Egypt's outdoor landscape is dominated by the Nile and desert, but both carry more walking and wildlife depth than the pharaonic itinerary usually reveals. The Sinai Peninsula's interior — the mountains above St. Catherine's Monastery, including Mount Sinai (2,285 metres) and the higher Jabal Katrina (2,629 metres, Egypt's highest peak) — is hikeable on Bedouin guide-led routes through a high desert landscape of extraordinary geology and scriptural resonance. The Ras Mohammed National Park at the southern tip of Sinai is where the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba meet — coral reef diving and snorkelling of international quality accessible from the beach above a tidal flat shorebird habitat. The White Desert in the Western Desert carries chalk and quartz rock formations eroded by wind into shapes that make a night camp inside them the most visually surreal outdoor experience in North Africa. The best part is often the hidden gems you were not even looking for. Take it all in.