Exploring Egyptian History – Cairo, Nile Cruise and Hurghada

ITINERARY

• DAY 1

  Welcome to Cairo, Egypt

  Upon arrival, meet with your English-speaking driver and transfer to your accommodating hotel. Spend the day at leisure to relax and rest after your overseas flight.
  
  Check-in and overnight in the hotel.

  What's included?

  • Accommodation
  • Transfer
• DAY 2

  Giza Plateau - The Pyramids and Sphinx

  After breakfast at your hotel, pick up to visit the Incredible Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza Plateau. It’s estimated the largest - Khufu (Cheops) was constructed from no less than 2.5 million quarried limestone blocks, weighing around 6 million tones. No mean feats, when you consider the pyramids were built without the use of modern equipment. Experience the Camel ride! Visit papyrus institute, free time for shopping. Transfer to our hotel for overnight.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
• DAY 3

  Aswan - Nubian Village

  Breakfast and check out from the hotel to transfer to Cairo Airport. Fly to Aswan.
  
  Upon arrival in Aswan, meet your guide to visit Nubian Village. Later, transfer to hotel. Have dinner at the hotel and overnight.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Dinner
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
• DAY 4

  Philae - High Dam and Philae Temple and Unfinished Obelisk

  Pick-up from hotel to visit High Dam.
  
  Explore the Philae temple - The temple of Isis was one of the last ancient Egyptian temples to remain active, as it continued to function until the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527–565 AD), who ordered the foreclosure of all pagan temples. It is here that a priest of Isis named Esmet-Akhom carved the very last dated hieroglyphic inscription, which dates to the late 4th century AD (394 AD). The temple was converted into a Christian church and many inscriptions were deliberately destroyed.
  
  Transfer to Nile cruise. Lunch will be served on board. Dinner and overnight

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
  • Cruise/Boat
• DAY 5

  Temple Visit - Kom Ombo and Edfu Temple

  Breakfast at your hotel and check out. Visit Kom Ombo Temple. The building is unique because its 'double' design meant that there were courts, halls, sanctuaries, and rooms duplicated for two sets of gods. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor and Khonsu. Meanwhile, the northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris ("Horus the Elder"), along "with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister, a special form of Hathor or Tefnet/Tefnut and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands). The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis.
  
  Lunch during sailing to Edfou. Visit one of the best-preserved shrines in Egypt. The temple was built in the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 and 57 BC. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth, and religion during the Hellenistic period in Egypt. In particular, the Temple's inscribed building texts "provide details [both] of its construction, and also preserve information about the mythical interpretation of this and all other temples as the Island of Creation." There are also "important scenes and inscriptions of the Sacred Drama which related the age-old conflict between Horus and Seth. Dinner and overnight.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
• DAY 6

  Temple Visit - Nobles & Habou and Deir al Madina, Karnak temple and Luxor temple

  After breakfast, pick up from the hotel to visit Nobels. Visit Habou temple and Deir el Madina. Visit Karnak temple. Aptly called Ipet-Sut “The Most Select of Places” by the ancient Egyptians. Karnak Temple was the most important temple in Thebes (modern Luxor), in Upper Egypt. This was where the cult of the great god Amun of Thebes was conducted. As such, it was extremely wealthy and its priesthood held great political power. Lunch on board.
  
  Visit Luxor temple is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the pharaohs of Egypt were crowned in reality or conceptually (as in the case of Alexander the Great, who claimed he was crowned at Luxor but may never have traveled south of Memphis, near modern Cairo).
  
  Dinner and overnight

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Cruise/Boat
• DAY 7

  Mortuary Temple - Valley of the Kings & Hatshepsut Temple

  Pick-up to visit Valley of the Kings. The site for this royal burial ground was selected carefully. Its location on specifically the west side of the Nile is significant as well. Because the sun god set (died) in the western horizon to be reborn, rejuvenated, in the eastern horizon, the west thus came to have funerary associations. Ancient Egyptian cemeteries were generally situated on the west bank of the Nile for this reason.
  
  Visit Tut's tomb. Tut's tomb is important because it is the only royal burial found intact in modern times. The tomb was important because it let archaeologists record what an Egyptian king's tomb looked like and learn more about ancient Egypt.
  Visit the celebrated temple of Hatshepsut (c.1473–1458 BC); the queen who became Pharaoh, is located here, in Deir al-Bahari, on the west bank of Luxor. Made up of three man-made terraces that gradually rise toward the sheer cliff face, this structure is truly a sight to behold.
  
  The site of Deir al-Bahari was sacred to Hathor, the goddess who nursed and reared every king, including their mythological ancestor, the god Horus, in Egypt’s primordial past. Transfer to hotel and have dinner.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
• DAY 8

  Hurghada

  After breakfast, private transfer to Hurghada. Upon arrival check in to the hotel. The rest of the day is free.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Dinner
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
• DAY 9

  Hurghada

  Enjoy the day at leisure.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Accommodation
• DAY 10

  Fly to Cairo

  Breakfast and check out for private transfer to the airport.
  
  Fly to Cairo and upon arrival and transfer to hotel. The rest of the day is free.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
  • Transfer
• DAY 11

  Cairo - Full day Cairo Tour

  After breakfast, meet your English -speaking guide at the lobby. Start your day by visiting one of the richest museums worldwide called the Egyptian Museum. The museum is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East and houses the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities in the world. Also, it displays an extensive collection spanning from the Predynastic Period to the Greco-Roman Era.
  The main attractions are the Statue of the Dwarf Seneb and his Family, Amenhotep III Tiye Colossal Statue, and Sarcophagus of Kawit. An extensive collection of papyri, sarcophagi, and jewelry, among other objects, completes this uniquely expansive museum.
  In the afternoon, explore Khan Khalili Market, and back to the hotel for overnight.
  

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Dinner
  • Accommodation
  • Tour
• DAY 12

  The Cairo Airport for your home flight

  Breakfast at your hotel and check out. The assistant will pick up you to transfer to Cairo Airport for the flight to your home.

  What's included?

  • Breakfast
  • Transfer