The Dream of Egypt pilgrimage
Day one arrival in Cairo
Arrival to Cairo airport, meet your Tour Manager who will assist you through formalities, and then get your transfer to your hotel at the Nile Ritz Carlton for check-in and overnight.
No Meals included.
Day Two Giza, Saqqara
Giza. (Great pyramid). We will drive to the Giza plateau and have a view of its three great pyramids and Sphinx, about ten miles southwest of Cairo city center. Drive to the Sphinx and we will visit the Valley Temple. Lunch at local restaurant. Afternoon we visit the complex of Saqqara, home of the famous Step Pyramid of Djoser. We complete our visit by viewing the Tomb of Meri Ruka. the largest of the Old Kingdom tombs at Saqqara. Meri Ruka is named ‘Chief Justice and Vizier, Inspector of Priests and Tenants of the Pyramid of Teti’, ‘Scribe of the Divine Books ’the tomb is famous for its fine reliefs of many aspects of daily life and customs of the Old Kingdom. We might have the opportunity to enter the Tomb of Teti where some of the pyramid texts are still visible. We head to a hotel for a free evening..
Lunch local restaurant.
Day Three Cairo Museum. Flight to Aswan
Morning museum. (Mummies room) lunch local restaurant FelFela. Today after breakfast, a visit to the Egyptian museum just steps from the hotel. Once inside, it feels like we are in a spiritual house that is full of wonderful things. The Royal Mummy Room that has the remains of 11 pharaohs and queens from the seventh to the twenty-first dynasties, including the formidable Ramses II; there is something vertiginous about inspecting the corpse of one of the ancient world's most powerful rulers close up (note the elegantly elongated fingernails and aquiline nose).
The afternoon is open for you to relax at your hotel, or to enjoy a walk along the Nile just across the street from your hotel. We check out of hotel prior to going to museum. Off to airport to fly to Aswan in evening. Stay on island Hotel Movenpick.
Day Four Checkout of Movenpick hotel
Motor boat to Philae. Board Cruise ship Tulip, lunch, Afternoon cruise around island of Elephantine
A motor boat ride around the beautiful island of Elephantine am. Elephantine Island was the nucleus from which the town of Aswan (Syene in ancient times) developed, a crossroads of ancient trading routes from Lower Egypt, the Western Desert, and India. We take our craft upon the waters as we journey to visit the Goddess Isis, the Goddess of love who lives permanently on the island of Philae temple in the afternoon. Lunch local restaurant.
Day Five Kom Ombo, Edfu
Visit to the Temple shared by two Gods Sobek and Haeroris in Kom Ombo. Evening onboard of your cruise and onward sail to Edfu. Breakfast onboard as we sail to Edfu. Today we will see the best-preserved cult temple in Egypt, Horus Temple in Edfu. We leave the dock and ride to and from the temple in a horse-drawn calèche. Ptolemaic Edfu, begun in 237 B C. and completed in 57 B.C (also by Cleopatra's father), is a masterful replica of a pharaonic-era temple, a style that was already archaic while it was being built & the best-preserved Egyptian temple in existence.
Day Six Luxor Temple , workshops
Today we visit Luxor Temple, a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes). Here there are several great temples on the east and west banks. Unlike the other temples in Thebes, Luxor temple is not dedicated to a cult god or a deified version of the king in death. It is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship. Grand and imposing in size it is breathtaking. After lunch we visit the beautiful Luxor Museum.
Day Seven check out ship drive to Dendara, check in House of Life hotel
Today we visit the famous and truly remarkable temple dedicated to the Goddess Hathor. An exquisite monument of art and astrology. This is the oldest astrological calendar in the ancient world carved into the ceiling in one of the temple rooms. Overnight in Abydos House of Life.
Day Eight Abydos back to Luxor to New Memnon Hotel on West Bank
We visit Abydos site of the temple of Seti I. One of the best preserved temples in all of Egypt. Behind and below the temple is the famous Osirion, the site of Osiris’s resurrection, and the walls containing the Flower of Life. Inside is the wall of remembrance upon which Seti I instructs his son Ramesses II on his heritage, pointing to the famous Kings list. This is an exquisite temple not to be missed.
Day Nine Valley of Kings, Medina Habu, Howard Carter’s House and visit to Tomb of Tutankhamun replica
We feel dwarfed as we view the Colossi of Memnon , two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, grandfather of Tutankamen. For the past 3,400 years (since 1350 BC), they have stood in the Theban Necropolis, located west of the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor. Today there is a massive uncovering of an entire temple complex which rivals Ancient Thebes! It is such a privilege to rest in sight of this great complex, in view from our hotel. Within a short distance we come to view the jewel box mortuary temple of Ramesses III. A local lunch is followed by an afternoon visiting the great necropolis in the Valley of Kings to view the beautiful imagery that fills the walls of these ancient tombs.
Day Ten 10 Bread making at New Memnon Workshop
Rarely do visitors get time to soak in the beauty of a place while on the hectic schedule of a long journey. Today we do just that. We spend the morning resting and absorbing the views, of the Tombs of the Nobles, the Balloons above us in the morning viewing the Valley of the Kings, and across the road, literally the great complex of Amenhotep III, with the Colossi statues greeting us! After breakfast in the hotel we are treated to a demonstration of bread making, the traditional “sun baked” Egyptian bread. And best yet we get the treat of tasting the treasures right from the adobe domed oven! Afternoon we can visit the local shops of papyrus and hand woven gifts. Late afternoon we gather on the rooftop in view of the antiquities to enter the Imaginal dream space as the sun sets and the sky lights with the Eternal Stars! An event to remember forever…
Day Eleven. Karnak, lunch. Check out fly to Ritz Carlton
The Karnak Temple Complex, comprises a vast mix of temples, chapels, pylons, and assorted buildings near Luxor. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. We journey to the chapel of Ptah and his consort Sekhmet and view the exquisite standing statue of the patroness of healing, the lioness goddess.
Day Twelve St Macarius Monastery
We drive for about 90 minutes or so direction northwest, spiritual holiness is in surrounding endless desert, this is the refuge and the place where we Saint Makarius lived at the 04th century AD. Noon time we drive back and continue our day with visiting the famous Khan Elkhalili Bazaar, shop or volunteer to discover the beauty of medieval Cairo, later we move for our Farewell Dinner in Naguib Mahfouz. Sleep overnight at Ritz Carlton
Day Thirteen Fly Home
Kindly contact for information on next pilgrimage.
Egypt in my heart pilgrimage January 2020:
