Cruising down the Nile, Egypt

Check-in on board the Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau followed by lunch on board. Afternoon visit to the East Bank. Visit the Temple of Karnak, built over more than a thousand years by generations of Pharaohs & the Temple of Luxor dedicated to the god Amun. Afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight in Luxor.

Breakfast on board. Morning explore the Valley of the Kings, a vast City of the Dead where magnificent tombs were carved into the desert rocks, decorated richly, and filled with treasures for the afterlife by generations of Pharaohs.
Visit the West Bank, with a choice of three from the below:
1 – Valley of the Queens, it is called “Place of Beauty” by the Egyptians, where the pharaohs’ wives and children were buried.
2 – The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Ancient Egypt’s only female Pharaoh).
3 – The remains of the self-contained village on the West Bank where the workmen who built the kings’ and queens’ tombs lived in mud brick houses with their families.
4 – On the West Bank sit 400 tombs of Theban aristocrats, some of which you can enter. The tomb walls were white-washed and painted with murals of the nobles’ daily lives, making them quite different from royal tombs, where relief work focused on judgment and resurrection.
5- The magnificent Medinet Habu is a series of temples built by the Pharaoh Ramses III (1182-1151 BC) and second only to Karnak Temple in size and complexity.
6 – The Ramesseum, the Mortuary Temple of Ramses II, was built early in the great pharaoh’s reign and was 20 years in the making.

Lunch, afternoon tea and dinner on board. Sail to Esna. Overnight in Esna.

Breakfast on board as we sail to Edfu. Lunch on board. Afternoon visit to Edfu temple. Explore the largest and most completely preserved Pharaonic – albeit Greek-built – temple in Egypt, the extraordinary Temple of Horus at Edfu. Afternoon tea on board as you sail to Kom Ombo. Dinner on board. Overnight in Kom Ombo.

Breakfast on board. Early Morning visit to Kom Ombo Temple. In this Ptolemaic temple shared by two gods, Sobek and Horus the Elder, everything is duplicated symmetrically, with double hallways, doors and chambers. Lunch while sailing to Aswan. In the afternoon choose any two visits from the below choices:
1 – Philae Temple – According to the Ancient Egyptians, the goddess Isis traveled all over Egypt gathering her husband Osiris’s remains after he was cut to pieces by his evil brother. On Philae Island, where she found his heart, the Egyptians built a sacred temple to Isis, goddess of purity, sexuality, nature and protection. During the building of the High Dam, Philae Island was submerged by water, so UNESCO helped transport the temple complex to nearby Agilika Island, where you see it today.
2 – Visit this massive obelisk, which was abandoned in Aswan’s Northern Quarry when a crack was found as it was being carved from the red granite. Tools left behind show how builders accomplished such great work.
3- The Temple of Kalabsha (also Temple of Mandulis) is an Ancient Egyptian temple that was originally located at Bab al-Kalabsha (Gate of Kalabsha), approximately 50 kilometers south of Aswan. The temple was situated on the west bank of the Nile River, in Nubia and was originally built around 30 BC during the early Roman era.

Afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight in Aswan.

Breakfast on board followed by check-out.