| Day 1 - Cairo |
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You will be met upon arrival at the airport in Cairo and taken to your hotel for your overnight. |
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| Day 2 - Cairo |
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Enjoy a guided tour of Giza where you will see the Sphinx, Pyramids and the Solar Boat Museum. Have lunch at a local restaurant. Return to your hotel or have the driver drop you off at the Khan-el-Khalili Bazaar. Overnight at the same hotel. (B,L) |
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| Day 3 - Cairo/Alexandria |
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Depart by private car for Wadi El-Natroon where you will visit St Bishoi & Siryan Monasteries, two of the medieval monasteries built by the hermits of the 9th Century. Continue to Alexandria along the Desert Road. Visit the Roman Amphitheatre which was unearthed by accident in the middle of the 20th century and the Greco-Roman Museum with its collection of statues, coins and sarcophagie. Overnight at a local hotel. (B,L) |
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| Day 4 - Alexandria / Marsa - Martrouh |
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Today you will tour the Catacombs of Kom-el-Shokafa which depict an amalgame of ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman deities. Visit Pompey's Pillar and have lunch before departing for Marsa-Matrouh, a pretty town on the coast of the Mediterranean. Stop in Alamein to see the cemeteries, the small museum and the battle site. Overnight at a local hotel. (B,L) |
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| Day 5 & 6 - Marsa-Matrouh/Siwa |
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Depart for Siwa Oasis considered being the last frontier of Egypt. One of the most interesting places in all of Egypt, Siwa is renowned for its beautiful scenery with thick groves of date palms and olive trees, and sulphuric water springs. Siwa's inhabitants are ethnically distinct from the rest of Egypt. They are a nomadic, typical Bedouin people.
The town's center is dominated by the remains of the 13th century fortress of Shali. Visit the rock tombs of Gebel al-Mawta (Mountain of the Dead). The most interesting is Si-Amun's with its beautiful paintings. A short drive from the town is the citadel of Aghurmi where you will see the remains of the 26th dynastic temple of the Oracle; a site loved by Alexander the Great. Overnight at the Hotel. (2B,2L,2D)
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| Day 7 - Siwa/Bahariya Oasis |
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Depart through sand dunes to Bahariya Oasis. This is a long drive (approximately 6 hours) and you should arrive in time for lunch at Ahmed's Safari Camp, a simple hotel above the water springs of the oasis.
In the afternoon visit the newly-opened exhibit of mummies discovered in 1999 by the famous Archaeologist Zahi Hawass. His find astonished the world because of the number of mummies found buried in one huge labyrinth of tombs. Return to the Camp for your overnight. (B,L,D) |
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| Day 8 - Bahariya Oasis/Farafra Oasis |
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Head over mountainous roads to Farafra Oasis. Pass through the extraordinary White Desert, whose chalky sand resembles snow and is often wind-blown into gigantic mushroom-shaped formations. Overnight in the White desert. (B,L,D)
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| Day 9 - Farafra Oasis/Dakhla Oasis |
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Early departure for the 190 mile trip to Dakhla Oasis (approximately four hours). Check-in to the Mabarez Hotel and have lunch. Step back centuries as you visit the spellbinding medieval village of Al-Qasr.
Walk the narrow alleys threading among the mud-brick structures. Be sure to take note of the four/five-story Ottoman houses with their wooden-grill windows and lintels carved with verses from the Koran. Visit the 12th century mosque. Two miles beyond Al-Qasr is the El-Muzawwaka burial site, with its 1st and 2nd century tombs. Time permitting, visit Balat Village with its Pharaonic mastabas dating to the 6th Dynasty. Return to Hotel for your overnight. (B,L,D)
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| Day 10 - Dakhla Oasis/Kharga Oasis |
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Prehistoric paintings of giraffes and antelopes decorate the sides of strangely-shaped rock formations along the 125 mile road between Dakhla and Kharga oases.
Check-in at Hamad Allah Hotel and have lunch before touring the area. Visit the museum which houses an excellent collection of regional artifacts from various eras. A mile out of town is the temple of Hibis, built by the Persian emperor Darius in the 6th century BC and dedicated to God Amun.
A mile farther is the fascinating necropolis of Bagawat, a Coptic Christian burial ground dating to the 4th century. Its mud-brick mausoleums cover many hills and some of the domes are decorated with frescoes of biblical scenes. Tour the Temple of Ghuwaytah built during the Ptolemeic era for the Triad of Amun, Mut & Khonsu. Return to the hotel for your overnight. (B,L,D) |
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| Day 11 - Kharga Oasis/Luxor |
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Head to Luxor (approximately four hours), stopping at one of the Roman sites: either Qasr Al-Zayyan or the Roman fortress of Al-Deir along the way. Transfer into a local hotel upon arrival. (B,L) |
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| Day 12 - Luxor |
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Depart overland for Abydos, a huge necropolis dating back to 3100 BC. The most important temples were built by Seti I and his son Ramses II and the site remained prominent well into Roman times. The most complete and beautiful structure is the Temple of Seti I dedicated to several gods including Osiris, Isis, Horus and Amun. Abydos remained an important site for so long because it was a place of pilgrimage for the cult of Osiris, god of the dead.
Continue to Dendara where you will visit the Temple of Hathor (woman with the head of a cow), the goddess of pleasure and love, and the mate of the god Horus. Hathor's temple with its stone roof, underground passages and columns inscribed with hieroglyphics is nearly intact. On the walls of the temple's Outer Hypostyle Hall are scenes that depict the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero as pharaohs. Return to Luxor and transfer to a local hotel for your overnight. (B,L) |
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| Day 13 - Luxor/Cairo |
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Visit The West Bank - the Valley of the Kings, Valley of The Queens and The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at El Deir El Bahari , Transfer to the railway station to take the train on your way to Cairo. (B,L) |
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| Day 14 - Cairo |
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Arrive Cairo, transfer to your hotel, overnight in hotel
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| Day 15 - Cairo |
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Our representative will transfer you to the airport and assist you at the airport through final departure formalities (B) |
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