Old World Sailing on the Nile with the Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau

Sanctuary Retreats Egypt Cruise Itinerary

                                                        7 Nights Cruise: Aswan – Luxor

  The itinerary for the Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau is a bespoke one and offers you the unique opportunity to tailor your sightseeing tours by offering you an “À La Carte” menu.

Simply make your selection from the sites offered below:

 Day 01:

 Check-in on board the Sanctuary Zein Nile Chateau followed by lunch on board.

A choice of two of the below:

1.  Philae Temple

2.Unfinished Obelisk

Visit this massive obelisk, which was abandoned in Aswan’s Northern Quarry when a crack was found as itwas being carved from the red granite. Tools left behind show how builders accomplished such great work.

3.Kalabsha Temple

The Temple of Kalabsha (also Temple of Mandulis) is a 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

Day 02:

Breakfast on board with the morning and afternoon at leisure.

 Lunch will be served on board.

Visit to Spice market followed by visit to Nubian Museum

Nubia extended from Aswan in the north to Sudan in the south

 and had its own distinct culture and language. Much of Nubia

 was covered with water when the Aswan High Dam was built,

 but efforts were made to save and preserve Nubian culture.

This vast collection of Nubian artifacts is housed in

 a beautiful sandstone building.

Day 03:

Breakfast while sailing to Kom Ombo. 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 on board while sailing to Selsela. Afternoon visit to Selsela Tombs Selsela (Jebel Selsela) The ancient Egyptian site of Selsela is about 26 miles south of Edfu and 14 miles north of Kom Ombo and located in an area where the Nile River narrows. It was known in ancient times as Khenu (Place of Rowing) and here, the bedrock changes from limestone to sandstone. This is the border of the Egyptian region of Nubia, and in ancient times, Egyptians believed that the Nile originated here.

Afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight by a nearby island.

Day 04:

 Breakfast on board while sailing to Edfu. Morning 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. Lunch while sail to El Kab. Afternoon visit to El Kab El Kab is an Upper Egyptian site on the east bank of the Nile at the mouth of Wadi Hillal, about 80km south of Luxor, consisting of prehistoric and Pharaonic settlements, rock-cut tombs of the early 18th Dynasty (1550-1295 BC), remains of temples dating from the Early Dynastic period (3100-2686 BC) to the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC), as well as part of the walls of a Coptic monastery. Sailing to Esna. Afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight in Esna.

 Afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight in Esna.

Day 05:

Breakfast on board. Morning visit to Esna Temple Visit the Greco-Roman Temple of Khnum at Esna. The beautifully preserved Great Hypostyle Hall was built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius; it was excavated from the silt that had accumulated through centuries of annual Nile floods and is about nine meters below present-day street level. Lunch on board.

 Afternoon tea on board while sailing to Luxor. Dinner on board. Overnight in Luxor

Day 06:

 Breakfast on board with the morning at leisure. Lunch on board. Afternoon visit to the East Bank, with a choice of three of the below:

 1. Karnak Temple Visit the Temple of Karnak, built over more than a thousand years by generations of Pharaohs. The great Hypostyle Hall is an incredible forest of giant pillars, covering an area larger than the whole of Notre Dame Cathedral.

 2. Luxor Temple Visit the strikingly graceful Temple of Luxor dedicated to the god Amun. Proceed to the Temple of Luxor, once connected to Karnak via the Avenue of Sphinxes, almost 3 kilometers in length. Built by Amenhotep III in 1380 BC, the site was added to by later pharaohs. The temple enjoyed many celebrations, the most important being the Festival of Opet which lasted almost a month

. 3. Luxor Museum Visit the surprisingly entertaining Luxor museum. Displays of pottery, jewelry, furniture, statues and stelae were created by the Brooklyn Museum of New York. They include a carefully selected assortment of items from the Theban temples and necropolis. There are a number of exhibits from Tutankhamun, including a cow-goddess head from his tomb on the first floor and his funerary boats on the second floor. However, some of the real attractions include a statue of Tuthmosis III (circa 1436 BC) on the first floor, and 283 sandstone blocks arranged as a wall from the ninth pylon of the Karnak Temple.

 4. Sound & Light Show in Karnak Temple Attend the Sound and Light Show at Karnak Temple, a fascinating walking tour through the history of the world’s largest-ever temple complex, narrated by the voices of the pharaohs. Shadows play off the enormous columns in the grand Hypostyle Hall, creating a mysterious effect.

Afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight in Luxor.

Day 07:

 Breakfast on board Simply make your selection from the sites offered below: Morning visit to the Valley of the Kings 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 to the West Bank, with a choice of three from the below:

 1. Valley of the Queens There are between 75 and 80 tombs in the Valley of the Queens, or Biban al-Harim. These belong to Queens of the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties. It is called “Place of Beauty” by the Egyptians, where the pharaohs’ wives and children were buried.

 2. Hatshepsut Temple Rising out of the desert plain in a series of terraces, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Ancient Egypt’s only female Pharaoh) merges with the sheer limestone cliffs that surround it, as if nature herself had built this extraordinary monument.

 3. Valley of Workers (Deir El Medina) Visit 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. The site gives archeologists a view of how urban people lived in ancient Egypt. You can also visit the tombs that the workmen created for themselves, to admire the art in ordinary people’s tombs. Nearby is the Temple of Deir El Medina, from Ptolemaic times.

 4. Tombs of the Nobles 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. Since the tombs were not sealed, some have deteriorated.

5. Medinet Habu 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. The most impressive is the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, decorated with relief work depicting his many military victories. With its massive mud brick enclosure that held storehouses, workshops, administrative offices, and residences of priests and officials, Medinet Habu grew into a city that maintained its population well into Coptic times.

6. Ramesseum Temple The Ramesseum, the Mortuary Temple of Ramses II, was built early in the great pharaoh’s reign and was 20 years in the making. Here you’ll see the broken, awesome Colossus of Ramses II, a 1000 ton statue in which the fingers alone are over 1 meter long; it inspired the famous poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. This great temple reportedly rivaled the wonders of Ramses II’s temple at Abu Simbel.

 Lunch, afternoon tea and dinner on board. Overnight in Luxor.

Day 08: