jewel of the nile - 10 days

Tour Information
Starts/ Ends in: Cairo
Departs: 16th October 2009
Prices and Departures: Click Here
Local Payment Required: No
Breakfast: daily, Lunch: 4, Dinner: 6
Hotel rating: 5
Nile cruiser rating: 5  
Egyptian Tour Guide escorted: Yes


Day 1: Cairo
Friday 16th October 2009. Cairo. Welcome to Egypt and the start of a wonderful holiday! Arrive Cairo airport, meet and greet service and included transfer to 5  hotel, located at the foot of the Great Pyramids of Giza. Overnight Cairo. 

Day 2: Cairo & The Egyptian Museum
Cairo - breakfast. We start with the dazzling antiquities at the Egyptian Museum. Amongst the many exhibits are the treasures of King Tutankhamen. This afternoon offers free time to relax and enjoy the hotel facilities or join us for an optional city tour visiting old Cairo and the Islamic citadel. Overnight  - Cairo.

Day 3: Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara
Cairo - breakfast. Today we visit Egypt's most loved sight - The Great Pyramids of Giza. We explore the Gize plateau, pyramids and massive lion-headed Sphinx. Later, we tour Saqqara - an ancient necropolis with many half-buried tombs and the famous Zhoser’s step pyramid. Overnight sleeper cabin train south to Luxor. Light dinner and overnight - sleeper train.

Day 4: Valley of the Kings
Luxor - breakfast onboard train. Arriving into Luxor we have a full day of sightseeing ahead of us, dictated by the early departure of all Nile cruisers tomorrow morning. The massive pair of statues known as the Colossi of Memnon are the first monuments you’ll see during our morning visit to the West Bank, home to the legendary Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. You’ll also see the colonnaded Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Return to Luxor for check-in aboard our Nile 5  cruiser. Lunch and time to freshen up. Afternoon visit to the magnificent Temple of Karnak. More than a temple, it’s a gigantic and stunning complex of sanctuaries and pylons dedicated to the Theban gods. Later, we visit to the Temple of Luxor built by Pharaoh Amenophis III. Luxor Temple looks stunning at dusk and is beautifully illuminated at night. Lunch, dinner and overnight - Nile cruiser.

Day 5: Nile cruising
Luxor - Nile cruising - breakfast. As the sun rises it's anchor’s away! Our cruiser will depart Luxor in the early hours of the morning to wait in queue for the opening of the Esna lock. For us, we enjoy a well deserved day of complete R&R. Pull up a deck chair and relax as we sail upstream toward Temple of Horus at Edfu. depending on our cruise schedule we may tour Edfu Temple this afternoon or early tomorrow morning. Lunch, dinner and overnight - Nile cruiser.

Day 7: SUN FESTIVAL – TEMPLE OF KING RAMSES II – ABU SIMBEL
Aswan - Abu Simbel - Aswan - breakfast. It's an early start this morning as we fly to Abu Simbel for the Sun Festival! Possibly the most awe-inspiring temple of all ancient Egypt, with its gargantuan rock-cut façade, the great Sun Temple of King Ramses II at Abu Simbel was created to revere the mighty pharaonic ruler King Ramses II. Guarding the entrance to the temple (built between 1290 and 1224 BC) hewn into the side of a mountain are four famous colossal statues of the pharaoh himself, which sit majestically, staring out across the desert, seemingly since time began. Over the centuries, the desert sands imperceptibly shifted until the temple was all but lost to humanity. It was rediscovered by chance in 1813 by a Swiss explorer called John Lewis Burkhardt. The other rock cut temple at Abu Simbel is the Temple of Hathor, which is fronted by six massive standing statues. Four of them represent King Ramses II, whilst the other two are of his beloved wife-Queen Nefertari.

In a fit of precision and architectural egotism, Ramses II had the entire temple carefully angled and oriented in order that the sun’s rays would align twice a year on his date of his ascension to the throne (22 February) and on his birthday (22 October) and illuminate the inner sanctum of the temple.

This incredible natural phenomenon provides for a most spectacular sight, which has come to be referred to as the Sun Festival of King Ramses II. Crowds pack in to the temple before sunrise and watch the shafts of light slowly creeping through the rock hewn inner Hypostyle Hall (replete with further statues of the king) and through to the Sanctuary. Significantly, the sun illuminates statues of Amun-Re, Re-Herakhte and Ramses the god, whilst the statute of Ptah - the god of darkness - remains in the shadows.

Famously, the temple was re-located in a multi-million dollar operation in 1972, further up from the shoreline of Lake Nasser, which had threatened to erode the foundations of this monolithic temple complex.
For this reason, the sun now strikes a day later than Ramses had originally planned, though the event this morning itself is no less stunning.

After the event, where there will also be plenty of time to explore the Sun Temple of King Ramses II and also the Temple of Hathor and take plenty of pictures, we drive back to Aswan. Back in Aswan, we visit the Philae Temple. After a later lunch, a visit to the High Dam, then an impromptu felucca cruise to Elephantine and Kitchener Island. Evening free. Lunch, dinner & overnight - Aswan

Days 8: Explore Aswan
Aswan - Cairo - breakfast. A free day to explore Aswan your own way. Shop in the colourful souqs and markets or simply relax and sip on a cocktail and watch the feluccas ply their way in Egypt's southern most town straddling the River Nile. This evening, we board the overnight train for our journey back to Cairo. Enjoy a light dinner in the comfort of your sleeper cabin. Dinner and overnight sleeper train.

Day 10: Cairo
Sunday - Cairo - breakfast Tour ends after breakfast. Included onward transfer to airport.

NOTE: Dependent upon sailing schedules, our cruise may start from either Aswan or Luxor. Content of tour will remain the same.

We also offer the chance to see the phenomena in conjunction with our 10day, 5 star Ramses Sunrise tour departing 14th February 2009 and our 9 day Chase the Sun and 13 day Sun Chasing tours departing Sunday 18th October 2009.