A holographic weapon sight with a low profile collimator has a housing with a viewing end and an opposed target end. The holographic weapon sight has a light source operable to project a light beam along a light path. The low profile collimator has a first optical element and a second optical element disposed in the light path of the light beam such that the second optical element provides a fully collimated light beam. The holographic weapon sight also has a first diffractive optical element (DOE), a second DOE, and a mirror. The first DOE or the second DOE reconstructs an image of a reticle and respectively reflects the reconstructed image toward the mirror or the NDE such that a user views a target along a viewing path through the NDE from the viewing end.