Arrive at Cairo International Airport, where you will be met and transferred in an air-conditioned vehicle to your hotel, originally built as a palace for the Empress Eugenie when she visited Egypt for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Overnight Mena House Hotel in Pyramids view room.
Mena House
Meet your private 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 Mena House. 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 Mena House. Breakfast.
Pyramids at Giza, The Sphinx, Sakkara temple
You are returned to the Cairo Airport this morning for the quick flight to Luxor to meet your Nile cruise boat. First visit the East Bank and the Temple of Karnak, built over more than a thousand years by generations of Pharaohs. The great “Hypostyle Hall” is an incredible forest of giant pillars, covering an area larger than the whole of Notre Dame Cathedral. Then you will check in to the boat and enjoy lunch on board. In the afternoon After that your guide will take you on a tour of the strikingly graceful Temple of Luxor dedicated to the god Amun. Tonight you will be greeted by the Boat Manager, who will introduce you to the boat staff and review on-board facilities and your cruise program for the next few days. Complimentary Egyptian wine and local beer will be served, together with freshly prepared canapés followed by dinner, accompanied by a whirling dervish show and belly dancer. Overnight on board the Nile Adventurer in Luxor. All meals.
Nile Adventurer Cruise Boat
Today you will visit 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.
Lunch on board while you cruise to Esna and transit the locks this afternoon. Tonight’s dinner on board will be an “Egyptian Night” costume party for all guests, with a chance to dress up in traditional Egyptian “galabeyya”. Dinner will be a lavish buffet of Egyptian specialties, followed by oriental music and dancing for everyone. Overnight on board the Nile Adventurer in Esna. All meals.
This morning, 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. Enjoy 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. Then enjoy an Egyptian cooking lesson will be presented on board and take some time to relax before dinner on board. Overnight on board the Nile Adventurer in Kom Ombo. All meals.
Temple of Horus at Edfu, Kom Ombo, Temple of Philae
After breakfast on board 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. Return to your boat for lunch on board, while you cruise to Aswan, where you take a short motorboat ride to visit the romantic and majestic Philae Temple on the Island of Agilka. Next proceed to the Granite Quarries, which supplied the ancient Egyptians with most of the hard stone used in pyramids and temples, and still hold a huge unfinished obelisk.
In the afternoon (weather permitting) take a ride on a felucca, a typical Egyptian sail boat, around Elephantine Island, Lord Kitchener’s Botanical Gardens, and the Agha Khan Mausoleum (life jackets will be provided). Enjoy your afternoon tea served in the lounge with a trio of authentic Egyptian musicians. Tonight’s farewell dinner will be a gala dinner with gourmet cuisine. Overnight on board the Nile Adventurer in Aswan. 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.
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.
Temple at Abu Simbal
| Land Cost - 2012 | ||
| Dates | Per Person Double | Single Supplement |
| May-September | $2548.00 | $1066.00 |
| January 8-March | $2976.00 | $1286.00 |
| October-December 23 | $3118.00 | $1412.00 |
| April | $3670.00 | $1660.00 |
| Abu Simbal extension is $366 including flights Aswan/Abu Simbal/Aswan. | ||
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