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Egypt: Civilisation of the Nile (10 days) - including a four-night cruise from Luxor to Aswan
10
days
from
£5,830
Book today with a deposit from
£875
7th - 16th December 2027
Cruise highlights
- Four nights aboard a privately chartered small ship, travelling the Nile from Luxor to Aswan.
- Two expert perspectives on the Nile, with Dr Ellen Jones and Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones both contributing to the onboard lecture programme.
- Private out-of-hours viewing of the Temple of Karnak.
- Ancient Egypt’s defining sites, from the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings to the great temples of the Nile.
- Beyond pharaohs and pyramids, exploring religion, art and everyday life through museums, temples and Deir el-Medina.
Ancient Egypt was a civilisation shaped by a river. The Nile sustained one of the most remarkable cultures of the ancient world, but did far more than provide water and fertile land. It was Egypt’s great artery: a means of travel and communication, a source of wealth and power, and an enduring presence in the religious imagination. Along its narrow green valley arose temples and cities; at the desert’s edge, tombs and monuments intended to last for eternity.
Egypt: Civilisation of the Nile explores this extraordinary culture through the landscape that created it. The river is central to the journey, with four nights travelling from Luxor to Aswan aboard a privately chartered small ship.
The scale and ambition of ancient Egypt are encountered at some of the greatest archaeological sites in the world. At Giza stand the pyramids and Sphinx; on the Theban West Bank, the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings penetrate deep into the desert hills. At Karnak, successive pharaohs created an immense complex of temples and sanctuaries, seen here during a private out-of-hours viewing. Travelling south along the Nile brings Dendera, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae, their temples illuminating Egyptian religion, ritual and kingship.
But this is also a journey beyond pharaohs and monumental architecture. At Deir el-Medina, the community of craftsmen who built and decorated the royal tombs provides an intimate insight into the people behind some of Egypt’s greatest works of art. Cairo’s outstanding collections, including the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Royal Mummies Gallery at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, bring us face to face with the objects, images and individuals through which this civilisation can be understood.
At the heart of the tour is the four-night Nile voyage, when guests on the 10- and 13-day departures come together aboard the same private ship. Egyptologist Dr Ellen Jones draws on her specialist work in archaeology, funerary culture, iconography and epigraphy, while Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones brings a wide-ranging understanding of Egypt’s place within the interconnected cultures of the ancient world. Each gives a lecture to guests from both groups, bringing two expert perspectives to the sites and civilisation through which we travel.
This 10-day journey offers a concentrated exploration of Pharaonic Egypt. At Saqqara, the Step Pyramid of Djoser marks a defining moment in the development of monumental architecture.
Itinerary
Fly at c. 9.30am from London Heathrow to Cairo, arriving c. 4.20pm. Time to settle into your room before dinner. First of three nights in Cairo.
After an introductory lecture, drive to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, whose extensive collections include the remarkable Royal Mummies Gallery.
In the afternoon visit the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to view one of the world’s richest collections of Pharaonic art, including treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun and the colossal limestone statue group of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye.
The recently opened Grand Egyptian Museum is the world’s largest archaeological museum, bringing together artefacts spanning ancient Egyptian history and housing the complete collection from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Continue to the Giza plateau, home to the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. Dating back more than 4,500 years, they remain the most immediately recognisable monuments of ancient Egypt.
Early-morning flight from Cairo to Luxor.
Visit the Dendera temple complex, dominated by the Temple of Hathor. Among its most remarkable features are a richly decorated astronomical ceiling and vivid reliefs, including the famous depiction of Cleopatra VII and Caesarion.
Return to Luxor for a free afternoon and settle into the hotel for one night.
Explore the vast temple complex of Karnak, home to monumental sanctuaries, towering pylons and the extraordinary Great Hypostyle Hall.
Board the ship in time for lunch.
In the afternoon visit Luxor Temple, a magnificent sanctuary dedicated principally to Amun and closely linked with Karnak through the great Opet Festival. Continue to Luxor Museum, whose collections include statues from the Karnak Cachette, the mummy traditionally identified as Ramesses I and exquisite reliefs from the reign of Akhenaten.
Dinner and overnight aboard the ship, remaining moored in Luxor.
Drive to the Theban West Bank, the great city of the dead. Visit the Valley of the Kings, where New Kingdom pharaohs were buried in magnificently decorated rock-cut tombs, and explore the landscape of royal mortuary temples built to sustain their cults after death.
At Deir el-Bahari stands the striking terraced temple of Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s most remarkable female rulers.
Continue to Deir el-Medina, the village inhabited by the craftsmen who built and decorated the royal tombs, providing rare insight into the lives of the people responsible for some of ancient Egypt’s greatest artistic achievements.
Return to the ship for lunch, followed by an onboard lecture by Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and an afternoon sailing south.
Visit the Temple of Horus at Edfu, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt and an exceptional survival from the Ptolemaic period.
