Best 8-Day Cairo and Nile Cruise Christmas Tour by Flight

Have your delicious breakfast early in the morning to start your tour actively. You will meet one of the best professional tour guides from the Cairo Top Tours team and the most famous tourist attractions in Egypt. You will visit the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, which includes a huge collection of valuable artifacts exceeding 170,000 rare artifacts from the era of the Pharaohs to the Roman and Greek eras. During your visits, you will be amazed by the hall dedicated to displaying the treasures and jewelry of King Tutankhamun, which were discovered by the English archaeologist Howard Carter. These treasures are one of the most important archaeological discoveries in history, as four rooms carved into the rock were found hidden under the rocks of the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, containing more than 5,000 wonderful artifacts that witnessed the life and death of the young and powerful king. A large number of these artifacts are currently on display in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

If you think that we have been able to reveal all the secrets of the Pyramids of Giza, you are wrong. An archaeological mission from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery of a stunning rock tomb, dating back to about 4,000 years, located about 300 meters from the Pyramid of Khufu in the Pyramids area. This tomb, which dates back to the Fifth Dynasty, consists of a room containing the remains of a beautifully decorated wooden coffin, as well as intact ceramic vessels. The mission also announced the discovery of other artifacts. They found on the walls fine reliefs depicting the owner of the tomb and his wife at the sacrificial table, as well as impressive longitudinal drawings carved into the rock. You will also see the Great Sphinx, which most archaeologists believe resembles King Khafre, while others believe it represents Djedefre, Khafre's older brother. The Sphinx was covered by sand for many years and remained hidden until 1817, when an excavation team led by the famous Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista Caviglia revealed the monster's chest. The statue's chest, feet, altar, and plateau became fully visible in 1887. You will also see the famous funerary temple of Khafre at the foot of his pyramid and his valley temple at the head of the ascending path, the largest of any pyramid complex and the best preserved of the Old Kingdom temples.

You will have your delicious Egyptian lunch and then move on to Coptic Cairo to visit one of the most famous and beautiful ancient churches, the Hanging Church. This church was built on the Babylonian fortress, and Egypt was under papal rule for many years. 16 patriarchs resided in it for 7 centuries or more. Due to its religious and archaeological importance, a committee from the Faculty of Archaeology, Engineering, and Sciences undertook to restore it after the 1992 earthquake. You will also visit the Church of Abu Serga, also known as the Church of the Cave, because the Holy Family lived there for some time as a refuge from the unjust King Herod. The church is distinguished by its unique architectural and artistic characteristics that reflect the spirit of Coptic architecture in Egypt. The church's ancient and impressive wooden altar was made of walnut wood before Islam entered Egypt and is now in the famous Coptic Museum.

You will visit the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which will take you on a journey into the past to learn about the most important customs and traditions of the Jews in the past. You will see the libraries of the southwestern corridor, which consist of six adjacent cabinets gathered by one rectangular frame, all decorated with ivory and mother-of-pearl and with fine Hebrew inscriptions. The Geniza was first discovered during the restoration of the temple and the collapse of the ceiling of the Geniza room in 1890. At the end of the day, we will take you to the Khan El-Khalili market, which is one of the most famous markets for gold and silver jewelry and accessories. You can find beautiful tourist souvenirs. You can explore the spice market for fresh spices or enjoy the scent of the countless attractive aromatic oils in the perfume market.

At the end of the day, we will return you to your beautiful hotel for some rest.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Let's start a new adventure in the wonderful city of Luxor. After having your delicious breakfast, you will meet one of the representatives of Cairo Top Tours, who will transfer you to Cairo International Airport to take your plane to Luxor. Upon your arrival at Luxor Airport, you will meet your tour leader, who will transfer you to one of the most beautiful cruises in the world to check in and enjoy your lunch.

You will meet your professional tour guide, who will take you to visit two of the largest temples in the world. You will visit the massive Karnak Temple, which includes a large number of temples, including the Great Cabin of Amun, the Shrine of Mut of Amun's wife in the south, the cabin of Montu in the north, and the Temple of Akhenaten dedicated to the worship of Aten in the east.

The Temple of Akhmenu, built by Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 BC), is located at the eastern end of Karnak and was dedicated to a group of deities and his ancestors, as well as his followers. The outer wall of the Temple of Amun includes a temple dedicated to Khonsu in the southwest corner, as well as the famous Temple of Opet, dedicated to the female hippopotamus (goddess of childbirth), probably built in the Ptolemaic period. The beautiful sacred lake, where priests purified themselves before performing rituals, still stands today.

You will visit the Luxor Temple, which is unique among other temples because it was built by several kings. The oldest structure is a shrine dating back to the reign of the famous Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1473–1458 BC), while the heart of the temple was built during the reign of Amenhotep III the Great (c. 1390–1353 BC). One of the inner chambers contains a group of scenes known as the scenes of the divine birth, which tell us the story of the king's lineage to the god Amun-Ra himself. Amenhotep III also built the Corridor of Columns, which consists of two rows, each row containing seven gorgeous columns. It was decorated with scenes of the Opet festival, which were completed during the reigns of both Kings Tutankhamun (c. 1336–1327 BC) and Horemheb (c. 1323–1295 BC).

