You can't start a tour of amazing Egypt without a visit to the Great Pyramids of Giza!

These three phenomenal pyramids served as monumental burial sites where the Ancient Egyptian kings were buried.  You will have the option to enter into the biggest and most famous - the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

We'll take a brief Camel Ride in front of the Pyramids with individual and group portraits! 

Visit the Great Sphinx.

Lunch in new authentic restaurant overlooking the pyramids, the Nine Pyramids Restaurant. In this unique location you can see all nine of the pyramids.

Visit the New Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), including admission to the treasury of King Tut. (If the GEM is not open during your visit, we will visit the original Museum of Antiquities.) 

Cairo hotel, night 2.

Fly to Luxor. We'll visit the famous Valley of the Kings, the most historically significant archeological site in the world. For the past 200 years, archeologists have been exploring the site, and have discovered 65 ancient tombs, including the most famous of all - the tomb of King Tut! We'll enter and explore three tombs, different from the three most people see the first time they visit, and visit Tut's tomb where we'll see his actual mummy.

We'll cross to the Valley of the Queens, and visit the magnificent Tomb of Nefetari, the Great Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II.  The wall paintings are so magnificent it is called the Sistine Chapel of Ancient Egypt. It was discovered in 1904, but has been closed to the public for most of the past 60 years to preserve the paintings  It has been open to the public since  November 2019, at a cost of $100 per visitor.

Then we'll see the Valley of the Artisans.  Known locally as Deir el-Medina – this site offers a glimpse into the lives of the workers who constructed the area's famous royal graves. A small temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddesses of love and truth can be found on the site, as well as village remains and several tombs. Three tombs are open to the public, and some say these well-preserved tombs are better than those found in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.

We'll take a walking tour of the new Luxor Corniche Road, the main street that runs along the Nile from Luxor to Karnak. Stroll along the ancient banks representing thousands of years of history. Connecting most of the attractions, the corniche is dotted with sights demonstrating the splendor and luxury of the city despite the passage of millennia. See famous courts, chapels, and a museum of mummification. Restored in 2006, the corniche  has many shops, jewelry stands, and cafes. With many benches and trees, you can sit and take in the view of the river.

Overnight in a 5-star Luxor hotel.

We'll visit the Karnak Temple complex, a vast open-air museum, and the second largest ancient religious site in the world (after the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia). Construction at Karnak started 4,000 years ago and continued for 2,000 years. Each Egyptian ruler who worked at Karnak left his or her own architectural mark. Approximately 30 pharaohs contributed to the buildings here, creating a complex unlike any other.

We'll visit the newly opened Avenue of the Sphinxes. Also called the King’s Festivities Road, or Rams Road, this 1.7 mile long avenue connects Karnak Temple with Luxor Temple,, with sphinxes and ram-headed statues lined up on both flanks.

When the sun goes down, we'll visit Luxor Temple illuminated in the evening. Luxor Temple is a beautiful structure packed with history and legends. Construction took about 100 years, between 1370 BC and 1295 BC, and was added to by four different pharaohs.

We'll drive to Esna (one hour) and board our Dahabiya, a beautifully appointed sailing yacht with only eight cabins. We''ll revisit the famous temples in Edfu and Kom Ombo, but we'll also get to explore El Kab, the ancient city of Nekheb with Old Kingdom temples and tombs; and Gebel el Silsila, where the cliffs on both sides close to the narrowest point along the Nile. We'll explore the Egyptian countryside, visiting secluded picturesque spots and farms, and have lots of chances to interact with local people. And we'll dine like royalty. The chef creates amazing meals using fresh supplies delivered each morning from local markets and farmers along the river. 

Night 1 onboard  the boat.

Visit El Kab Temple and Village early in the morning - there is nothing like sunrise on the Nile.  The banks are full of animals and birds, and the light is very soft and mystical.

Later we'll take a horse-drawn carriage ride to visit Edfu Temple, the best-preserved temple of the ancient world, dedicated to Horus the Falcon God. It was built between 237 and 57 BC, and is known for its gigantic pylons.

Night 2 onboard the boat.

One of the benefits of the Dahabiya is found in the locations it will stop, and which can provide travelers with rare opportunities for sightseeing.

The Gebel El Silsila Temple and quarries are a fine example of this. Unlike larger vessels that must keep moving until they reach their approved docking areas, the small and more maneuverable Dahabiyas are able to come to a slow and agreeable drift 26 miles south of Edfu. There we will encounter what the Ancient Egyptians called “Khenu” or the Place of Rowing. This is a region of the Nile where the river narrows substantially and where the bedrock becomes sandstone instead of the dominating limestone of the south.

This is also where Meneh Island is found and the site called Jebel Silsila. This is an ancient quarry used by the pharaohs to build their many monuments and temples. It is considered a New Kingdom site, and was also put to use during the Greco-Roman era as well. In fact, passengers aboard a Dahabiya will be able to gaze at the quarry and if they note the area of the eastern shore, they will be looking upon the home of the many stones used to construct the Ramesseum of Thebes, the Temples at Karnak, and the massive Kom Ombo site.

