Hatshepsut Dive – 10 Days (Cairo – Nile Cruise – Sharm El-Sheikh)

Following breakfast, your private Egyptologist takes you out for a first look at the ancient side of Cairo. The drive leads to the Giza Plateau, where the Great Pyramids that belonged to Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos stand as proof of what early builders could achieve. Of the ancient world’s Seven Wonders, they are the only one left today.

Close by sits the Great Sphinx, a lion’s body with a royal human head, which has watched over this burial field for thousands of years. Next you head to Saqqara, the oldest royal necropolis in Egypt, a wide site of pyramids and tombs. Here you see the Step Pyramid of Djoser, generally considered the first large-scale stone building in the world and a turning point in architectural history.

After breakfast, today’s touring traces several chapters of Cairo’s past. You start at the Grand Egyptian Museum, a major cultural institution that brings together the finest assembly of ancient Egyptian art anywhere. Its large galleries lead you towards the treasures of Tutankhamun, with the funerary mask of solid gold, one of the best-known artworks ever made, as the final highlight.

From the museum you go up to the Citadel of Saladin, topped by the graceful Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali, from where the city spreads out below you. You then reach Old Cairo, where sites of different faiths sit within a short walk of each other. The stops here are the Hanging Church, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, plus one of Africa’s oldest mosques, a reminder of centuries of shared spiritual life.

Late in the afternoon, stroll through Khan El Khalili, the city’s famous bazaar, known for gold and silver jewellery and traditional handicrafts, before heading back to your hotel at the end of a rich and varied day.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and head to Cairo Airport for the flight to Aswan. You are met on arrival and accompanied to your Nile cruise ship to board. Your sightseeing in Aswan opens with the High Dam, a major achievement of modern Egyptian engineering.

A boat then carries you to Agilkia Island and the graceful Temple of Philae, built in honour of the goddess Isis and admired for its well-kept sanctuaries and carved reliefs. Back on the cruise, lunch is served on board, and in the evening you have an international buffet dinner.

After breakfast, you visit the Temple of Kom Ombo, unusual because it has two sanctuaries side by side, one for Sobek, the crocodile god, and one for Horus the Elder. You then return to the ship, where lunch is served.

Later in the day you explore the Temple of Edfu, devoted to Horus and among the best-preserved temples left from ancient Egypt. A continental buffet dinner is served on board in the evening.

After breakfast, a guide leads you around the East Bank of Luxor. The first site is Karnak, an enormous temple complex enlarged by one pharaoh after another over many centuries and devoted to the gods Amun, Mut and Khonsu. You continue to Luxor Temple, which stands beside the Nile and was once joined to Karnak by a long avenue of ram-headed sphinxes.

Lunch is served back on board your Nile cruise. The evening is a relaxed Galabia night, with an oriental dinner on the menu.

After breakfast, your time on the Nile cruise ends and you set off on a guided tour of Luxor’s West Bank, starting with the Valley of the Kings, burial ground chosen by the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. You go on to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, built in terraces at the foot of the Theban cliffs, and stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two huge statues that have stood on the plain for over 3,000 years.

Later, you transfer to Luxor airport and travel on to Sharm El Sheikh, a leading Red Sea resort. On arrival, you are accompanied to your all-inclusive hotel to check in.

After breakfast, the day in Sharm El Sheikh is yours to spend as you like. You can relax beside the Red Sea, rest on the beach, or try one of the resort’s water activities, such as sailing, snorkelling and other sports on the water.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel. You still have free time in Sharm El Sheikh to look around the town or spend time by the Red Sea. After that you are taken to Sharm El Sheikh Airport and fly to Cairo, where you are met on arrival and driven to your hotel by private car with air conditioning.

You have your last breakfast in Egypt. When it is time, your private driver and a Delta Tours Egypt representative take you to Cairo International Airport, where they help with the departure formalities. Your 10-day trip, from Cairo along the Nile by cruise ship to Sharm El Sheikh, ends here, having joined Egypt’s ancient monuments, the Nile and the Red Sea.