NATGEO EXPEDITIONS: EGYPT

ITENERARY

INTERACTIVE MAP: CLICK ON SOME LOCATIONS

PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

Discover the fabled Pyramids at Gîza with your Egyptologist guide, who will accompany you throughout your trip. Constructed some 4,500 years ago and guarded by the mysterious Sphinx, these perfectly symmetrical structures were designed as gateways to the afterlife for Egypt’s ruling elite.

LUXOR

This extraordinary city served as Egypt’s capital during part of the Middle Kingdom and at the height of the New Kingdom, and was dedicated to the god Amun, one of the most revered deities of the Egyptian pantheon.

ESNĀ

The modern Egyptian village of Esna, which was ancient Iunyt or Ta-senet (from which the Coptic Sne and Arabic Isna derive), was built in the area of ancient Latopolis and is the site of a major temple dedicated to the god Khnum. Besides Khnum, the temple was dedicated to several other deities, the most prominent of whom were Neith and Heka.

IDFU

Edfu was one of several temples built during the Ptolemaic Kingdom, including the Dendera Temple complex, Esna, the Temple of Kom Ombo, and Philae. Its size reflects the relative prosperity of the time.

KAWM UMBŪ

Cruise amid lush sugarcane fields, sleepy rural villages, and oases of date palms as your boat glides up the Nile to the Temple of Kawm Umbū. Dating to Egypt’s Graeco-Roman period, this unusual structure harbors two sanctuaries—one dedicated to falcon-headed Horus, god of the sky; and the other to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god of the Nile.

ASWĀN

Discover the Temple of Isis, an elegant Ptolemaic monument honoring the goddess Isis that was originally perched on the island of Philae. The site was threatened with flooding during the construction of the Aswân dams in the 1960s, which prompted UNESCO to relocate the temple complex to its present location on the island of Agilkia.

ABU SIMBEL

Disembark our riverboat and fly to Abu Simbel in southern Egypt this morning, where you’ll be joined by your local guide. Head out for a tour of this awe-inspiring ancient site, among Ramses II’s most impressive building achievements. Four nearly 70-foot-tall statues of the pharaoh grace the entrance to the main temple, carved out of a dramatic sandstone cliff.