Classical Egypt
Programme Overview
Duration: 13 days
Ideal for the first time visitor to Egypt, this programme provides a comprehensive introduction to many of the country's most famous sites and also includes a Nile cruise.
Highlights: Cairo, Luxor, Abydos, Abu Simbel, Aswan.
Arrive Cairo
Upon arrival at Cairo International Airport this evening you will be met by your tour coordinator who will assist you with all customs and visa formalities. You will then be transferred by air-conditioned vehicle to your centrally located hotel where your tour coordinator will assist you with check in.
Overnight: The Four Seasons
Cairo
This morning you will be introduced to your Egyptologist. Begin with a visit to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. Exhibiting over 120,000 objects in its 107 halls, it comprises the world’s greatest collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts. Continue to the fascinating Mummies Room, housing eleven royal kings and queens of ancient Egypt, including the Great Ramses II, Egypt’s longest ruling pharaoh.
Enjoy lunch at one of Cairo's finest restaurants.
The rest of the day is at leisure.
Overnight: The Four Seasons
Meal Plan: B,L
Cairo - Luxor
After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, transfer by private air conditioned car to Cairo Airport to take your domestic flight to Luxor. Upon arrival to Luxor Airport transfer by private air conditioned car to your Nile Cruise.
Check-in on your 5-star deluxe Nile cruise boat, the Sun Boat III, moored in Luxor. On board, you will be welcomed by the reception staff, who will offer you chilled fruit juice while assisting with your check-in.
Entertainment: Exact entertainment schedules during your cruise are adjusted according to the needs of each group and the exact sailing schedule of the boat, and, therefore, the day of each feature is subject to change. However, every cruise on the Sun Boat III will include:
- A colourful “galabeyya party” which gives each guest the opportunity to dress up in traditional Egyptian dress and dance to Arabic music.
- A bellydancer, accompanied by a whirling dervish show in Luxor.
- A lecture accompanied by a slide show, given by your Egyptologist guide.
Food & Beverage: Menus are changed on a seasonal basis to enable the Chef to use the freshest ingredients at all times. However, the following is applicable to every cruise:
- Most meals are served in the restaurant. However, at least one barbecue lunch (while sailing) and breakfast will be served on deck (weather permitting).
- Afternoon tea includes a range of teas and herbal infusions, fresh coffee and a selection of freshly baked, homemade cake, cookies and finger food
- Mineral water, tea and coffee are included on a complimentary basis during meals.
After lunch which will be served on board, you will have an afternoon visit to the West Bank of Luxor to explore the Valley of the Kings, a vast City of the Dead where magnificent tombs were carved into the desert rocks, decorated richly, and filled with treasures for the afterlife by generations of Pharaohs.You will also have the chance to visit at least one tomb in the Valley of the Queens.
From the valley, rising out of the desert plain in a series of terraces, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Ancient Egypt’s only female Pharaoh) merges with the sheer limestone cliffs that surround it, as if nature herself had built this extraordinary monument. On the way back to the river Nile, your road passes by the famed Colossi of Memnon, known in Ancient Greek times for their haunting voices at dawn.
Upon return to the boat, afternoon tea will be served in the lounge.
Tonight you will be greeted by your Boat Manager at the Captain's Cocktail Party, who will introduce you to the boat staff and review on-board facilities and your cruise program for the next few days. A complimentary cocktail and a selection of canapés will be served.
Your gourmet dinner will be on board.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Luxor - Abydos - Dendarah
Begin the day with Very early sailing to Nagaa Hammadi. Enjoy the breakfast buffet on board while you cruise northwards to Nagaa Hammadi passing by Qena. This part of your cruise is very much off the beaten track, and passes through some of the most beautiful scenery along the Nile, far away from the crowds or other cruise boats. Have lunch on board before your Visit to Abydos. Abydos stands apart from other sites in Egypt, as it was in fact the center of a holy city dedicated to Osiris, Lord of the Netherworld. It was also the burial-place for pre-dynastic kings & pharaohs dating back to the fourth millennium BC.
Enjoy the facilities as you cruise to Qena.
