Trip to Egypt: Pyramids & the Nile (Cairo, Giza, Luxor & Aswan)

Giza Pyramids, Egyptian Museum, Felucca ride & Khan Khalili Bazaar

Your day starts with a pick up from the airport by an experienced tour guide, then you head to Giza Plateau in a modern air-conditioned vehicle to enjoy the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren & Mykerinus & to do your camel ride in the Sahara Desert. After that, it will be just the right time to explore the Sphinx, the Valley Temple of Chephren. Lunch is included between visits. Then, you navigate through the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Tahrir Square. It has the largest collection of Egyptian Antiquities which exhibits over 250,000 artefacts, including an inclusive exhibit of King Tutankhamun treasures, gold & jewelry. On your way to the market, you will get your Falucca ride to relax & enjoy the fresh breeze of the Nile River. By reaching Khan Khalili Bazaar, you will have the chance to navigate through countless shops of all sorts of goods

Since Egypt was ruled from Luxor for more than five centuries as the main capital of the country, and because of the major amount of its remaining monuments, Luxor is often called the world's greatest open-air museum. Your tour of the east bank of Luxor will begin by transferring you first towards the largest temple in Egypt “Karnak” with our Egyptologist tour guide, the temple was built to be the cult center of the main god of the country during the New Kingdom of Pharaonic Egypt, god Amun-Re and his wife Mut with their son Khonsu, designating the Theban Triad, in Karnak, you will walk among the obelisks, pylons, and sanctuaries, you will be astounded by the beautiful relief decoration and the thousands of hieroglyphic inscriptions, also you will see the Great Hypostyle Hall with its 364 columns and the highest standing Obelisk in Egypt of queen Hatshepsut, about 30 meters high including the pedestal. Then you’ll visit Luxor temple, locates about 3 kilometers south of Karnak, that’s why it was called “the southern sanctuary (Ipt rsyt)” in ancient Egyptian texts, the temple mostly built during two famous kings during the New Kingdom as well, King Amenhotep III and Ramesses II.

You start exploration in this tour by Theban Necropolis at the Valley of the Kings the burial site of the major rulers of the New Kingdom Egypt. Here unequaled tomb paintings decorate the passages and chambers of the pharaohs. After the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the Valley became the most famous archeological site in the world. Nearby, you will visit the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, which considered one of the incomparable monuments in Egypt. With towering cliffs serving as a backdrop, the temple brags long ramps connecting colonnaded terraces. On your way back to your hotel you will stop to see the colossi of Memnon, it derives the name from the famous warrior of Troy Agamemnon, but once, it was preceding the largest Mortuary temple in the west bank relates to King Amenhotep III the father of King Akhenaten.

Enjoy a delicious breakfast on board your cruise as you sail to Edfu. Upon arrival, head out and visit Edfu Temple, one of the best-preserved temples of the Greco Roman era, that of Horus at Edfu. Enjoy a magnificent experience as you take a horse-drawn carriage ride back and forth to the temple and marvel at Upper Egypt’s local life. Pass through the slow-paced, rural life of the local farmers and fishermen. Immerse yourself in the breathtaking lush, fertile landscapes dotted with banana and date palm trees. After your visit, head back to your cruise and start sailing to your second stop of the day, Kom Ombo.

Touch down on the shores of Kom Ombo and walk through the town of Kom Ombo among the locals of the town until you arrive at the unusual Kom Ombo temple with its two identical entrances, hypostyle halls, and sanctuaries. After your visit, head back to your cruise where you will enjoy an appetizing lunch while sailing to Aswan. As the day comes to an end, enjoy a warm, delicious dinner surrounded by the calm, serene water of the Nile River.

Our tour guide will accampany you to the High Dam built by president of Egypt Nasser in 1960 to control Nile flood and agriculture, this dam formed Lake Nasser with enormous amount of water behind it, which led UNESCO to collaborate and rescue many of ancient Egyptian temples which submerged by water at that time. Then you’ll move to the next stop where you’ll take a motorboat to visit Philae temple of goddess Isis on Agilka Island where the temple had been moved to, from its original island “Philae” nearby, during the early 1970s in order to save it also from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. Move on to visit granite quarries where the gigantic unfinished obelisk is lying, which once planned to be the highest obelisk had been ever cut in pharaonic times for queen Hatshepsut, but it was left for technical problems. Later you’ll be driven back to the cruise.

Your tour guide will be waiting for you in the lobby, then you will be driven to Abu Simbel site within approximately 3 hours, the site involves two rock-cut temples of Ramesses II, one for himself, the other one for his beloved wife Nefertari, located about 250 km south-east of Aswan. The temples were discovered by the traveler Jean-Louis Burckhardt in 1813 and cleared four years later by Giovanni Belzoni. The largest temple is dedicated to gods Amun-Re, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah and the deified Rameses II. A little to the north lies the smaller one dedicated to Rameses II’s beautiful beloved wife queen Nefertari as the goddess Hathor, while Rameses II deified himself as sun god in the area as well. In 1960s these temples were threatened by the rising water of Lake Nasser resulting from the construction of the Aswan High Dam and were dismantled, moved and reassembled on higher ground, through the co-operation of archaeologists and engineers working under UNESCO. You’ll spend around 3 hours there and the drive back to Aswan.