Departure from Italy on an EgyptAir flight. Arrival in Cairo, completion of formalities for obtaining the visa and continuation by flight to Luxor. Transfer on board Eyaru. Dinner on board or a cold meal served in the cabin depending on the arrival time.

After breakfast, departure towards the Karnak temple complex, perhaps the largest monumental complex ever built and the most important site of pharaonic Egypt. Expanded by successive dynasties, its development continued for over 2,000 years and today it is a collection of sanctuaries, pylons and obelisks, a true open-air historical archive in stone. Over the years, excavations have revealed the structure of this vast complex. In addition to the colossal Temple of Amun, the site covers an area of over 100 hectares and includes an incredible number of buildings that testify to the importance of the city of Thebes. The complex developed in different periods largely through the work of the rulers Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Seti I and Ramses II, but the original sanctuary of the Great Temple of Amun was erected even earlier, during the Middle Kingdom, around 1900 BC. Later pharaohs expanded the original core up to the first pylon, the current entrance to the site, dating to 370 BC. Even in the post-pharaonic age, the Ptolemies, the Romans and the early Christians left their mark here. We cross the avenue of the royal rams that lead us to the great pylon of Karnak, continuing on to the great courtyard that gathers several monuments from different Egyptian periods. We will admire the great hypostyle hall with its 134 columns, a unique example of its kind in the world. We continue through the labyrinth of Karnak to find ourselves before the only sacred lake remaining from Ancient Egypt.

At the end of the visits, return aboard Eyaru for lunch. In the afternoon, visit to Medinet Habu, the funerary temple of Ramses III, important not only for its size, architecture and state of preservation, but also because it preserves evidence of the attempted invasion of the Sea Peoples.

At the end, visit to the beautiful archaeological museum of Luxor.

Dinner and overnight on board.

Morning dedicated to the enigmatic world of the Theban Necropolis: the Colossi of Memnon, originally dedicated to the ruler Amenhotep III. The Valley of the Kings, which contains about 65 burials dating back to the New Kingdom. Particularly, in addition to the three tombs included in the entrance ticket, we also visit the tomb of Ramses VI, one of the most beautiful, formed by a central corridor leading to an antechamber, which opens into a pillared room and, through a second corridor, to another antechamber that leads to the sarcophagus chamber. The Workers’ Village, with the so-called “Tombs of the Chief Workers,” which offers a particularly elegant and refined artistic example. Here it will be interesting to note the difference in the themes depicted in the decorations compared to those of the pharaohs’ tombs. And finally, the Valley of the Queens with the exclusive visit to the tomb of Nefertari. Here the decoration is truly of exceptionally high quality and almost all the surfaces display vivid colors. The tomb was discovered in 1904 by the then director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Ernesto Schiaparelli. The deep blue ceiling is dotted with yellow stars.

N.B.: At the time of drafting this itinerary, the Tomb of Nefertari is closed for restoration. We do not know when it will reopen; therefore, if the Tomb still be closed at the time of the visit, the visit to the Valley of the Queens will be replaced by the visit to the tomb of Seti I, another extraordinary example of refined decoration in the Valley of the Kings.

Return on board for lunch. In the evening, visit to Luxor Temple, which stands in the center of the city on the eastern bank of the Nile. The temple is one of the most fascinating monuments of ancient Egypt, an elegant example of pharaonic architecture. Dedicated to Amun and to the fertility rite, the temple was built by Amenhotep III (Amenofi III, the “Sun King” of the 18th Dynasty), whose long reign represented the peak of the power and prestige of ancient Egypt. The road that leads to the temple, lined with two rows of sphinxes, is called the Avenue of the Sphinxes and once extended as far as Karnak, 3 km further north. Walking in the surrounding area, among the modern buildings of Luxor, traces of this processional avenue can still be found, with some statue fragments still intact. Arriving at the temple, the first thing we notice is the main pylon in front of the entrance, decorated with scenes of the victory of Ramses II over the Hittites in the Battle of Qadesh. In front of the pylon there were originally six colossal statues of Ramses II and two obelisks. In the 19th century one of the obelisks was moved to Paris to Place de la Concorde, a gift to the French people from the then Egyptian viceroy Mohammed Ali.

Dinner and overnight on board.

