| ANCIENT & MODERN |
 10 DAYS / 9 NIGHTSYou meet the group at Johannesburg International Airport at 19:30 on Tuesday for your flight to Cairo (Flight MS 840: departing 22:30, arriving 06:30). Day 1 Arrive in Cairo Wednesday Upon your arrival at Cairo International Airport you are met by your English-speaking Tour Manager and assisted through immigration and customs. You are then transferred by coach to your hotel where you have a hearty breakfast. (In view of the fact that your room will only be available at 12:00, your luggage is left on the coach while you undertake a morning excursion.) You are then joined by a qualified Egyptologist (who will accompany you for the rest of the trip) and visit the ruins of the ancient city of Memphis, one of the oldest cities on earth and capital of ancient Egypt throughout the Old Kingdom, and Saqqara, the royal burial ground during the Old Kingdom (2705 – 2155 BC). Of special interest will be the Stepped Pyramid built for King Zoser in the 27th century BC by the architect Imhotep. The remainder of the day is at leisure. Dinner this evening at your hotel. Overnight: Semiramis Intercontinental ***** Day 2 Cairo Thursday After breakfast you travel to the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza standing on a desert plateau some 15 kms out of Cairo, immutably majestic as they have been for thirty-five centuries and amongst the biggest manmade edifices on earth. You will have an opportunity to enter the second biggest pyramid to marvel at how the ancient Egyptians managed to build these huge edifices with blocks of granite weighing many tons without using mortar, but nevertheless so perfect that a human hair cannot pass between the blocks. You will also have an opportunity to stand within a stone’s throw from the ancient Sphinx, representing a lion’s body with a man’s head and dating back to antiquity. You then visit a papyrus factory where you learn more about the ancient art of paper manufacturing and have an opportunity to purchase authenticated works of art hand-painted on papyrus. You then visit Coptic Cairo where you visit, inter alia, the Church of St Sergius where, according to tradition, the Holy Family sheltered during their sojourn in Egypt, and the oldest Christian church in Egypt, the famous Hanging Church (al-Mu’allaqa) originating in the 4th century and built over the southern gate of the Fortress of Babylon. This church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and its treasures include a 14th century wall-painting of the Nativity. This evening you enjoy a dinner cruise on the Nile and enjoy a belly dance and Sofi dance show. Overnight: Semiramis Intercontinental ***** Day 3 Cairo Friday After breakfast you visit the Egyptian Museum one of the world’s most famous museums which contains a magnificent collection of antiquities, including mummies, sarcophagi and the fabulous treasures discovered in the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamun on 22 December 1922, ….as well as the Citadel of Salah al-Din built between 1176 and 1182 AD and now providing a panoramic view of Cairo from the Moqattam Hills. The Citadel complex includes the Alabaster Mosque. You then visit the bustling Khan el Khalili Bazaar the biggest of Cairo’s main markets, in operation since the 1390s and one of the most famous oriental bazaars in the world – offering plenty of bargains, particularly in leather goods, and brass and glassware, as well as objects inlaid with mother-of-pearl and other beautiful jewelry. Try your hand at haggling a price! The remainder of the day is at leisure affording time to, inter alia, ascend Cairo Tower with an unforgettable view of this ancient city. Dinner at the hotel. Overnight: Semiramis Intercontinental ***** Day 4 Cairo – Alexandria Saturday After breakfast you depart for the coastal city of Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt. Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, became the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, its status as a beacon of culture symbolized by Pharos, the legendary lighthouse which was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. Upon arrival you visit the Catacombs of Kom es-Shokafa, a warren of tombs on three levels which also contain the Triclinium where relatives used to sit on stone benches to feast the dead, and a central tomb with reliefs of bearded serpents. Inside are 2nd century AD statues of Sobek and Anubis wearing Roman armour. Then on to the Pompey’s Pillar erected in honour of the victories of the 3rd century AD Roma Emperor Diocletian. You then visit the famous Bibliotheca Alexandrina a beacon of art, literature and knowledge, a magnificent library built in commemoration of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina where scholars from all over the ancient world gathered in search of knowledge and culture and which was burned to the ground in the time of Julius Caesar. Dinner at your hotel. Overnight: Sheraton Montazah ***** Day 5 Alexandria – Cairo Sunday After breakfast you check out and visit the Montazah Palace and Gardens – Acres of formal gardens and a beautiful beach make Montazah the foremost city pleasure grounds. The Palace, a grand structure built in a mixture of Turkish and Florentine styles, is now a state guest house. You then drive back to Cairo by coach arriving in the afternoon. The remainder of the day is at leisure – possibly for last minute shopping at the Khan el Khalili Bazaar. Dinner at the hotel. Overnight: Intercontinental City Star ***** Day 6 Cairo/Luxor/Nile Cruise Monday After breakfast you check out of the hotel and are transferred to Cairo Domestic Airport for your flight to Luxor (Flight MS 115: departing 06:50, arriving 07:55). Upon your arrival at Luxor Domestic Airport you are met and transferred to your luxury Nile Cruiser. You have time to freshen up before lunch on board. In the afternoon you visit the magnificent Karnak Temple probably the greatest place