CAIRO, NILE AND SAINT CATHERINE 8 Days / 7 Nights

Breakfast. During the morning, we will visit the Egyptian Museum, where we will admire the masterpieces of ancient Egypt and the treasure of Tutankhamun. In the afternoon, a panoramic tour of the Giza Pyramids: Cheops, Khafre, and Mycerinus, the Sphinx, and the Valley Temple. Return and overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast and transfer to the airport to take the flight to Aswan. Arrival in Aswan and transfer to the cruise ship. Visit to the Philae Temple, built during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras and dedicated to the worship of the goddess Isis. Visit to the Unfinished Obelisk and the Aswan High Dam. Overnight on board.

Breakfast and possibility to take the optional excursion to Abu Simbel. The great rock-cut temple was dismantled and reassembled to save it from the waters. It is located about 300 km south of Aswan, already in Nubian territory, and was built to glorify Ramesses II the Great, who is deified, seated alongside Ptah, Amun-Ra, and Harmachis. Navigation to Kom Ombo and visit to the temple dedicated to Horus and Sobek (the crocodile god); engraved on its walls are instruments of Egyptian medicine and the calendar. Navigation to Edfu. Arrival in Edfu and visit to its temple, the best-preserved of all the temples in Egypt, dedicated to Horus (the Falcon god). Continuation to Esna to pass through the Esna lock. Navigation to Luxor. Overnight on board.

Breakfast and visit to the Theban Necropolis: Valley of the Kings, the underground burial place of the Pharaohs. Here, the kings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties were buried, as well as some queens, princes, nobles, and even animals. Funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, located within a monumental complex called Deir el-Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon (statues of Amenhotep III which bear witness to the funerary temple built at the beginning of the 14th century BC). Overnight on board.

Breakfast, and we will visit Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple. Transfer to Luxor Airport to take the flight to Cairo. Arrival and transfer to the hotel.

Breakfast. Departure for the Sinai Peninsula via the Ahmed Hamdy Tunnel beneath the Suez Canal, crossing from Africa to Asia. Visit to Ayun Musa or the Springs of Moses (Mara), followed by departure for the city of Saint Catherine. Arrival at the hotel. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

In the early morning, departure for Mount Moses or Mount Sinai (Mount Horeb), 2,285 meters high, where the prophet Moses received the tablets of the law from God while the Hebrew people camped at the foot of the mountain. From the summit, we can watch the sunrise and see Mount Saint Catherine, the highest peak on the peninsula at 2,637 meters. Descending the mountain, we will visit Saint Catherine's Monastery (IF OPEN), located at an altitude of 1,570 meters with its impressive walls built between 527 and 565 by order of Emperor Justinian at the biblical site of the Burning Bush. The monastery owes its name to Saint Catherine, an Alexandrian martyr who died in the year 395, whose body, transported by angels, was discovered 5 centuries later on the peak bearing her name. The monastery is the smallest diocese in the world and the oldest active monastery; its library holds the oldest manuscripts in the world after the Vatican. Return to the hotel, breakfast, and at the scheduled time, departure to the border point from which we will leave Egypt.