Ancient Egypt Tour May 2024!

Prepare to journey through Egypt in a way that will challenge everything you thought you knew about its past.

Join us in May 2024 for an expedition that transcends the boundaries of time, inviting you to reimagine Egypt's history. With Disrupting Gracefully and Captivating Egypt leading the way, anticipate an experience that reshapes your perspectives and ignites fresh insights into Egypt's enigmatic heritage.

Package One

Cairo, Aswan, Luxor with Nile Cruise 

10 Days / 9 Nights

With a private professional Egyptologist

Five-star hotels and Nile Cruise

Tour Price

Price per person in a Double room $4700

Price per person for a single room: $5900 (very limited/book early!)

Please add 3.5% for credit card purchases

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Package Two

Everything in Package One, plus

6 Days/5 Nights Optional Tour to Siwa Oasis

Price per person in a Double room $6800

Price per person for a single room (entire trip) $8500 (very limited/book early!)

Please add 3.5% for credit card purchases

Welcome to Cairo, the second largest city on the African continent!

A representative from Captivating Egypt will meet you and help with custom procedures at Cairo International Airport. You will then be comfortably transferred to your hotel.

Overnight Steigenberger Pyramids Hotel or similar (Deluxe room)
No meals Included today

After breakfast we visit the Old Kingdom burial site of Saqqara and go inside the Step Pyramid of King Djoser which opened for visitors at the beginning of 2020. It is documented to have been constructed in 2648 BC.

At Saqqara we explore the 4,300-year-old Tomb of Mehu which was discovered in the 1940s but only opened to the public in December 2018, after extensive restoration. We also visit the Serapeum, said to be the burial place of Apis bulls.

Overnight Steigenberger Pyramids Hotel or similar (Deluxe room)
Breakfast & Lunch Included.

This morning, we will visit the sphinx at sunrise and then climb up inside the Great Pyramid to the Kings burial chamber. Later we have a camel ride at the Pyramids desert.

Fly to Aswan
Overnight Tulip Aswan Hotel or similar (Nile View)
Breakfast & Lunch Included

Leaving Aswan early this morning, we will make our way down the Nile to the famous temple of Kom Ombo. This is an unusual temple because it is dedicated to two Egyptian gods - Horus the falcon god and Sobek the crocodile god. One interesting frieze shows ancient birthing and other medical techniques.

Reboarding our cruise ship we set sail again, enjoying breakfast and lunch as we glide by the riverbank villages that have changed very little since Pharaonic times. This afternoon we take horse-drawn carriages for a guided tour of the gigantic Temple of Edfu, the most perfectly preserved temple in Egypt. Although built by the Greek-speaking Ptolemies between 237 BC and 57 AD, the temple building, and decorations are in the ancient Egyptian style. This evening we pass through the locks at Esna and continue cruising down the Nile, with the lights of the villages twinkling all around us, to Luxor.

Second of 3 nights on our 5-Star cruise ship
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Included

At sunrise this morning we take a magical hot air balloon ride over the farms and villages of the West Bank, seeing the Nile stretching into the distance both north and south. As we glide majestically through the dawn sky, we see the temples and burial grounds of the pharaohs from a unique perspective.

Next, we will visit an alabaster facility to see how real alabaster vases and statues are made. True alabaster pieces take weeks to produce.

We also have a guided tour of the funerary temple of the first woman to rule as a pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut. Some of the most interesting painted scenes in the temple are of a trading expedition she mounted to the Land of Punt on the Red Sea coast.

On our way back to the Nile we stop to view the gigantic Colossi of Memnon statues, where new excavations have discovered the remains of vast funeral temples.

Later this evening we have a guided tour of Luxor Temple by night. As with most Egyptian temples, this temple is really a series of buildings begun by one pharaoh (in this case the 13th century BC Pharaoh Amenhotep III) and added to by several subsequent rulers.

Third of 3 nights on our 5-star cruise ship
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Included 

After Breakfast we disembark from the cruise ship and take a drive along the Nile to visit the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. We will visit its underground crypts where strange reliefs have suggested to some the existence of advanced technologies in ancient Egypt.

Overnight in Luxor Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel or similar
(Nile view)
Breakfast & Lunch Included

This morning, we will take a guided tour of the Temple of Karnak. This is a vast complex of buildings added to and rebuilt over thirteen centuries but reaching its apex during the New Kingdom period when the capital of Egypt was located in Thebes (today's Luxor) and the temple's main god, Amun-Ra, was made the state god. One of the most impressive sections of the temple is the Great Hypostyle Hall with its 137 huge columns.

After Karnak we will visit a papyrus art gallery. Our guide will demonstrate how papyrus is made, he put himself through college making papyrus.

This afternoon we will fly from Luxor to Cairo.

Overnight Le Meridian Airport Cairo Hotel or similar
Breakfast Included

This morning, we visit Old Cairo (also known as Coptic Cairo) where we explore the narrow streets and visit some of the Coptic (Egyptian Orthodox) churches found within the city walls. One of these churches is Saint Sergius, is reputed to be built over a cave where the Holy Family rested during their flight to Egypt.

We will then go to the famous “Street of the Tentmakers” and then Khan El Khalily market and end our day in the old walled section of Cairo.

Overnight Le Meridian Airport Cairo Hotel or similar
Breakfast & Lunch Included

For those flying home: It's time to bid farewell to beautiful Egypt. An escorted transfer to Cairo International Airport for the final departure will be provided. 

Breakfast Included