Dinner will be served on board.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Dendarah - Luxor
After breakfast on board, Visit the Ptolemaic Temple of Goddess Hathor in Denderah. This wonderfully preserved temple complex is a rare sight to behold, complete with a massive stone roof, dark chambers, underground passages and towering columns inscribed with hieroglyphs. The main Temple of Hathor is almost intact. Hathor was the goddess or pleasure and of love, usually represented as a cow, or a woman with a cow’s head. She was the beneficent deity of maternal and family love, of beauty and light; the Greeks associated her with Aphrodite. Have lunch is on board while you cruise to Luxor.
Upon arrival in Luxor, your Egyptologist will guide you on a tour of the East Bank of Luxor, to visit the strikingly graceful Temple of Luxor dedicated to the god Amun.
Return from touring with an afternoon tea served in the lounge.
Finish the day with your gourmet dinner on board.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Luxor - Esna
After breakfast on board, visit to the Temple of Karnak, built over more than a thousand years by generations of Pharaohs.The great Hypostyle Hall is an incredible forest of giant pillars, covering an area larger than the whole of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Return to the Sun Boat III where lunch will be served on board as you travel to Esna. Upon arrival in Esna, your Egyptologist will guide you round the Greco-Roman Temple of Khnum at Esna. The beautifully preserved Great Hypostyle Hall was built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius; it was excavated from the silt that had accumulated through centuries of annual Nile floods and is about nine meters below present-day street level.
Afternoon tea will be served in the lounge, and you'll have the option to participate in an Egyptian cooking lesson that always proves very popular.
Tonight’s dinner on board will be an “Egyptian Night” costume party for all guests, with a chance to dress up in traditional Egyptian “galabeyyas”. Dinner will be a lavish buffet of Egyptian specialities, followed by oriental music and dancing for everyone.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Esna - Edfu - Kom Ombo
Enjoy breakfast while sailing to Edfu. This morning, explore the largest and most completely preserved Pharaonic – albeit Greek-built – temple in Egypt, the extraordinary Temple of Horus at Edfu.
Return to the Sun Boat III, while you cruise Kom Ombo.
Afternoon tea will be served in the lounge. The afternoon is at leisure.
Gourmet dinner will be on board.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Kom Ombo - Aswan
After breakfast, visit the Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile-god Sobek. The temple stands at a bend in the Nile where in ancient times sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the riverbank.
Lunch is on board during sailing to Aswan. In Aswan this afternoon (weather permitting) take a ride on a felucca, a typical Egyptian sailboat, around Elephantine Island, Lord Kitchener's Botanical Gardens, and the Agha Khan Mausoleum.
Afternoon tea will be served on board and finish the day with a gourmet dinner on board the boat.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Aswan
After breakfast, your Egyptologist guide will escort you to visit the Aswan High Dam, Egypt’s contemporary example of building on a monumental scale.
From the dam, take a short motorboat ride to visit the romantic and majestic Philae Temple on the Island of Agilka.
Proceed to the granite quarries, which supplied the ancient Egyptians with most of the hard stone used in pyramids and temples, and still hold a huge, unfinished obelisk.
Return to the Sun Boat III for lunch on board. Enjoy the afternoon at leisure. Afternoon tea will be served in the lounge.
Tonight's farewell dinner will be a formal gala dinner, with white-gloved waiters serving gourmet cuisine.
Overnight: The Sun Boat III
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Aswan - Abu Simbel - Cairo
Start the day with breakfast and checking out, before your transfer to the Aswan airport, where you will board your domestic flight to Abu Simbel. Meet your representative inside the arrival terminal that will escort you to the Temple of Abu Simbel by private air-conditioned vehicle, and introduce you to our resident Egyptologist.
Visit The Temples of Abu Simbel. Built by the Great Ramses II, Egypt’s longest ruling pharaoh, it is one of the most recognizable images in the country. Actually two temples, namely the Great Temple of Ra-Harakhte, fronted by the four colossal statues of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to Ramses’ favorite wife Queen Nefertari, they were moved to their current location when the creation of Lake Nasser threatened their existence.
Return to the airport in your air-conditioned vehicle to board your return flight to Aswan.
On arrival to Cairo you will have lunch at the Naguib Mahfouz Restaurant at the heart of the Khan El Khalili Bazaar.The fascinating Khan El-Khalili Bazaar is reputed to be the largest bazaar in the Middle East. Originally founded as a watering stop for caravanserai in the 14th century, the bazaar has now grown to vast proportions. As one wanders through the labyrinth of narrow streets you will find workshops and stalls selling all manner of things from woodwork, glassware and leather goods to perfumes, fabrics and Pharaonic curiosities. Remember to bargain hard!
