awe-inspiring.

Egypt & the Nile

Egypt is one of the world's most compelling travel destinations — a country where monuments of almost incomprehensible antiquity still dominate the landscape, and where the story of human civilization can be read in stone across three thousand years of continuous history. No photograph, textbook, or documentary fully prepares a first-time visitor for the scale of what Egypt actually contains.

Cairo is the starting point. The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx rise from the desert plateau on the city's western edge — as overwhelming in person as they are in every photograph, and startlingly close to the modern city. The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square holds the world's greatest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the entirety of Tutankhamun's treasure: the golden death mask, the gilded throne, the canopic jars, the chariots. The forthcoming Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near the Giza plateau promises to display even more of the collection in state-of-the-art facilities.

A Nile cruise is the most efficient and atmospheric way to see Upper Egypt. Sailing between Luxor and Aswan — a journey of roughly 200km — passes through the most concentrated collection of ancient monuments in the world. Luxor, built on the site of ancient Thebes, contains the colossal Karnak Temple complex (the largest religious monument ever constructed) and Luxor Temple, still embedded in the heart of the modern city. The West Bank holds the Valley of the Kings — the royal necropolis where pharaohs from Thutmose I to Ramesses XI were buried in elaborately painted tombs cut deep into the limestone — along with the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon.

Aswan is a beautiful Nile town of Nubian culture and granite islands, worth at least two days. The final excursion to Abu Simbel — the two great rock-cut temples of Ramesses II, relocated in a feat of international engineering in the 1960s to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser — is among the most extraordinary engineering and archaeological stories of the twentieth century, and the temples themselves are genuinely magnificent.

Turkey

Turkey is one of the most culturally rich countries in the world — the successor state to the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and before them the crossroads of Greek, Persian, Roman, and Hittite civilizations. It is also one of the most visitor-friendly and culinarily excellent destinations in the region: Turkish hospitality is legendary, the food is outstanding, and the landscapes — from volcanic Cappadocia to the Aegean coast — are genuinely spectacular.

Istanbul is one of the world's great cities: a metropolis of fifteen million that straddles Europe and Asia, where the Byzantine Hagia Sophia (now a mosque, previously a museum for decades) and the Ottoman Blue Mosque face each other across Sultanahmet Square. The Grand Bazaar's four thousand shops have been selling carpets, spices, jewelry, and ceramics since the fifteenth century. The Topkapi Palace, the Archaeological Museum, a Bosphorus cruise, and an evening in the Beyoglu district (Istiklal Avenue, the Pera neighborhood) provide a rich immersion in both historical and contemporary Turkish culture.

Cappadocia, in central Anatolia, is a landscape unlike anywhere else on earth: millennia of volcanic eruption and erosion have carved the rock into fairy chimneys, underground cities, and cave churches decorated with Byzantine frescoes. A hot air balloon flight over the Göreme Valley at sunrise is one of the most memorable experiences available anywhere in the world. Ephesus, on the Aegean coast, is the best-preserved ancient Roman city in the eastern Mediterranean — a street grid, marble temples, and a library facade that convey Roman urban life with remarkable vividness. The Turquoise Coast (the Turkish Riviera) rewards those who stay: Lycian ruins overlook crystal coves accessible by traditional gulet (wooden sailing vessel), and the small towns of Kaş, Kalkan, and Göcek have excellent restaurants and boutique hotels.

Israel & the Holy Land

Israel packs an extraordinary density of history, archaeology, religious significance, and contemporary culture into a very small country. For travelers of any faith — or none — it is a genuinely moving destination: a place where the ancient and the modern exist in permanent, sometimes tense, always fascinating proximity.

Jerusalem is the emotional and historical centerpiece. The Old City, divided into its Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian quarters, contains within less than one square kilometer the Western Wall (the holiest accessible site in Judaism), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (built over the traditional site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection), the Via Dolorosa, and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. The complexity of this space — where three religions share sacred ground in close quarters — makes it the most historically charged location on earth. Sensitive, knowledgeable local guides are essential for navigating it with understanding.

Masada, the rock plateau above the Dead Sea where Jewish rebels made their last stand against Roman siege in 73 CE, is best experienced at dawn via the Snake Path — arriving at the summit to watch the sun rise over the Judean Desert and the mountains of Jordan. Floating in the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth at 430 meters below sea level) is reliably one of the trip's lighter but most memorable moments. Galilee covers Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and Capernaum. Tel Aviv provides a striking contrast: a modern, cosmopolitan Mediterranean city with world-class restaurants, museums, and the beautifully preserved Ottoman-era architecture of adjacent Jaffa.

Mediterranean Cruises

The Mediterranean Sea is the cradle of Western civilization, and a cruise through its waters touches on some of the most historically significant coastlines on earth. Greek temples, Roman amphitheaters, Byzantine churches, Crusader fortifications, and Ottoman mosques appear in port after port — each city a distinct chapter in the long story of the sea that gave Western culture so much of its foundational architecture, philosophy, law, and cuisine.

The Eastern Mediterranean — Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt — offers the most historically concentrated cruise experience. The Western Mediterranean circuit (Spain, France, Italy, Croatia) combines world-class museums and cuisine with superb coastal scenery. Malta, tiny and often overlooked, is one of the Mediterranean's most rewarding stops: a UNESCO World Heritage capital (Valletta), some of the world's oldest surviving free-standing structures (the Megalithic Temples), and a history that spans Phoenicians, Romans, Knights of St. John, Napoleon, and the British Empire in five hundred square kilometers.