After the tour, we will return you to the cruise so you can have your dinner and rest for a while.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

After waking up, you will have a delicious breakfast on board your cruise, and then you will meet your tour guide to begin your exciting tour. You will visit the famous Valley of the Kings, which still holds many secrets to this day. The tomb of King Thutmose II was discovered, which is the last lost tomb of the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. This tomb is the first royal tomb to be found since the discovery of the precious tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922. The precious artifacts discovered in this tomb are an important addition to the history of the archaeological area and the reign of King Thutmose II, as the rare funerary furniture of this king was found for the first time, which has no funerary furniture in museums around the world.

You will visit the impressive funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, where rituals were performed for her after her death when she was transformed into the status of the god Osiris. The temple was not only dedicated to her, as the temple included other parts dedicated to her father, King Thutmose I, and the goddess Hathor, the symbol of motherhood, as well as the god Anubis, the god of the underworld and the dead. An open cabin was also dedicated to the sky, dedicated to the sun god "Ra Horakhty," and there is a great place dedicated to Amun. At the end of the upper courtyard, on the main axis of the temple, a passage was cut into the mountain that ends with the Great Holy of Holies.

You will see the huge and famous statues of Memnon, which the German mission, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, discovered the stone blocks that represent the missing parts of the statue's right arm, parts of its decorated royal belt, and parts of the royal crown. These parts were lost in a massive earthquake in ancient times that led to the collapse of the entire temple of Amenhotep III, except for the two statues of Memnon. A project is currently being implemented to restore the discovered parts of the statue to their original places using the latest modern restoration methods by an Egyptian-European team headed by the famous German mission head, Horig Sourouzian.

After this wonderful tour, we will transfer you to your beautiful cruise. We will return you to your cruise to have your dinner.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will have a fresh and delicious breakfast early in the morning, and then you will meet your private tour guide to start your enjoyable tour today. You will visit the dazzling Edfu Temple, which was built in the Ptolemaic era to be a mixture of Greek and Egyptian art, a feature that distinguished many temples of that period, as the kings and Ptolemies deliberately built temples in this way to get closer to the Egyptians so that the Ptolemaic king would appear as the son of God on earth.

You will also visit the Kom Ombo Temple, which still dazzles visitors with many discoveries until now. Two very precise archaeological panels made of sandstone were found, each dating back to the Ptolemaic era, and the initial examination indicated that they date back to the reign of King Ptolemy XII, and they contain texts written in the well-known hieroglyphic and demotic scripts. Parts of a huge sandstone wall statue of the famous King Ramses II were also found, as well as his head, which depicts him wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt.

You will enjoy a delicious dinner that will be served to you by the cruise crew, after which you will have a fun night by enjoying the recreational activities on board the cruise.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will enjoy your usual delicious breakfast on board the cruise to start exploring the dazzling city of Aswan. You will start the day by visiting the High Dam, which protected Egypt from the catastrophic droughts and famines resulting from successive floods with scant revenues between 1979 and 1987, where a huge amount of water was withdrawn, approximately 70 billion cubic meters, from the reservoir of the High Dam Lake to compensate for the annual deficit in the natural revenue of the Nile River.

You will see the unfinished obelisk, which is one of the most important wonders of ancient engineering. It was supposed to be carved directly from the rock, but the project was abandoned when large cracks appeared in the granite. They used very hard dolerite balls—a type of hard volcanic rock—to pound the granite and carve the obelisk. The marks of these tools are still visible on the monument, providing a tangible link to the workers who toiled on this project thousands of years ago.

You will also visit the beautiful Philae Temple, which was a popular tourist spot visited by people from all over the world in the 18th and 19th centuries, but after the construction of the High Dam, the entire Philae Island was submerged and disappeared under the water! A joint project between UNESCO and the Egyptian government saved Philae from the depths of the Nile. The project was implemented over a long period of nearly ten years, from 1970 to 1980. Engineers first built a large dam around Philae Island, then removed the water with powerful pumps. After strenuous efforts, the Philae Temple, which was described as 40,000 unique pieces, was separated from the island, and the entire temple was moved piece by piece to higher ground on another island. They then worked together to stack it like pieces of a puzzle to show it in its true impressive form before it sank.

After enjoying this amazing tour, we will return you to your cruise to have your delicious dinner.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

On the last day, you will check out of the cruise after having breakfast. You can book an optional tour to the Abu Simbel Temples, named after the famous Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, known as Ibrahim Burckhardt, who discovered the site in 1813 AD when he was taken there by a young Egyptian boy named Abu Simbel. The Abu Simbel Temples were carved into a high sandstone plateau 4 km south of their current location, where they were moved during the campaign to save the Nubian monuments after the construction of the High Dam in 1960 AD. It was necessary to move the temples to avoid them being submerged during the construction of Lake Nasser. The entire site was divided into large, huge blocks weighing up to 30 tons and an average of 20 tons. They were dismantled and reassembled in the new location at a height of 65 meters and 200 meters above the river level. This work is considered one of the greatest works in ancient archaeological engineering. This process cost a huge sum at that time, amounting to 40 million dollars (optional tour). 

After that, we will transfer you to Luxor Airport to take you to Luxor Airport to catch your flight back to Cairo. Once you arrive at Cairo Airport, you will meet your tour leader, who will transfer you to your hotel in Cairo.
 

Meals: Breakfast

After finishing your delicious breakfast at your hotel, you will meet your tour leader, who will transfer you to Cairo International Airport to catch your flight after you have enjoyed the Special 8-Day Cairo and Nile Cruise Christmas Tour by Flight and have been able to make many precious memories in this beautiful country.

Meals: Breakfast