Continue to Kom Ombo, where the unusual double temple dedicated to Sobek and Haroeris, or Horus the Elder, stands dramatically above the banks of the Nile.
Sail onwards towards Aswan.
Visit the High Dam, one of the great engineering projects of the 20th century. From here there are views towards the relocated Temple of Kalabsha on the shores of Lake Nasser.
Between the High Dam and the Old Dam lies the Temple of Philae, dedicated principally to the goddess Isis and painstakingly reconstructed on Agilkia Island after the flooding of its original site.
In the afternoon enjoy a scenic felucca ride on the Nile around Kitchener Island, followed by an onboard lecture by Dr Ellen Jones.
Overnight aboard the ship in Aswan.
Early-morning flight from Aswan to Cairo.
Visit Saqqara, one of the great necropoli of ancient Memphis and one of the most important archaeological landscapes in Egypt. At its heart stands the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a revolutionary development in monumental stone architecture and a precursor of the later pyramids at Giza.
The visit includes a private visit to the Southern Tomb.
Overnight in a hotel near Cairo airport.
Drive to Cairo airport for the c. 9.15am flight to London, arriving c. 12.30pm.
Expert speaker
Dr Ellen Jones
Dr Ellen Jones is an Egyptologist who spends as much time on scaffolding as in archives, recording the inscriptions and graffiti that later generations left on Egypt's temples and tombs. Her doctoral research at Oxford examined how elite women were depicted in Theban funerary art of the mid-18th Dynasty; her fieldwork since has taken her into the stairwell of Karnak's eighth pylon, documenting centuries of scribal graffiti, and to the Hierakonpolis excavations, published in Nekhen News. She specialises in digital epigraphy and photogrammetry, recording monuments to a standard scholars can work from without visiting in person.
More tours led by Dr Ellen Jones
Practicalities
Superior cabin – deck 2 or 3 - 20m2
Two sharing: £5,830 per person
Single occupancy: £6,730
Junior Suite – deck 2 - 26m2
Single occupancy: £8,680
Not available for double occupancy
Panorama Suite – deck 3 - 30m2
Single occupancy: £8,780
Not available for double occupancy
Senior Suite – deck 4 – 34m2
Two sharing: £6,470 per person
Not available for single occupancy
Senior Suite – deck 3 - 40m2
Two sharing: £7,180 per person
Not available for single occupancy
Flights: if you would like to add flights to and from London to your booking, there is an additional cost of £540 per person.
Domestic flights Cairo to Luxor and Aswan to Cairo with Egyptair; travel by private air-conditioned coach for airport transfers and excursions; hotel accommodation; ship accommodation, breakfasts, 7 lunches and 9 dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer, tour manager and national guide.
If you choose to take the tour without international flights, the domestic flights from Cairo to Luxor and Aswan to Cairo are still included.
Kempinski Nile Hotel Garden City: a 5-star boutique hotel, centrally located. Steigenberger Resort Achti Luxor: 5-star hotel set along the Nile River. InterContinental Citystars Cairo: a functional 5-star hotel near the airport.
Mövenpick MS Darakum is a 5-star ship, one of the most luxurious on the Nile, with 52 spacious cabins and suites. Décor throughout is modern and Moroccan in style. The restaurant’s buffet meals are renowned for their quality and feature both Egyptian and international cuisine. There is a large lounge-bar that serves afternoon tea and hosts our lectures as well as evening entertainment.
All cabins have large, panoramic windows to the outside. All include adjustable air conditioning, hair dryer, minibar, safe, television, free Wifi, mineral water and tea and coffee making facilities including an espresso machine. All bathrooms have a bathtub with shower attachment. Suites enjoy an additional seating area, complimentary soft drinks from the minibar, a bottle of wine on arrival, daily fruit and pastries and faster Wifi.
The sundeck has a small pool, plenty of shaded areas, loungers and seating.
Superior cabins on deck 2 measure 20m2.
Junior Suites on deck 2 measure 26m2.
Panorama Suites on deck 3 measure 34m2
Senior Suites on deck 3 measure 34m2
Senior Suites on deck 4 measure 40m2 and have two bathrooms.
Required for most foreign nationals. If you are flying with the group we will arrange for it to be issued on arrival (the cost is included in the tour price); if you are flying independently this must be organised prior to arrival in Egypt. Passports must be valid for 6 months from entry into Egypt.
This is a long and demanding tour not suitable for anyone with any difficulty with everyday walking or stair-climbing. Visits to the archaeological sites involve walking over rough and uneven ground and some standing. There are also some early starts, a few long coach journeys, and the daytime heat can be tiring.
Average distance by coach per day: c. 65 miles.
A maximum of 28 participants when visiting sites on land; 56 participants on board the ship and for the private visit to Karnak.
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website and Travel Health Pro to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
7th - 16th December 2027
Speaker:
Dr Ellen Jones
Price:
from £5,830
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