The moon's shadow comes ashore in Africa at Tangier, then runs the length of the Sahara. Two hours and eighteen minutes later it reaches Luxor. An event that won't be accessible from land again until 2114 making it once in a lifetime event.

At 09:45 on the morning of 2 August 2027 the moon's shadow crosses the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco. In Morocco's Blue City of Chefchaouen it goes dark for 4 minutes 14 seconds. Then the shadow turns east and runs the length of North Africa, across the Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, picking up speed and width as it goes.

Two hours and eighteen minutes later it reaches the Nile at Karnak. In Luxor, at 13:02, the sun goes out for six minutes and 22 seconds. It will be the longest totality visible from easily accessible land since 1991, and the longest until June 2114.

Five itineraries, each running once, all watching the eclipse from Luxor on the afternoon of 2 August 2027. They differ in one way that matters more than the sightseeing: where exactly you stand.

Jewels of Egypt, 5 star & Solar Eclipse 2027

No coach, no crowd, no walking anywhere. On the morning of 2 August you visit Karnak, then return to the boat, and at 13:02 the sun goes out directly above the deck you're standing on. Uninterrupted sky in every direction, a drink in your hand and the Nile going quiet around you. If you want the eclipse to feel like an occasion rather than an expedition, this is the one.

Watch from above Chefchaouen, in the Rif Mountains

Four itineraries, all watching from the same scouted vantage point above Chefchaouen on the morning of 2 August 2027, with eclipse glasses provided. They differ in length and in whether you start in Casablanca or Tangier.

The hour before

Whether you're standing on a hill above Tangier at half past nine or among the columns of Karnak at midday, it starts the same way. The sun softens from one edge, and for a long while nothing much seems to be happening, except that it is. The light goes strange and metallic rather than dim. Shadows sharpen and the temperature cools off. Look at the ground and you'll see hundreds of tiny crescents wherever a gap projects the shrinking sun.

The last thirty seconds

This is the part nobody is ready for. The remaining sliver of sun collapses into a line, then into beads of light along the moon's edge, then into one final point. The temperature drops, birds go silent. If you look west you can see the shadow itself arriving moving faster than any aircraft, over the Atlantic in Morocco, across open desert in Egypt.

Totality

A black disc wrapped in the silver of the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, a million degrees hot and visible for these few minutes only. Stars come out in the middle of the day. The horizon glows sunset-orange in every direction at once.

In Tangier you get 4 minutes 51 seconds of it, sun partway up the morning sky, the Strait of Gibraltar below you. At Karnak you get 6 minutes 22 seconds, almost straight overhead, standing where people worshipped the sun for two millennia.