Arrive at Cairo International Airport, where you will be met and transferred in an air-conditioned vehicle to your hotel. Overnight Sofitel El Gezirah in a Superior Nile View room.
Sofitel El Gezirah
Meet your Egyptologist guide after breakfast at your hotel and set off for a day of sightseeing. Your first stop is the Great Pyramids of Giza, built for the Pharaohs Cheops, Chefren and Mycerinus around 2500 BC. Then visit the Valley Temple, housing the mysterious Sphinx, located in what was once a quarry to the east of Chephren’s pyramid. You'll also visit 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. After lunch on your own, explore the remarkable Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, open since 1902. The Museum exhibits over 120,000 objects in its 107 halls, comprising the world’s greatest collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts. Return to the hotel and enjoy dinner at Abu El Sid restaurant. Overnight Sofitel El Gezirah. Breakfast, dinner.
Your guide will pick you up today for an exploration of Memphis and Sakkara today. Founded around 3,100 BC during the Old Kingdom, Memphis is the legendary city of Menes, the King who united Upper and Lower Egypt. 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. 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. Return to your hotel in the late afternoon. Overnight Sofitel El Gezirah. Breakfast.
Pyramids at Giza, The Sphinx, Sakkara temple
You are returned to the Cairo Airport this morning for the quick flight to Luxor. You are met at the Luxor airport and head out 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. 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. This afternoon you are transferred to your hotel. Overnight Sonesta St. George Hotel in Standard Front Nile view room. Breakfast.
Sonesta St. George Hotel
After breakfast at your hotel, check out and meet your guide for the hour long drive to 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. After the temple visit, you continue on to your dahabeya to check in. Enjoy lunch on board and relax as you cruise to El-Hegz. Dinner and overnight on board Lazuli Dahabeya. All meals.
Lazuli III
Have breakfast on board while you cruise to El Kaab, a unique site of which lies 20km from Edfu and is little seen by the regular tourist. The site consists of many beautiful tombs and temples, most of which were originally dedicated to the Vulture-Goddess Nekhet. In Pre-Dynastic and Early Dynastic times El-Kaab was the capital of Upper Egypt, and it continued to be one of the region’s most important cities up until the Ptolemaic era. The area is also important for several New Kingdom tombs, whose inscriptions have provided us with much information on the Hyksos.
Return to the boat for lunch on board, while you cruise to Edfu. This afternoon, explore the largest and most completely preserved Pharaonic (albeit Greek-built) temple in Egypt, the extraordinary Temple of Horus at Edfu. This evening enjoy a special barbecue on a beach on Fawaza Island. Overnight on board Lazuli Dahabeya. All meals.
Breakfast on board then cruise to El Ramadi, an village old village of fisherman on the Nile. Lunch on board, while you cruise to Djebel El Selsela. The little visited shrine of Horomheb cut into the riverside rocks at Selsela offers a fascinating opportunity to see carved reliefs and remains from the Middle Kingdom period, much older than most other sights visited on a regular cruise itinerary. Dinner and overnight on board Lazuli Dahabeya. All meals.
This morning you 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. Now that the Nile has dams, there no crocodiles left on this stretch of river. Enjoy lunch while sailing to Herdiab Island, a beach where you can swim if you like. Tonight enjoy a fireside dinner on Herdiab Island. Overnight on board Lazuli Dahabeya. All meals.
Temple of Horus at Edfu, Kom Ombo, Temple of Philae
This morning cruise to Koubaneya village where you can visit and to admire the classic Nubian architecture. Enjoy lunch while cruising to Aswan then you have a visit the romantic and majestic Philae Temple on the Island of Agilka. Dinner and overnight on board Lazuli Dahabeya. All meals.
Today have your last Nile breakfast on board and check out at 8:00 AM. You can choose to take an optional excursion to Abu Simbal today or simply go right to the Aswan airport for your departing flights. Breakfast.
Optional Abu Simbal Excursion You will be transferred to the Aswan airport for the short hop to Abu Simbal. Enjoy an unforgettable tour to the world-renowned site where Ramses II ordered two sun temples carved from the limestone mountains at Abu Simble, between 1290-1124 BC. At the Great Temple of Ra-Harakhte, the four famous colossal statues of Ramses II sit majestically over 20 meters high, staring out across the desert. Six massive standing statues front the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the cow-headed goddess of love and built in honor of Ramses’ favorite wife, Queen Nefertari, each 10 meters high. In modern times the waters that would rise with the completion of the High Dam threatened the two temples of Abu Simble. A campaign to save them was organized by UNESCO, with the temples being cut into blocks, raised piece-by-piece, and reassembled in a new position higher up the hillside. The massive job took two years to complete, 1966-1968. This afternoon board your flight back to Aswan to meet your departing flights.
| Land Cost - 2012 | ||
| Dates | Per Person Double | Single Supplement |
| May-September | $4032.00 | $1034.00 |
| January 9-March, October-December 17 | $4118.00 | $1118.00 |
| December 18 2011-January 8, April | $4662.00 | $1152.00 |
| Discounted pricing available for groups of 4 or more; Charter rates also available for groups of 2-12. Abu Simbal extension is $366 including flights Aswan/Abu Simbal/Aswan. | ||
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