Egypt – Cruising the Nile – Cairo to Aswan

Our day starts with a visit to the new Grand Egyptian Museum*, where the world’s most extensive exhibitions in pharaonic artefacts can be seen. Among the many treasures on display are the solid gold mask of Tutankhamun, and the Narmer Palette, thought to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The new museum is also home to King Khufu's Solar Boat. After our visit we transfer to the port to board the MS Nile Monarch, our cruise ship for the next fourteen nights.

*if the GEM is not open we will instead visit the Museum of Antiquities in Tahrir Square, Cairo.

A full day of site visits starting at Giza to admire the only surviving representative of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Great Pyramid. It towers some 147 metres above the plateau and its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons. Here we will also see the Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure as well as the enigmatic Sphinx. Next, we visit nearby Memphis, which was founded over 5,000 years ago and was the first capital of a united Egypt. The site was once very extensive, but little now remains. The Memphis Museum Garden houses some of the pieces of sculpture of most interest to visitors which include the fallen colossus of Ramesses II. In the afternoon we visit the necropolis of Saqqara. Here were buried some of the most important officials of Memphis and it was also the place situation of Egypt’s first pyramid. It is one of the most archaeologically important sites in Egypt. Time permitting, we will visit the smooth sided pyramid of Unas, and tour the 3rd Dynasty Pharoah Djoser’s distinctive Step Pyramid complex.

Our day starts at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. The NMEC opened in 2017 and is the first of its kind to display the richness and diversity of Egyptian civilization throughout the ages, from prehistoric times to the present day. The museum’s exceptional collection includes the royal mummies, which are exhibited in a new interactive display using 21st century cutting-edge technology to go beneath the wrappings and reveal their secrets, in addition to shedding light on the rituals and religious beliefs surrounding mummification in ancient Egypt. After lunch at a local restaurant, we visit the magnificent Citadel – the medieval Islamic stronghold of Salah l-Din strategically located on a promontory beneath the Mokattam Mountain. Until 1983, the Citadel was used as a military garrison by occupying British forces and later by the Egyptian army. It first opened to the public following UNESCO’s designation of it as part of the World Heritage Site, Historic Cairo. Today the site contains a number of Ottoman-era mosques and amazing views of Cairo. Our day ends with a visit to the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, whose warren of cobblestone lanes and alleys are lined with colourful shops.

Today is spent sailing the long distance from Cairo to Beni Suef. Enjoy the chance to relax and reflect on our days spent in Cairo. The ship overnights in Beni Suef.

Another day sailing along the Nile. Spend the day at leisure, enjoy unforgettable sights as we cruise along this mighty waterway. Our ship overnights in Minya ready for an early site visit the following day.

We disembark early and drive to Beni Hassan, the cemetery site of tombs cut high in the desert cliff overlooking the Nile. The climb up to the tombs requires some effort but the view from the top is breath taking and the tombs are fabulous. These Middle Kingdom tombs belonged to the most important men of the local district, the provincial governors (or nomarchs) of the administrative district (or nome). The walls of the tombs are covered in scenes of daily life in extraordinary detail. These include scenes of agriculture, crafts, fishing, fowling and hunting. Returning to the boat mid-morning we sail on to Tell el-Armana where the ships is moored overnight.

Another early morning start to visit Tel el-Amarna, one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt. It is also one of those which is usually ignored or given scant attention by tour operators because there are no monumental structures here. Amarna is, however, the most significant surviving city site from ancient Egypt; the majority having been built over by later settlements. It was also a new Capital city, constructed by Amenhotep IV beginning in the fifth year of his reign. The original name of the city was Akhenaten, the ‘Horizon of the Aten’, a title corresponding to the actions of the so-called ‘heretic Pharaoh’ Akhenaten as he later became to be known. The city itself was abandoned after the Pharaoh’s death, only 20 years or so after its creation. Here, we visit the tombs of important priests Meryre and Panehesy as well as the Royal Tomb of Akhenaten and the Temple of Aten. Afterwards we visit Tuna el Gebel the necropolis for the ancient town of Hermopolis and at the edge of the western desert. It marks the boundary of Akhenaten’s city some 11kms from the centre of Tell el-Amarna. We return to the ship mid-morning  and sail on to Assiut cruising through Assiut’s Lock en route.

