EGYPTIAN KINGDOM EGYPTIAN KINGDOM

10 OR 13 DAYS Egypt

PROGRAM FEE INCLUDES: ■ Round-trip airfare ■ 3 overnight stays in hotels with private bathrooms (plus 3 nights with extension) ■ 4 nights cabin accommodations ■ 1 night couchette accommodations ■ Breakfast and dinner daily ■ 3 meals daily during cruise ■ Full-time EF Tour Director ■ Select guides and entrances to special attractions as per itinerary

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Day 1 Flight Zoser during the 3rd Dynasty (c. 2980–2900 Overnight flight to Egypt • Relax as you fly B.C.). Continue on to Giza to view the Great across the Atlantic. Pyramid of Cheops, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Narrow passageways lead Day 2 Cairo to the king’s chamber, deep in the heart of the Arrival in Cairo • Touch down in Cairo, Afri- 6-million-ton mausoleum—which still remains ca’s largest city. After clearing customs, you are one of the world’s largest architectural structures. greeted by your EF Tour Director, who will re- Depending on restoration work in progress, you main with you throughout your stay. A private will visit either the second or third pyramid of motorcoach then takes you to your comfortable Giza. You’ll also see the beguiling 4,500-year- hotel for check-in. old limestone Sphinx. Some believe that the man-headed lion portrays the face of Pharaoh Day 3 Cairo Cheops himself. Guided excursion to Memphis, Sakkara and Giza • Your full-day guided excursion begins Day 4 Cairo • Nile Cruise where Egyptian history begins: in the ancient Morning flight • Board your morning flight city of Memphis, dating back to 3100 B.C. bound for Luxor. Memphis was the fi rst capital of a united Egypt. Board your Nile cruise • Arrive in Luxor, Next stop is Sakkara, site of the oldest Egyptian where you’ll embark on an unforgettable four- pyramids, including the Step Pyramid built by night cruise along Egypt’s legendary Nile River. Alexandriaxaxand (2)

Cairoairairo (3 or 4) Giza

Train (1)1)