Enjoy the fascinating tour of Islamic Cairo which starts with the ancient Citadel, a spectacular medieval fortress perched on a hill above the city. Originally built by Salah El-Din in 1176 to fortify the city against the Crusaders, it has never been without a military garrison. The Citadel was modified and enlarged over the centuries by subsequent rulers, most notably Muhammad Ali Pasha, one of the great builders of Modern Egypt, who was responsible for considerable alteration and building within the Citadel. Today it is a complex of four mosques and four museums, including the beautiful and graceful Mohamed Ali Mosque. Built from 1830 to 1857, the mosque also became the site of the great Ottoman ruler’s tomb. From the arcaded courtyard, enjoy a magnificent view across the city to the pyramids in Giza.
After this tour, transfer to check into your hotel.
Overnight: The Four Seasons
Meal Plan: B,L
Cairo
After breakfast at hotel, proceed to the Great Pyramids of Giza.The only present-day survivors of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, they are among the world’s greatest tourist attractions and never lose their ability to inspire and overwhelm visitors.
The incredible Solar Boat Museum, located to the south side of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, housing the same Pharaoh’s magnificent 141-foot-long funerary boat of cedar wood. Discovered in a pit by the Great Pyramid in 1954, the entire boat was carefully assembled and placed in the museum. Remarkably, no nails were used in the original construction of the Solar Boat, only ropes and pegs. Its discovery was hailed as the single most important archaeological find in Egypt since the Tomb of Tutankhamen. Enter the temple of the mysterious Sphinx, an ancient figure shrouded in legend and mystery.Your Egyptologist will enthral you with the tales told of this fascinating figure.
Enjoy a sumptuous lunch with a view of the pyramids.
Return to your hotel where the rest of the day is at leisure.
Overnight: The Four Seasons
Meal Plan: B,L
Cairo
After breakfast at hotel. Start a day tour with your Egyptologist to visit the pyramids of Sakkara and Dahshour.
Across the Great Court of the Pyramid Complex of Zoser in Sakkara, stands the Step Pyramid, the oldest known of Egypt’s 107 pyramids, which was built by Imhotep, one of the world’s most famous historical figures. This architect of the world’s first freestanding stone structure, which you will visit today with your Egyptologist, is often also recognized as the world's first doctor, as well as a priest, sage, poet, and astrologer. Although the original structure was a burial chamber 28 metres underground, Imhotep enlarged it several times to eventually reach a six tiered rectangle 60 metres high. Sakkara seems to have been the first area where limestone was employed, not only for the outer casing of the pyramid but also to cover interior walls.
Founded around 3,100 BC during the Old Kingdom, Memphis is the legendary city of Menes, the King who united Upper and Lower Egypt. According to tradition, he first created dikes to protect the area from Nile floods and then started building. Much of what we know of Memphis comes from its necropolis, texts and papyrus from other parts of Egypt, and Herodotus, who visited the city. Early on, Memphis was probably a fortress from which Menes controlled the land and water routes between Upper Egypt and the Delta. Later, this great city became the administrative and religious center of Egypt, was home to a cosmopolitan community and most likely one of the largest and most important cities in the ancient world.
This southern extension of the necropolis of Sakkara is a field of Royal tombs about 3.5km long, only opened to tourists in 1996. Several pyramids can be found here, including the famed “Bent Pyramid”. As one of the most unusual pyramids in Egypt, and also one of the best preserved as much of its casing remains, it has attracted considerable attention over the centuries. Another of the three pyramids at Dahshour which were built by the Pharaoh Sneferu, father of Cheops (of the Great Pyramid at Giza) is the Red Pyramid. This monument gets its common name from the reddish limestone used to build most of its core, but it is also sometimes referred to as the Shining or Northern Pyramid. It is the fourth highest pyramid ever built in Egypt, with almost 160 layers of stone. Significantly, the Red Pyramid was the first successful, true, cased Pyramid built in Egypt. Together, these pyramids represent the transition from the step-pyramid of Sakkara to the smooth-sided pyramids of Giza.
Lunch will be served at a local restaurant.
Return to hotel and enjoy the rest of day at leisure.
Overnight: The Four Seasons
Meal Plan: B,L
Cairo
Enjoy breakfast at hotel.
Transfer with your tour coordinator to the Cairo Airport for departure.
Meal Plan: B