Today is spent sailing from Assiut to Sohag where we will moor for the night.

We sail this morning to El Bayana for our visit to Abydos. This is one of the most sacred sites in Egypt and was identified as the burial place of Osiris. The main focus of our visit is the important cult temple of Seti I with its fabulous wall decorations, some of the finest of the New Kingdom. The temple is also the home of the only King List still to remain in situ in Egypt. King Lists were originally present in all such cult temples as a focus of worship for the ancestors of the ruler who had constructed the temple. They are therefore a valuable source of information for the history of the pharaohs – or at least they should be. However, the ancient Egyptians were not beyond re-writing history, airbrushing (or chiseling) out those aspects of their history which they found unpalatable.

Afterwards we visit Dendera once the capital of the Sixth Upper Egyptian nome. Like Saqqara it was the site of burials of sacred animals, particularly cows associated with the cult of the local goddess Hathor. It is the temple of Hathor which is the focus of our visit. The roof of the temple includes a number of chapels, symbolic mortuary chapels for Osiris. One of these contained the famous Dendera Zodiac, which is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, but it is replicated here in situ by a circular plaster cast depicting the hours of the day and night as well as the journey of the sun, moon, and stars across the sky. From the roof the sacred lake, representing the waters of creation, can be clearly seen. Our ship sails on to Nag Hammadi where we re-join it.

We set sail early morning to Luxor, the modern-day Egyptian city built over the ancient city the Greeks named “Thebes” and the ancient Egyptians called “Waset”. Ancient Egypt’s political, military, and religious capital for over 1,500 years, it is now known as the world's greatest open-air museum, home to some of Egypt's most famous temples, tombs and monuments.

After lunch on board our afternoon is spent at Karnak exploring the largest temple complex in Egypt, and some have argued, the largest religious complex in the world. In addition to its religious significance, it also served as a treasury, administrative centre, and palace for the New Kingdom pharaohs. Added to by generation after generation of pharaohs over a period of 1,500 years, it’s a dazzling maze of monumental gateways, obelisks, pillared halls and subsidiary shrines. From Hatshepsut, Seti I and Rameses II to the Ptolemies, Romans, and early Christians; all have left their mark here. We also explore Luxor Temple, with its avenue of sphinxes, military reliefs and gorgeous papyrus columns. Our ship overnights in Luxor.

An early start allows a full day of site visits today as we make the most of our time in Luxor. During the morning we visit the Colossi of Memnon, two enormous statues of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III which captivated the imaginations of curious travellers for millennia. We continue to nearby Deir el-Bahari where we visit the impressive colonnaded Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, mortuary temple of the only female Pharaoh. Next, we visit the Valley of the Kings. Here on the west bank is the necropolis area reserved for royal burials from around 2100 BCE, but it was the Pharaohs of the later New Kingdom period, who chose these once remote desert valley sites for their grand rock-cut tombs. Of over 60 tombs discovered in the Valley of the Kings, only a small number are open to the public and we enter a selection of these, including the elaborately decorated tomb of Seti I, which details the opening of the mouth ceremony. We will also visit Deir El Medina, the village of the workers who constructed the tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Here we come closest to the daily lives of a group of individuals living in a community. Overnight we sail to Edfu via Esna.