of worship in history. (The temple includes many magnificent temples dedicated to Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu, the moon deity. The main features are the Avenue of the Rams, representing Amun, symbol of fertility and growth. Within the temple are, inter alia, the Chapels of the Thebes Triad dating to the time of Seti II and the Temple of Ramses III, the obelisks of Thutmosis ! and of Queen Hatshepsut, the remains of the Holiest of Holies and further on the Hall of Ceremonies dating back to Thutmosis III.) and … Luxor Temple built by the two Pharaohs Amenhotep IIII and Ramses II, the temple was dedicated to Amun-Ra, whose marriage to Mut was celebrated by the ancient Egyptians annually when a sacred procession moved from Karnak to the Luxor Temple. To be viewed are, inter alia, statues of Ramses II, double rows of huge columns with bud papyrus capitals, further double rows of pillars, the Sanctuary of the Sacred Boat and the four-columned Holiest of Holies; the Sanctuary of the Sacred Statue. Dinner and overnight on board. Day 7 Nile Cruise Tuesday After breakfast on board you visit the Valley of the Kings containing tombs of roughly 64 famous Egyptian kings including Tutankhamun, Seti I, Amenhotep II, Thutmosis III and Ramses III. These tombs were hewn into the sheer rock faces of the valley so as to safeguard them against grave robbers; Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple (Dier el-Bahari) built by Queen Hatshepsut to perform the rights of the nether world. The temple comprises three impressive rising terraces split by a road and the Colossi of Memnon, the only remains of a temple commemorating King Amenhotep III. The statues are 19,2 metres high.. Then commences your cruise down the historic Nile, that “gigantic serpent that winds so fabulously, so ungraspably, back through history”. Lunch on board while sailing to Esna and then on to Edfu. Dinner and overnight on board. Day 8 Nile Cruise Wednesday Breakfast on board. This morning you visit Edfu Temple the best preserved cult temple in Egypt, dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed god, it was built during the reign of six Ptolomies. The main building, which includes a great hypostyle hall, was uncovered by Mariette in the 1860s. There are numerous reliefs including a depiction of the Feast of the Beautiful Meeting, the annual reunion between Horus and his wife Hathor, and a particularly fine ceiling relief of the goddess Nut in the New Year Chapel. Lunch on board. Then on to Kom Ombo where you visit the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek, a magnificent Ptolemic temple in a dramatic setting on high ground beside the Nile and surrounded by sugar cane fields. Dedicated jointly to Haroeris, the Grand Doctor, and Sobek, the crocodile god, the temple is famous for its twin entrances, halls and sanctuaries. Sculptured wall reliefs include one showing ancient surgical instruments, bone saws and dental tools. Three mummified crocodiles found near-by are now in the Chapel of Hathor. Dinner and overnight on board. Day 9 Aswan Thursday Breakfast on board. You then disembark and visit the world-famous Aswan High Dam, an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. Today it provides irrigation water and electricity to the whole of Egypt. From the top of the ± 3 km long High Dam you can gaze across Lake Nasser, the huge reservoir created when the High Dam was built, at Kalabsha Temple in the south and the huge power station in the north. You then visit the Philae Temple dismantled and reassembled on Agilika Island (about 800 km from its original home on Philae Island) in the wake of the High Dam. This temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis, is in a beautiful setting which has been landscaped to match its original site. Its various shrines and sanctuaries which include a temple to Hathor, a Birth House and two pylons, celebrate all the deities involved in the Isis and Osiris myth. Then on to the Granite Quarries and the Unfinished Obelisk: The Unfinished Obelisk still lies where a crack was discovered as it was being hewn from the rock – hewn on three sides, the fourth still attached to the quarry bed. Possibly intended as companion to the Lateran Obelisk now in Rome, it would have measured 120 feet in height and weighed over 1150 tons when complete. It is a concrete example of how the ancient Egyptians went about fashioning these graceful monuments. You also enjoy a round trip in a felucca viewing the Botanical Gardens on Plantation Island and the Aga Khan Mausoleum en route. Almost the whole of Plantation Island consists of a botanical garden filled with exotic plants and trees imported from all over the world. The Aga Khan spent every winter in Aswan and was buried here in this magnificent mausoleum modeled on the Fatimid tombs in Cairo. Dinner and overnight on board. Day 10 Aswan/Cairo/Johannesburg Friday Breakfast on board. After breakfast you are transferred to Aswan Airport for you morning flight back to Cairo (Flight MS 138: departing 08:55, arriving 10:25). Upon arrival in Cairo you are transferred to the Zayed Hotel ***. You have a room at your disposal to freshen up. The remainder of the day is at leisure for last minute shopping and own sightseeing (for your own account). Dinner at the Zayed Hotel. In the late evening you are transferred to Cairo International Airport for you flight to Johannesburg (Flight MS 839, departing at 01:25 on Saturday arriving 09:25 on Saturday). The tour price: R15 400 per person sharing accommodation Single Supplement: R2 400 per person not willing or able to share accommodation Included in the price:
Not included in the price:
Visas: South African citizens need to apply for a visa to enter Egypt. This visa is issued free of charge. However, Selected Tours & Destinations, charges a handling fee of R200-00 per visa application. Visa requirements:
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