PTAH – 9 Days (Cairo & Nile cruise)

After breakfast, your friendly expert Egyptologist guide takes you on a tour of Cairo. You travel first to the Giza plateau, which holds the single Wonder of the Ancient World to have lasted to the present. The pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus tower over the site, astonishing feats of building made from giant blocks of stone. Not far from them crouches the Sphinx, carrying the face of Chephren on a lion’s body and standing guard over the pharaohs’ land.

From Giza you continue to the Grand Egyptian Museum, home to upwards of 250,000 pieces of art that go back as far as 5,000 years. Its most important display is the treasure of Tutankhamen, with the solid gold mask as its finest piece. Later you are taken to Cairo railway station for your overnight journey to Luxor by sleeper train.

After breakfast, you are met when the train arrives at Luxor railway station. You then tour the temples of Luxor and Karnak, connected in ancient times by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes. Places like these give Luxor its reputation as the largest open-air museum anywhere, and as a leading archaeological site of global significance.

After breakfast, you tour the west bank of the Nile, beginning with the Valley of the Kings, the burial complex where the pharaohs were laid to rest from Thutmose I onward. You then see the temple built by Hatshepsut, followed by the Colossi of Memnon, two giant figures in stone. Afterwards you are transferred back to your Nile cruise and enjoy tea as you sail to Edfu by way of the Esna Lock.

After breakfast, a horse carriage carries you to Edfu Temple, which honours Horus and is the finest preserved of any temple from the ancient world. You return on board for lunch, then sail to Kom Ombo, whose temple is a double one dedicated to two gods. The right-hand sanctuary honours Sebek, the crocodile god, while Horus the Great, solar god of war, has the left-hand one. In the afternoon tea is served while you sail to Aswan.

After breakfast, your tour begins at the High Dam, one of the most famous engineering achievements in the world. Built in 1960, it supplies all of Egypt with power and irrigation. Afterwards a brief boat journey brings you to Agilika Island for the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis and made up of various shrines and sanctuaries.

After breakfast, you leave the ship and head to the station to catch the overnight sleeper back to Cairo.

After breakfast, the train pulls into Cairo railway station, where you are met and driven across the city to check in at your hotel. You then visit the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. As the first museum dedicated to ancient Egyptian civilization, the oldest in history, it is also unique among Egypt’s museums in letting visitors follow all the different periods of the country’s past in one place. Some 50,000 artifacts carry the story from prehistory right up to the present.

Your next stop is the Citadel of Saladin and its alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali. You continue to Old Cairo, also known as the religious complex, a single compact area where you can walk between the Hanging Church, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and Egypt’s oldest mosque, which is also the oldest in Africa. As the afternoon draws to a close, you are taken to the Khan el Khalili market, one of the finest oriental bazaars, with a large number of shops offering a wonderful choice of gold and silver jewelry.

After breakfast, you leave for the airport and your final departure.