We go ashore to the Temple of Edfu, a beautiful Ptolemaic temple dedicated to Horus, the avenging falcon god. A late construction built between 237 and 57 BCE; this is one of Egypt’s best-preserved ancient monuments but was built on top of much older ruins dating back to Ramses III. The temple embodies the traditional architecture of ancient Egypt and is largely free of Hellenistic influence and several of the inscriptions found at the temple of Edfu describe what is known as the “Sacred Drama.” The story describes the conflict between Horus, the deity of the fertile Egyptian lands near the Nile, and Seth, the deity of the surrounding Egyptian desert, as Horus seeks revenge for the murder of his father, Osiris. Returning to the boat we set sail before lunch to continue our journey, and overnight at Kom Ombo.

After an early breakfast we disembark for a short visit to the partially restored remains of Kom Ombo’s Ptolemaic temple standing dramatically above the Nile. The situation of this temple, overlooking the river, is particularly picturesque, even though the carvings of the temple itself are not of a particularly high standard. It is, however, peculiar in its double dedication, reflected in its perfectly symmetrical layout. The eastern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, his wife Hathor, and their son Khonsu. The western half of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Horus, his wife Tasenetnofret, and their son Panebtawy. It is likely that there were two separate priesthoods who tended to the deities. Back on board, we continue sailing to Aswan.

After lunch on board, we explore the Quarries at Aswan, famous as the source of pink granite which was widely used in many pharaonic monuments. We see the spectacular ‘Unfinished Obelisk, some 42m long and weighing approximately 1,197 tons. Had it been successfully removed from its site it would have been the largest such obelisk ever quarried. In the event, it developed a crack and had to be abandoned, but this has left us with good evidence for the stages in its quarrying. It is evident that it was literally pecked out of the stone using basalt pounders and was gradually undercut before the side of the trench was removed and the stone slid out.

From here we continue to the atmospheric ruins of Philae, the Ptolemaic Island temple, a labyrinthine complex of chapels and shrines – which were originally dedicated to the goddess Isis – this was the Byzantine Empire’s last bastion of paganism. To nineteenth century travellers Philae was ‘the pearl of the Nile’ set on its own island, with just enough vegetation to make this the archetypal romantic ruin. It was pictured by David Roberts, Frances Frith and a generation of other artists and photographers. These individuals would recognise most of the site we see today but might be surprised to learn that it is no longer on its original island.

This morning we visit Elephantine Island, the location of the ancient town and temple in Aswan. Excavations have revealed that the mud brick town dates back to the Early Dynastic Period, as does the evidence of a shrine there, nestled among the great granite boulders of the First Cataract. The ancient name for Elephantine was ‘abu’ or ’yebu’ meaning ‘elephant’ and ‘ivory’. This was the cult place of the ram-headed god Khnum, a creator god associated with the Nile and the first cataract and potters. We will explore the remains of the temples of Khnum and Satet, and their associated Nileometers (for measuring the Nile flood levels). 

Later this afternoon, we sail by felucca around Elephantine Island with views of the Botanical Garden and Agha Khan’s Mausoleum. We return to Aswan for our last night on board the MS Nile Monarch.

A very early start this morning as we fly to the world-renowned Nubian site at Abu Simbel, 140 miles south-west of Aswan. Abu Simbel is at the edge of the desert and temperatures can get very high during the day, the benefits of visiting in the cooler hours of the morning far outweigh the inconvenience of an early start. The site is quite simply spectacular and well worth the effort involved in getting there. Miraculously rescued from Lake Nasser’s rising waters after the creation of the High Dam and rebuilt on the western bank, the two massive rock temples of Ramesses II and his favourite queen, Nefertari, were originally carved into the mountainside in 1244 BCE to honour the deified royal pair and to awe the Nubians. In an effort to prevent the temples’ destruction, UNESCO embarked on its first-ever collaborative international rescue effort. This later became the catalyst for a World Heritage list that would help protect and promote over a thousand significant cultural and natural sites around the globe.

After lunch in a local restaurant in Aswan we take an afternoon flight to Cairo and enjoy a farewell dinner this evening.

We are conveniently located at our Cairo airport hotel for our return flights back to the UK.