Egypt - Land of the Pharaohs

Arrive into Cairo and meet your expert Guide Lecturer and fellow travellers at your hotel.

Meals: Snack

We dedicate today to one of the most archaeologically important sites in Egypt – the sprawling necropolis of Saqqara. Here were buried some of the most important early pharaohs of Egypt and their officials, and it is also the place of Egypt’s first pyramid. We discover the 3rd Dynasty Pharaoh Djoser’s distinctive Step Pyramid complex and the Pyramid of Unas, with the oldest surviving religious texts, as well as the Imhotep Museum (reopened in 2023 after extensive renovation). After lunch, we return to our hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning, we visit the best preserved of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), which towers some 481 feet (147 metres) above the plateau, its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weighing an average of 2.5 to 15 tons. But there is a great deal more to the site. We also discover the Pyramids of Khafre as well as the enigmatic Sphinx, carved from a knoll of rock left in one of the stone quarries used to provide stone for the pyramids and tombs at Giza. Its face probably represents Khafra, but arguments have been made for Djedefra and recently for the Sphinx being much older than the pyramids themselves. In the afternoon, we visit the 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.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We set off early for Beni Hassan this morning, winding our way out of the traffic-heavy roads of Cairo and onto the fast highway to Minya. The journey takes us around 4 hours as we travel through the desert, tracking the Nile. Our goal is the site of Beni Hassan, just south of Minya. These rock-cut tombs high in the desert cliff overlooking the Nile take a little effort to reach but the view from the top is breathtaking and the tombs are fabulous. These Middle Kingdom tombs are painted, rather than decorated in carved reliefs, and covered in scenes of daily life in extraordinary detail. These include scenes of agriculture, crafts, fishing, fowling and hunting. We overnight in Minya, now a small city mostly overlooked by tourists but once a powerful regional capital within Egypt.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today we visit Tell 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 5th 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, Nefertiti’s Palace and the Temple of Aten.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Our day starts at the rich and varied archaeological site of Tuna el-Gebel, which functioned as the necropolis for the ancient town of Khemnu/Hermopolis at the edge of the western desert. It marks the boundary of Akhenaten’s city some 11kms from the centre of Tell el-Amarna and is home to one of Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s ‘boundary stelae’, carved into the limestone cliff. We also visit vast catacombs for ibis and baboons, associated with the god Thoth, and impressive tombs, including that of a High Priest of Thoth c300 BCE – Petosiris, whose reliefs combine Greek and Egyptian artistic styles. In the afternoon, we continue our drive south to Abydos.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning, we visit Abydos, one of the most sacred sites in Egypt, 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. After a picnic lunch, we continue to 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. 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.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning, we cross the river by motorboat. Our first stop on the west bank is to the famous Colossi of Memnon. These two enormous statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III stand at a towering 18 metres high and were erected to guard the entrance to the pharaoh’s vast and opulent memorial temple. Next, we visit the Valley of the Kings. 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 spend our afternoon at the Memorial Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, a stunning shrine cradled by the dramatic natural sculptures of neighbouring cliffs. The site is often regarded as one of the most spectacular and beautiful in Egypt, although the temple to which visitors now come is not the first on the site, nor is it entirely original in its architecture!

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Our first site visit of the day is to Karnak, where we explore 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. After lunch, we visit Luxor Museum, where we see a masterfully arranged collection of archaeological artefacts and celebrated works of art, including the famous statue of Tuthmosis III, an extraordinary figure carved out of greywacke, and an alabaster figure of Amenhotep III protected by the great crocodile god, Sobek.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We return to the West Bank today with our first visit to Medinet Habu, arguably the best-preserved temple of the New Kingdom, filled with a wealth of exemplary paintings, carvings and sculptures. In total, the precinct contains over seven square kilometres of decorated reliefs. From here, we continue to the Ramesseum, with its fallen colossus of Ramesses II, an astounding testament to the Pharaohs reign – and the inspiration behind Percy Bysshe Shelley’s masterpiece, Ozymandias. In the afternoon, we explore Deir el-Medina. This is a special place because here we come closest to the daily lives of a group of individuals living in ancient Egypt. This was no ordinary community however, but the settlement of the craftsmen responsible for constructing the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and as such employees of the state. Today we embark our Nile cruise boat, our home for the next four nights.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Before we set sail today, we visit Luxor Temple. Linked to the Karnak complex by an avenue of sphinxes, processions would travel along this 1.5k-mile route on a regular basis. There were barque shrines where the boats, which carried the image of the god, could be placed and where ceremonies could be conducted. After lunch on board, we start our journey to Aswan, sailing up the Nile towards Edfu.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today we discover the temples of the gods of Upper Egypt, starting with the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Towering at a jaw-dropping 37 metres, its pylon – or gateway – is the highest among all of Egypt’s surviving temples and is decorated with vivid scenes of King Ptolemy XII destroying his enemies before Horus on the First Pylon of this temple. The complex even houses a Nilometer, a structure made to measure the depth and clarity of flooding Nile waters. This afternoon, we explore the Temple of Sobek and Horus the Elder at Kom Ombo and the site’s Crocodile Museum. The remains of Kom Ombo’s Ptolemaic temple stand dramatically above the Nile and its situation overlooking the river is particularly picturesque. It is peculiar in its double dedication, reflected in its perfectly symmetrical layout; the eastern half dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, his wife Hathor and their son Khonsu, and the western to the falcon god Horus, his wife Tasenetnofret and their son Panebtawy.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We spend the day in Aswan, making our way to ancient Egypt’s southern border to visit the atmospheric ruins of the Ptolemaic Temple of Isis in Philae, a labyrinthine complex of chapels and shrines – which were originally dedicated to the goddess Isis. To 19th-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. After a stop at the High Dam, we continue to 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 42 metres long and weighing approximately 1,197 tons. After lunch on board our ship, we visit Elephantine Island, the location of the ancient town and temple in Aswan.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today we disembark from our Nile cruise and fly from Aswan to the world-renowned Nubian site at Abu Simbel, 140 miles south-west of Aswan at the edge of the desert. 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 1250 BCE to honour the deified royal pair. 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. Later today, we fly back to Cairo.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Before returning to London, we visit the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. The NMEC opened in 2021
and is the first of its kind to display the richness and diversity of Egyptian civilisation throughout the ages, from prehistoric times to the present day. The museum’s exceptional collection includes the New Kingdom royal mummies, once buried in the Valley of the Kings, and a fantastic display of ancient textiles. Later, depart for the airport or continue your trip at leisure. 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch