10-Day Egypt Highlights Tour with Nile Cruise and Alexandria

• Meet the tour representative and professional guide at Cairo Airport, who will give you full attention from the first moment and accompany you by private air-conditioned car to begin your tour in Cairo.
• Start your tour by discovering Fustat city and visiting one of the newest museums in Egypt, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. In its main hall, the museum narrates the achievements of Egyptian civilization from prehistoric times to the present day.
• Continue to the crown jewel of the museum, the Royal Mummies Hall, which displays 22 royal mummies unearthed from various tombs. Walk around this room at leisure and look at kings and the queen - Queen Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, and Ramses II - resting in peace in their final home beside some of their funerary furniture, giving you the feeling of strolling through the Valley of the Kings where most of the mummies were originally resting.
• See the temporary exhibition about the history of four Egyptian crafts through different eras: pottery, textile, wood, and jewellery.
• Drive back to your hotel in Cairo.

Overnight in Cairo.

• After breakfast, your tour guide will pick you up from your hotel in Cairo by private air-conditioned car to start your tour.
• Begin your day by visiting one of the most attractive pharaonic sights in Egypt, the Giza Necropolis, to witness the pyramids of Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinus. Here, you will find a large number of pyramids and tombs dating back to the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. You will also see the pyramid of King Cheops, the only surviving wonder of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The tour also includes passing by the Princesses' and Queens' Pyramids.
• Move to the Valley Temple of King Chefren. This temple was used during the purification and mummification of the king's body.
• Continue to the Great Sphinx, with its lion's body and human head. According to pharaonic beliefs, it guards this great necropolis.
• Take some time at the Giza Plateau to visit the Papyrus Museum for shopping and enjoy taking fabulous photos with views over the plateau.
• Go for a camel ride or enter the Great Pyramid as an optional activity. This requires an extra fee of $20 per person.
• Head to Saqqara, a major part of Memphis's vast necropolis. In Saqqara, you will see one of the major archaeological sites in Egypt, the Complex of King Djoser, dating back to the 3rd Dynasty, around 2630 BC. This complex is considered the first complete stone construction in ancient Egyptian history, and it contains the oldest stone structure in pharaonic civilization, the Step Pyramid, built by the engineer Imhotep.
• Proceed to discover another kind of pharaonic pyramid, the Pyramid of King Teti from the 6th Dynasty. Unlike the Giza pyramids, these pyramids contain texts known as the Pyramid Texts, intended to guide the king on his passage to the afterlife.
• Witness the burial site of some of the most ancient noble Egyptians dating back to the Old and New Kingdoms, and visit the Tomb of Kagemni to see inscriptions showing daily life in ancient Egypt. Also witness Memphis, the first capital of united Egypt, founded by King Narmer in 3100 BC.
• Pay a visit to the Memphis Museum to see the colossal statue of Ramses II and the second biggest sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut.
• Drive back to your hotel in Cairo.

Overnight in Cairo.

• After breakfast, your tour guide will pick you up from your hotel in Cairo by private air-conditioned car to start your tour.
• Pay a visit to the Egyptian Museum, overlooking Tahrir Square. Khedive Abbas Hilmi II built this museum on 15 November 1902 to display more than 250,000 genuine objects, considered among the rarest and most precious collections of ancient Egyptian art in the world.
• Stroll through the halls to see ancient Egyptian treasures such as the Tanis treasures and the treasures of Yuya and Tuya, which are comparable to royal collections.
• Move on to the most famous fortress in Islamic Cairo, the Citadel of Saladin, built by Salah El-Din Al-Ayoubi in the 12th century to fortify Cairo against Crusader attacks. This citadel served as the seat of rule for 700 years.
• Go to the highest point inside the courtyard of the Citadel of Saladin, where you will find one of the most famous landmarks in Egypt, the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, also known as the Alabaster Mosque. It was designed in Turkish style by the Turkish architect Yousif Boushnaq, who came especially from Istanbul to build this great mosque. The mosque is distinguished by its beautiful wall decorations, remarkable domes, and minarets.
• Drive back to your hotel in Cairo.

Overnight in Cairo.

• Have breakfast at your Cairo hotel, then our guide will accompany you by private air-conditioned car to Cairo International Airport to catch your flight to Aswan. Upon arrival at Aswan Airport, you will find our team waiting to accompany you by air-conditioned car to the Nile Cruise.
• Check in on the Nile Cruise and meet your tour guide, who will accompany you on a new adventure in Aswan.
• Start your tour in Aswan by visiting the High Dam, the engineering miracle of the 1960s. It was built by President Gamal Abdel Nasser to protect Egypt from the annual floods of the Nile River.
• Sail by motorboat to Agilkia Island, one of the Aswan Islands, to visit the Temple of Isis at Philae Temple and learn how UNESCO saved it, as the temple used to be flooded for six months each year after the building of the Aswan Dam.
• Enjoy the Nile River views at this site and take fabulous shots.
• Move to the granite quarry to recognize the techniques used by the ancient Egyptians to cut and shape their obelisks through the Unfinished Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty, still resting on its side at the site.
• Drive back to the Nile Cruise.

Overnight in Aswan.

