King Treasure – 6 Days (Cairo & Luxor)

Following breakfast, your Egyptologist guide, friendly and knowledgeable, collects you for a day of discovery in Cairo. The first stop is the Giza plateau, home to the last of antiquity’s Seven Wonders still standing. Here the three pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos rise from the desert, vast man-made structures assembled from huge stone blocks. Close by sits the Sphinx, the patient guardian of the pharaohs’ land, with a lion’s body and a face thought to be that of Chephren, keeping watch over the tombs.

Next, you drive to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which holds more than 250,000 works of art spanning some 5,000 years. Its highlight is the treasure of Tutankhamun, above all his solid gold mask. Afterwards you are taken to the railway station to catch the sleeper train to Luxor. If you prefer a more comfortable journey, the sleeper train can be swapped for a domestic flight on request.

After breakfast, you are met at Luxor railway station as your train pulls in and driven to your hotel to check in. Your sightseeing begins on the Nile’s west bank at the Valley of the Kings, where pharaohs from Thutmose I onward were laid to rest in a complex of burial chambers. You continue to the temple of Hatshepsut and then to the Colossi of Memnon, a pair of enormous statues, before returning to the hotel.

Enjoy breakfast, then check out of your hotel and cross to the east bank of the Nile. You visit Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple, two great sanctuaries once joined by an avenue lined with ram-headed sphinxes. Sites like these explain why Luxor is often called the world’s largest open-air museum and counts among the most important archaeological areas anywhere. Later you are driven to Luxor railway station to board the sleeper train back to Cairo. For a more relaxed trip, this train journey can be replaced by a domestic flight on request.

After breakfast, you are met on arrival at Cairo railway station and transferred to your hotel, where you check in. Your touring starts at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, the first museum devoted to ancient Egypt as the earliest civilization in history, and the only one in the country that gives an overview of every period of Egyptian history. Around 50,000 artifacts trace the story from prehistoric times right up to the present.

From there you head to the Citadel of Saladin, site of the alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali. You then move on to Old Cairo, often called the religious compound because its places of worship sit close together in one walkable area. Its sights include the Hanging Church, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and a mosque that is the oldest anywhere in Africa, not just in Egypt.

In the late afternoon you drive to the Khan el Khalili market, one of the most striking oriental bazaars, where a great many shops display gold and silver jewelry. Afterwards you return to your hotel.

After breakfast, a driver takes you to the airport for departure.