Departure towards Esna. The stretch of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan represents the typically African part of Egypt; here the riverbanks are characterized by abundant vegetation, while the towns of the region are little developed. This has been the southernmost area of Egypt since the time of the pharaohs. Its capital, Aswan, is the southernmost city and has about one and a half million inhabitants. The First Cataract of Aswan, where the Nile is blocked by rocks, marked the boundary between ancient Egypt and Nubia, an African kingdom that extended over vast territories upstream from Aswan as far as the present-day city of Khartoum, in Sudan. During periods of power, the Egyptians sent military expeditions southwards, marking their territorial conquests by building great temples, such as Abu Simbel. In periods of weakness, instead, it was the Nubians who moved northwards, even founding a new dynasty in Memphis. In later periods, the Greeks, and later the Romans, attempted to maintain control over this frontier territory and, through an assimilative policy, managed to build a large number of monuments, including the temples of Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae, extraordinary testimonies of the period both for their architecture and for their enchanting location. To visit the monuments of this region, the best solution is exactly to sail along the Nile, admiring the lush riverbanks lined with palm groves and plantations.

The dahabeya offers us the possibility of reaching the most famous sites on days or at times of lower crowds and also of visiting minor sites where large cruise ships cannot dock. We will stop at Esna to visit the Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the god Khnum, the ram-headed god, who created men from clay, shaping them on his potter’s wheel. The temple is buried in the center of the city, in an enormous pit 10 meters below the level of the main street. The roof is still intact and stands at the level of the foundations of the surrounding houses. A careful restoration has brought back to light the incredible colors of the columns and the ceiling. At the end of the visit, a walk through the characteristic local market.

Return on board for lunch. In the afternoon, continuation of navigation towards Edfu.

Dinner aboard the dahabeya.

In Edfu, we will visit the Great Temple of Horus. The temple is certainly one of the most evocative monuments rising along the banks of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. It remained buried under sand and mud for almost two millennia, appearing today as the largest and best preserved Ptolemaic temple in Egypt. Built in the Greco-Roman period, it has classical features typical of Egyptian architecture. Its visit is therefore useful to see how Egyptian temples appeared in their original structure. The Temple of Horus is particularly interesting for Egyptologists as it is inspired by the most ancient pharaonic structures. To access the temple it is necessary to pass through a tourist bazaar which is not so interesting.

Two elegant statues of Horus in black granite flank the entrance to the pylon, which leads to a wide colonnade and the first hypostyle hall.

Return on board for lunch. Quiet afternoon of navigation towards Aswan.

In the afternoon, stop in a village on the banks of the Nile to discover rural life, traditions and local activities.

Dinner on board.

About 50 km before Aswan, surrounded by sugar cane plantations, lies Kom Ombo, built on the site of the ancient city of Pa-Sebek, seat of Sobek, center of the cult of the crocodile god. The traces of the old city have disappeared, together with the crocodiles, made extinct due to intensive hunting. What remains, however, is a magnificent temple overlooking the Nile. The temple dates to the post-pharaonic period, the same as those of Esna and Edfu. It was completed in the Roman period, probably on the foundations of an earlier structure. The entrance pylon was added later by the Roman emperor Augustus, around 30 BC. Its dedication is unusual, devoted to two deities, Sobek the crocodile god, and Horus the Elder, the falcon god. It features a double sanctuary, in a symmetrical architecture where each half is dedicated to its deity. The original entrance pylon has been completely eroded by the Nile. The internal structure of the temple is very similar to Esna’s structure. From the front court, unfortunately heavily damaged, two doors lead to the hypostyle hall, with eight columns with lotus-flower capitals, decorated with scenes relating to Horus on the left wall and to Sobek on the right, where we also find the Chapel of Hathor, dedicated to the consort goddess of Horus. In a small adjacent museum, a collection of mummified crocodiles is displayed. The site also features a large well and a basin used to breed sacred crocodiles, as well as the famous nilometer, perfectly preserved.

Lunch on board and continuation of navigation towards Aswan.

Dinner on board.

In the morning, visit to Philae, which can be reached only by small motorboats available on site. We will visit the temple defined as the pearl of the Nile, where pilgrims and warriors passed to venerate the figure of Isis. To see the temple, forty years ago, visitors’ boats headed toward the island of Philae, where the temple complex had originally been built in the Ptolemaic period. After the construction of the Aswan Dam, the level of the Nile has risen, completely submerging the temple for six months each year. Through the clear water of the river it was possible to see the submerged courtyards and columns. At the end of the 1970s, when the threat arose that the island would be continuously flooded throughout the year, the temples were dismantled block by block and rebuilt above the water level on the nearby island of Agilkia, reshaped to resemble as closely as possible the submerged island of Philae.

Lunch on board.

In the afternoon, a walk through the streets of the city center and a stop for tea at the iconic Old Cataract.

Dinner on board.

After breakfast, transfer to the airport and departure by flight to Milan or Rome.

For technical and operational reasons, the itinerary may be modified by the local guide if deemed necessary and in the interest of the group.