| GOLFING IN CAIRO & NILE CRUISE |
 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 meet your English-speaking guide and have a hearty breakfast. (In view of the fact that your room will only be available at 12:00, your luggage remains on the coach while you undertake an excursion.) 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 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. You then check into your hotel. The remainder of the day is at leisure. Dinner at your hotel. Day 2 Cairo Thursday Breakfast at the hotel. Today has been reserved for your first round of golf at your hotel. About the courses: If at the Hilton Dream: Located on the outskirts of Cairo, the Golf and Tennis Resort is part of Dreamland City, currently the world’s largest private sector development. Narrow serpentine fairways wind around grassy mounds and lakes, all contrasted against golden desert sands, offer spectacular views of the Great Pyramids of Giza. The Dreamland Golf Course is an exceptional 18-hole, par 72 layout designed by the renowned golf architect Karl Litten. Course Specifications:
If at the J W Marriott at Mirage City: About the course: The golf course covers 250 acres, represents Cairo’s most unique and challenging golf design and offers a new level of excellence in both hospitality and golf. The Clubhouse has three restaurants, as well as function rooms, a bar, billiards, a library and a boardroom. At the hotel you could enjoy their six restaurants, four bars, function rooms, four swimming pools, sauna, steam bath, exercise facilities, health spa and equestrian club. Course Specifications:
You will be entitled to enjoy with the golf facilities at the Resorts for own account: the Pro Shop, caddies, power carts, tournaments and food and beverage on the course. This evening you enjoy a Dinner Cruise on the Nile, tasting the best Middle Eastern cuisine and enjoying a traditional Egyptian Sufi Tanora Show and Egyptian belly dancing show. Day 3 Cairo Friday Breakfast at the hotel. Today has been reserved fro sight-seeing. 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 – in operation since 1390 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! Dinner at your hotel. Day 4 Cairo Saturday Breakfast at the hotel. Today you enjoy a day of superb golf at Katamya Heights Golf & Tennis Resort. Since January 1997, the Katamya Heights Golf & Tennis Resort has been a fully operational resort for those who love the challenge of golf and tennis, while also enjoying a wide variety of recreational and social facilities. Just 20 minutes form Cairo Airport and conveniently located between Cairo’s distinguished districts of Heliopolis and Maadi, this 5-star deluxe resort features 27 holes of championship golf, practice facilities and a golf academy. Set amid endless rolling hills of golfing green, the clubhouse stands in recognized glory with luxurious restaurants, lounges, bars, a swimming pool, health spa, state-of-the-art fitness centre and a fully stocked Pro Shop overlooking nearly 250 acres of green fairways surrounded by golden desert sands. You will be entitled to enjoy all the golf facilities for your own account: Pro Shop, caddies, power carts, tournaments and food and beverages on the course. Course Specifications:
Dinner at your hotel. Day 5 Cairo Sunday Breakfast at the hotel. A second day of delightful golf at your hotel. Dinner at your hotel. Day 6 Cairo – Luxor Monday Breakfast at the hotel. 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. Upon arrival in Cairo you are transferred to a hotel. You have a room at your disposal to freshen up. The remainder of the day is at leisure with time for last minute shopping and own sightseeing. You have dinner at a hotel near the airport this evening. After dinner you are transferred to Cairo International Airport for your flight to Johannesburg (Flight MS 839: departing at 01:25 on Saturday arriving 09:25 on Saturday). The tour price per person sharing accommodation: Staying at the HILTON DREAM: Summer Season: R17 750 1 May – 26 June 2006 and 1 September – 30 September 2006 Winter Season: R18 200 27 June – 31 August 2006 and1 October 2006 – 30 April 2007 Single Supplement per person not willing or able to share accommodation: R Staying at the J W MARRIOTT: Summer Season: R18 870 1 May – 31 July 2006 Winter Season: R19 300 1 August 2006 – 30 April 2007 Single Supplement per person not willing or able to share accommodation: R3 750 Included in the price:
Not included in the price:
NB: Participants will be expected to provide their own golf clubs. 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. The visa requirements are 1 X application form (obtainable from Selected Tours & Destinations) and –
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