Gebel El Silsila Temple and Meneh Island are not often places where travelers can visit, and those on the larger vessels get only a fleeting glimpse. When traveling aboard a Dahabiya, however, the passengers enjoy a long slow “tour” of the site as they sit or stand comfortably on their ship’s decks.

Night 3 onboard the boat.

We'll visit Kom Ombo Temple. One side of the temple is dedicated to the Crocodile God Sobek, God of Fertility and Creator of the World. The other side is dedicated to the Falcon God Horus.

Nearby, we'll visit the Crocodile Mummification Museum. You will see well-preserved remains of crocodiles, cats, fish and other animals who were mummified by the ancient Egyptians. It will provide you with an understanding of the ancient art of mummification

Night 4 onboard the boat.

This morning we'll arrive in Aswan, and take a short boat ride to visit the Philae Temple, one of the most important monuments in southern Egypt. Philae was an ancient pilgrimage center for the cult of Isis. Saved from a watery grave by UNESCO’s rescue project, it was transferred block by block from a nearby island to escape being flooded when the Aswan Dam was built between 1972 and 1980.

Lunch will be a special treat in El Dokka, a restaurant nestled on a beautiful island in the Nile in Aswan. Following lunch we'll have leisure time on the island to stroll or shop.

We'll tour other sites in Aswan, where several important archeological discoveries have been made since 2018, including a sandstone sphinx at the temple of Kom Ombo; 35 mummified remains of Egyptians in a tomb; and a Ptolemaic temple, a Roman fort, an early Coptic church and an inscription written in hieratic script at an archaeological site called Shiha Fort in Aswan.

We'll take a leisurely boat ride across the beautiful Nile to Elephantine Island to visit the Nubian Village.  The origin of the dark-skinned Nubians goes back to antiquity in Africa and Sudan when they traveled to south Egypt more than 4,000 years ago for farming around the Nile. They speak their own Nubian Languages and have specific traditions that are different from rest of Egypt. You’ll see traditional mud houses that have been painted in beautiful blues and oranges, many small souvenirs shops, cages of live crocodiles, lots of camels, and women offering to do Henna tattoos. 

We'll visit the famous Botanical Gardens on Elephantine Island filled with exotic plants and trees imported from all over the world. The island was given to Lord Kitchner for his campaigns in Sudan, and he moved there, created his magnificent garden.

From here we'll drive three hours through the desert to Abu Simbel,  generally considered the grandest and most beautiful temple in Egypt. Most visitors see it around sunrise, with hundreds of other tourists. But it is magical at night with no crowds, when a sound and light show provides a journey back in time to the pharaohs’ era. The enchanting music and vibrant lights depict how this temple originally looked, and tells of its fascinating history. 

We’ll stay overnight at Eskaleh Nubian House, a charming Nubian lodge on the shores of Lake Nasser, just a mile from the monument. The hotel was built using natural materials such as Nile mud bricks. With a maximum capacity of 16 guests, Eskaleh provides warm service in a relaxing, natural and warm atmosphere, and also offers a restaurant, a lounge and accommodations with a balcony.

After a morning visit to Abu Simbel, we'll drive through the desert back to Aswan, and catch a return flight to Cairo.. 

Cairo hotel, night 3.

We'll visit Cairo's new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), whose exhibits are designed to offer visitors a holistic experience of the evolution of Egyptian civilization The museum .includes six main galleries entitled The Dawn of Civilization, The Nile, Writing, State and Society, Material Culture, Beliefs and Thinking, and the Gallery of Royal Mummies.  The NMEC takes the visitor on a journey through all the civilizations that passed by Egypt in one room, in one hour. It doesn’t just display pieces; there’s a story behind the displays, which might be a number of pieces or objects put together to tell you a story about motherhood, cooking, medicine, or music, and how a piece in a certain era is related to other eras that are displayed.  Considered the crown jewel of the museum, the Royal Mummies Hall is specially designed to display the mummies of the ancient Kings and Queens of Egypt.The design aims to give visitors the feeling of strolling down the Valley of the Kings, where most of the mummies originally rested. 

With its dark-walled and dimly-lit open rooms, the crypt-like Royal Mummies Hall at was opened to visitors for the first time in April 2021, displaying 20 mummies of Ancient Egyptian kings and queens. The most famous are Hatshepsut, Ramses the Great, Seti I, Akhenaton, and Amenhotep.

We'll spend the afternoon exploring El Moez Street, a lively pedestrian street in Old Cairo. A UNESCO World Heritage Site with the greatest concentration of medieval architectural treasures in the Islamic world. It runs between two massive gates in the original stone city wall, built in the 11th century when Cairo was founded. With slits for arrows and shafts for pouring boiling oil on attackers, the gates stood to protect the ancient city from invaders more than 1,000 years ago.

Wandering the meandering alleyways and discovering magnificent mosques, fine old houses and palaces, cafes and restaurants, and tentmaker’s market is a treat for locals and visitors alike.

Tonight we'll share a festive farewell dinner with our fellow travelers.

Overnight in Cairo hotel, night 4

Departure from Egypt