• Have breakfast on board the Nile Cruise. Your tour guide will pick you up by private air-conditioned car to Kom Ombo.
• Touch down on the shores of Kom Ombo and walk through the town until arriving at Kom Ombo Temple, the double temple. It is considered two identical temples dedicated to two gods: Horus, the falcon god, and Sobek, the crocodile god.
• Take a horse carriage to Edfu to visit the most complete and well-preserved temple in Egypt, Edfu Temple. Edfu Temple is dedicated to the falcon god Horus. The depictions in this temple reflect some of the ancient Egyptian political events and religious beliefs, including the legend of the conflict between Horus and Seth.
• Move back to the Nile Cruise to sail to Esna.

Overnight in Esna.

• Have breakfast on board the Nile Cruise. Your tour guide will pick you up in a private air-conditioned car to start your adventure in Luxor city.
• Start on the west bank of Luxor, where you will discover the Valley of the Kings and visit three royal tombs dating from the 18th to the 20th Dynasty. These tombs belonged to great ancient Egyptian kings and were carved deep into the desert rock, richly decorated to guide the king on his journey in the afterlife.
• Move to the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. Queen Hatshepsut is considered the most powerful woman who ruled Egypt. The temple consists of three levels connected by a ramp, and these levels depict important events from her reign, such as the divine birth and the commercial expedition to Punt Land.
• Pass by the mortuary temple of King Amenhotep III on your way through the west bank of Luxor and witness its colossal statues, the Colossi of Memnon. Your tour guide will tell you about the legend linking these statues with the Greek mythical hero Memnon.
• Have your lunch meal and cross the Nile to explore the east bank of Luxor city.
• Begin your tour on the east bank by exploring the route of the Opet feast of ancient Egypt. Start with Karnak Complex, the largest religious temple complex dedicated to the triad of Thebes - Amun-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu. In the ancient Egyptian language, this temple was called Ipet-isut, meaning "the most sacred of places".
• Walk through the Avenue of Sphinxes, where the parade of the triad of Thebes passed from Karnak Complex to Luxor Temple. This road is lined with sphinxes headed either by human heads or ram heads. It is thought that construction of the avenue started during the New Kingdom and was completed in the 30th Dynasty during the rule of King Nectanebo I.
• End your tour on the east bank of Luxor by visiting Luxor Temple, originally built during the reign of Amenhotep III and completed by Ramses II. After entering the temple, you will find Abu Al-Haggag Mosque, which was built on the ruins of a church that had itself been built inside the temple.
• Drive back to the Nile Cruise.

Overnight in Luxor.

• Have breakfast on the Nile Cruise, and you will find a private air-conditioned vehicle waiting to transfer you to Luxor Airport for your flight to Cairo. When you arrive at Cairo International Airport, you will find our team waiting to accompany you to Alexandria.
• Start your tour in Alexandria by visiting the Catacombs, dating back to the early Roman period. The Catacombs are the largest Roman cemetery, consisting of three levels cut into the rock and depicting a mixture of pharaonic and Greco-Roman art in the decoration of the tombs. Inside, you will see corpses buried in sarcophagi, on shelves, and in urns of ashes after cremation.
• After that, move to Pompey's Pillar. This pillar was constructed in honour of Emperor Diocletian at the end of the 4th century. Originally, the temple on this site was dedicated to the god Serapis, and your tour guide will explain why it came to be known by this name.
• Continue your tour with a visit to Qaitbay Citadel, the Ottoman fortress built on the site where the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, once stood on Pharos Island. It is considered one of the most important defensive strongholds not only in Egypt but also along the Mediterranean coast. There, you will enjoy views of the Mediterranean Sea.
• End your tour in Alexandria by exploring the modern Library of Alexandria, considered a cultural complex. It is the biggest library in the world, containing 8 million books. There, you will enjoy taking amazing photos.
• Drive back to your hotel in Cairo.

Overnight in Cairo.

• Have breakfast at your hotel in Cairo, and your tour guide will pick you up by private air-conditioned car to head to Fayoum Oasis.
• Discover Wadi El-Rayan and enjoy the largest waterfalls in Egypt, dunes, and several kinds of rare birds and animals, as it is considered a nature reserve.
• Move on to Tunis Village to learn about the daily lifestyle of the Fayoum community and practise making Fayoum pottery by visiting the pottery school.
• Have your lunch meal, then continue to Gabal El-Medawara, or Mudawara Mountain, and enjoy its beautiful layered appearance, whose symmetry draws your gaze, while discovering its magic lake.
• Drive back to your hotel in Cairo.

Overnight in Cairo.

• Have breakfast, and your tour guide will pick you up from your hotel in Cairo by private air-conditioned car to start your tour.
• See Egyptian history ranging from prehistory to the Greco-Roman period through 50,000 artifacts, some of them never exhibited before. These collections include finds from the new excavations of Saqqara, the complete collection of King Tut, and the boat of King Khufu, the Solar Boat.
• Enter the Atrium to see the colossal statue of King Ramses II. Then move to the Grand Staircase, surrounded by impressive statues of the great kings of ancient Egypt. At the end of the Grand Staircase, you will find the exhibition halls where the complete Tutankhamun collection will be displayed. In addition, four other exhibition halls contain collections reflecting ancient Egyptian history.
• Do not miss the journey into the real world of ancient Egyptians. Explore the amazing stories and secrets of ancient Egypt through a new experience in the Hololens Hall at the GEM. Wear the Hololens and interact with this vivid world.
• Drive back to your hotel in Cairo.

Overnight in Cairo.

• Have breakfast at your Cairo hotel, and our team will transfer you to Cairo International Airport for your departure flight.