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Visit to the Valley of the Kings • Visit the ne- Day 5 Nile Cruise highlight the lives of Ramses, the Pharoah who cropolis of Th ebes, located on the western bank Sail to Edfu • Pass the Esna locks as you sail reigned over Egypt from 1290 to 1224 B.C., of the Nile. Then journey along an ancient to Edfu, located on the banks of the Nile and his wife, Nefertari, telling vivid stories of road to the famed Valley of the Kings, the spec- River, between Esna and Aswan. The Tem- battles won and lost in 1300 B.C. tacular burial site used by Egyptian rulers of the ple of Horus, located here, is one of the best- New Kingdom period (1570–1070 B.C.). Six- preserved examples of a Ptolemaic temple. Day 8 Aswan • Night Train ty-four Egyptian tombs have been discovered Near the temple, see the remains of the ancient Aswan High Dam and granite quarries • at this site, beginning with that of Seti I, found settlement, Tell Edfu. See the 3,800-meter-long Aswan High Dam, by Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni in Temple of Horus • See the Greek-built Temple built to tame the Nile. Th is is one of the great- 1817. Most of the tombs were carved deep into of Horus in Edfu, situated on the western banks est engineering feats of the 20th century. You’ll solid bedrock and were intended to preserve of the Nile. Dedicated to the Sky god and Pro- also see the granite quarries and unfinished the royal mummies for eternity. They con- tector god, Horus, the 2,000-year-old temple obelisk of Aswan, from which ancient Egyptians tain numerous rooms with carved and painted is the second-largest in Egypt and certainly the obtained the materials needed for their temples hieroglyphic texts and scenes. Th e last tomb best-preserved. The fact that the temple is so and sarcophagi. discovered (1922), that of Tutankhamen of intact has helped researchers fi ll in many gaps in Overnight train to Cairo • Board an overnight the 18th Dynasty, contained more than 5,000 knowledge about the Pharaonic architecture it train bound for Cairo. items buried with the young king. To help pro- imitates. Marvel at its majestic statue, wall paint- tect the tombs from the eff ects of tourism, only ings, sacrifi cial scenes and historical inscriptions. Day 9 Cairo a small number of tombs are ever open at any Arrival in Cairo • Return to Cairo. one time. You’ll also view the Colossi of Mem- Day 6 Nile Cruise Guided sightseeing of Cairo • Your guid- non and Queen Hatshepsut’s uniquely terraced Sail to Kom Ombo • Th en sail to Kom Ombo, ed tour of Cairo takes you to the spectacular tombs at Deir el-Bahari. noted for its twin sandstone temple dedicated mosques, monuments and minarets of Sultan Visit to the Temple of Luxor • Th e mysterious to both the crocodile-headed god Sobek and Hassan, Rifai and Mohammed Ali as you jour- mile-and-a-half-long Avenue of the Sphinxes the falcon-headed god Haroeris. Ptolemy VI be- ney to the 12th-century Citadel (entrance fee connects the Temple of Karnak with the awe- gan building the temple around 180 B.C., but to Mohammed Ali mosque is included). On a inspiring and sun-soaked Temple of Luxor. Lo- most of the work was completed under Neos clear day, you’ll have a panoramic view of the cated on the eastern bank of the Nile in the heart Dionysos (80–51 B.C.). Nile and the Pyramids. Join your tour director of the city, Luxor was built as a mere chapel to Sail to Luxor • Th en sail to Luxor. Nowhere for a treasure hunt at Khalili market. complement the Great Temple of Karnak but else in the world have monuments from ancient Visit to the Egyptian Museum • You’ll also comprises royal courts, ram-headed sphinxes, civilization remained so intact. The age-old visit the Egyptian Museum, containing the larg- pillared gates and porticoes. You’ll also see the fa- city was fi rst known as Th ebes of the Hundred est and most comprehensive collection of Phara- mous pink granite obelisk, whose mate was taken Gates, an appropriate name as the town drew onic art in the world. Here, you can view the to Paris in Napoleonic times. In 1799, French visitors from all over the world. Th e city’s cur- extraordinary treasures discovered in King Tut- soldiers were so awed by the sight of the temple rent name dates back to the Arab conquest; ankhamen’s tomb—including his gold mask. that they immediately—and spontaneously—fell the Arabs were so impressed by the grandeur of into rank and saluted it! the temples that they dubbed the town Aloskor Day 10 Home Visit to the Temple of Karnak • Experience (City of Palaces). Return home • Your tour director assists with unparalleled grandeur as you visit Karnak, a the transfer to the airport, where you’ll check in vast and monumental city of temples. The Day 7 Nile Cruise for your return fl ight home. sacred barks of the divinities were once brought Optional visit to Abu Simbel • Pay tribute to up the Nile to be delivered here during religious the ancient Pharoahs, immortalized in stone out- EXTENSION ceremonies. The enormous complex consists side the entrance of the temples of Abu Simbel. Day 10 Cairo • Alexandria of royal courts, papyrus columns, gigantic On this optional excursion, you’ll learn how, Transfer to Alexandria • Alternatively, your pylons, pillared sanctuaries, festival halls, tem- in 1965, this majestic sanctuary was carefully ples, chapels and colossal statues of kings. Try relocated from its original position along the to decipher a hieroglyph or two! banks of the Nile to save it from rising fl oods. Inside the Great Temple of Ramses II, the walls group can extend its stay for three days. Transfer Pompey’s Pillar, a marble monument brought to the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria. to Alexandria from Aswan. Alexandria has borne Egypt’s second-largest metropolis was founded a strong Roman infl uence ever since Rome de- by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. feated Egypt in 31 B.C.

Day 11 Alexandria Day 12 Alexandria • Cairo Tour director-led sightseeing of Alexandria • Transfer to Cairo • Return to Cairo for one Your tour director, also a professional Egyptolo- more night. gist, introduces you to Alexandria, which served as Egypt’s capital for over a millennium. You’ll Day 13 Home visit the white-marble Greco-Roman theater, the Return home • Your tour director assists with only one of its kind ever found in Egypt. Your your early morning transfer to the airport, where next stops are the royal Montaza Gardens and you’ll check in for your return fl ight home.

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ITN0108EGYA Itinerary subject to change. 2010/Spring