The last Wonder of the ancient world, a river of temples, and a cruise at the pace of the pharaohs, Egypt, the oldest, grandest journey there is.
Into Cairo, twenty million people on the banks of the Nile. After the flight we keep it easy, a first plate of koshari, a felucca on the river at sunset, the minarets lighting up across the city, an early night.
The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza, the only surviving Wonder of the ancient world, vast and silent on the desert edge of the city, a camel in the sand, the awe undiminished. The Grand Egyptian Museum and the gold of Tutankhamun.
Medieval Islamic Cairo, the Citadel and the alabaster mosque, the lanes and lanterns of the Khan el Khalili bazaar, the hanging churches of Coptic Cairo. A city layered from the pharaohs to the Fatimids to now, all at once.
South to Luxor, the world's greatest open air museum. The vast forest of columns at Karnak and the avenue of sphinxes at Luxor Temple, floodlit at night. Board your Nile cruiser and watch the riverbank slide by from the deck.
Across to the Theban necropolis, the painted tombs of the Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamun himself, the terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon. Then cast off and sail south, the Nile gold in the afternoon light.
The riverside temples of Edfu, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, and the double temple of Kom Ombo at the water's edge. Between them, the timeless Nile, palms, feluccas, water buffalo, children waving from the bank. A galabeya party on deck at night.
Aswan, the loveliest stretch of the river, the island temple of Philae, the High Dam, a felucca around Elephantine Island and the colourful Nubian villages, and a sundowner on the terrace of the Old Cataract, where Agatha Christie wrote.
South to Abu Simbel, the colossal rock temples Ramses the Great carved into a cliff and modern engineers lifted, block by block, above the rising waters of Lake Nasser. Four seated giants guarding the desert frontier. A last Nubian dinner.
A last Nile breakfast before your flight home via Cairo. Egypt is not a holiday so much as a pilgrimage into deep time, you leave with five thousand years rearranged in your head, and a longing to come back.
Three ways to do the same route: Comfort, Premium or Luxe. Breakfasts in. Mix tiers city by city if you like, it is your trip.
Priced to your dates, your hotel tier and how the two of you like to travel. Ask, the first answer usually lands within minutes.
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