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Itinerary:
Day 1:
Arrive
Cairo International airport,
meet and assist by our representative inside the airport with
a sign of your group
name; he will assist you through passport control
formalities, luggage identification and then
transfer you by air-conditioned bus to
your hotel
to
check in.
Dinner & Overnight in Cairo
Day 2
Buffet breakfast at your Hotel then
meet our professional Egyptology English speaking
guide. Our Egypt experience begins with a full day at
the
Giza Plateau.
We'll visit the
Great Pyramid
(of course!) and the newly re-opened "3rd
Pyramid."
The
2nd Pyramid
is presently closed for renovations, but if
possible, we will visit the 2nd Pyramid also. We'll see the Solar
Boat (almost 5,000 years old!), the
Sphinx and the Valley Temple. There
are legends of the Sphinx speaking - does the Sphinx
have a message for you?
Camel rides are available for the adventurous. Next
we will visit the Papyrus Institute to learn how
paper is made. Lunch will be served at a typical
restaurant in the pyramids area. After lunch we'll
continue with a visit to the Step
Pyramid of Sakkara,
designed and built by Imhotep in 2630 BC for King
Djoser; it consists of 6 mastabas and is possibly
the world's oldest freestanding stone structure. Last we'll visit the
City of Memphis,
the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom about
3000 BC.
Optional:
Sound & Light Show at the pyramids.
Dinner & Overnight in Cairo
Day 3:
Early breakfast at your Hotel, then transfer to Cairo Airport for a flight to
Luxor.
Upon arrival in Luxor we ferry across the Nile to the
West Bank.
Here we visit the
Valley of the Kings
where "The Book of the Dead" funerary texts
are exquisitely painted and carved into walls. We go
on to visit the
Valley of the Queens
and selected tombs of the
Nobles.
At
Deir El-Bahri,
we invoke Anubis in the Anubis chapel of
Hatshepsut's magnificent Temple.
We then visit
Ramses III's majestic Temple
of
Mediner Helou and gaze in wonder at the immense
Colossi of Mammon.
After lunch, we begin with visiting the
Luxor Temple.
Both gently beautiful and awesomely grand,
this temple was the "Bride
of Karnak"
during the annual Apet festival. Then it's back to
the airport
for our return flight back to
Cairo.
Dinner & Overnight in Cairo
Day 4:
Breakfast at your Hotel, then start
on a full day tour
of Cairo. First we
stop to enjoy a panoramic
view of
Cairo from the Citadel;
built by Saladin in the 12th Century,
it was the seat of power for the next 700 years.
Then we
visit the Alabaster
Mosque,
built in the Turkish style of architecture and similar to the Blue
Mosque in Turkey.
Then it is time for our long-awaited visit to the
Cairo Egyptian Museum
which
contains the largest & finest
collection of pharaonic antiquities in the world
and the King Tut collection. Having
experienced the different temples and pyramids, the
Old Kingdom, New Kingdom and Ptolemaic (Greek) eras
are now part of our common knowledge and the
artifacts at the museum have more meaning for us by
this point.
One could spend a week here and still not properly see everything,
but we have a good, long visit here before making our late
afternoon trip to the
colorful
Kahn al-Khalili bazaar. You'll
enjoy shopping and bargaining as this is you time to
pick up last minute souvenirs or gifts to take home.
You can have you last dinner here at
the famous and historic Naguib Mafouz restaurant,
and you can also try smoking shisha at an outdoor cafe here.
Alternatively, you can
enjoy a buffet dinner at
the Nile Oberoi boat, the cruising restaurant,
while enjoying the Egyptian Folklore show
and belly dancers.
Overnight in Cairo
Day 5:
Buffet breakfast at your Hotel then, depending
on your departure time, some more free time at your leisure in
Cairo or check out and our representative will take
you
to the Cairo International Airport for your return
flight back home.
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