DAY 1 - CAIRO - Saturday - Weekly -Year Round

Our staff meets you at the airport and escorts you to your hotel. Complimentary visa issued upon arrival for American, Australian, NZ, EU & Japanese citizens. Passports must be valid for at least 6 month at time of arrival. Private transfers in Egypt & Jordan

Visa will be issued upon arrival.
As you exit the gate, you will pass through a door or two , down some stairs , then walk for 2-5 minutes , until you pass the duty free shops, at the end of a wide corridor , you will see the security officers. There you will be met by a local representative, who will be holding a sign with the name you prefer to use for the sign .
Our local representative will then take your passport to obtain a stamp from the cashier / bank window and escort you to speak with the passport officer. He will escort you through another last check on your passport as you exit the passport control, into customs area, he will assist you in collecting your luggage and clearing customs . After exiting the terminal, our local representative will escort you (private vehicle) to the hotel: Grand Hyatt , Conrad or similar for the Mena House or the Four Seasons ( Standard room ) , please add : $250 per person for the two nights

DAY 2 - CAIRO Sunday (cBL)
Today we see Cairo's major sights: the Egyptian Museum, . We'll continue to Sultan Hassan Mosque . Saladin Citadel . Wekalet El Ghouri, Gayer Anderson Museum. We'll take our lunch at a local restaurant, then wander through the alleys of Khan el Khalili Bazaar.

A Thousand Mile up the Nile
BY
AMELIA B. EDWARDS

AUTHOR OF 'UNTRODDEN PEAKS AND UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS,' 'LORD BRACKENBURY,' 'BARBARA'S HISTORY,' ETC.

Chapter II

<<<THE mosque of Sultan Hassan, confessedly the most beautiful in Cairo, is also perhaps the most beautiful in the Moslem world. It was built at just that happy moment when Arabian art in Egypt, having ceased merely to appropriate or imitate, had at length evolved an original architectural style out of the heterogeneous elements of Roman and early Christian edifices. The mosques of a few centuries earlier (as, for instance, that of Tulûn, which marks the first departure from the old Byzantine model) consisted of little more than a courtyard with colonnades leading to a hall supported on a forest of pillars. A little more than a century later, and the national style had already experienced the beginnings of that prolonged eclipse which finally resulted in the bastard Neo-Byzantine Renaissance represented by the mosque of Mehemet Ali. But the mosque of Sultan Hassan, built ninety-seven years before the taking of Constantinople, may justly be regarded as the highest point reached by Saracenic art in Egypt after it had used up the Greek and Roman material of Memphis, and before its newborn originality became modified by influences from beyond the Bosphorus. Its pre-eminence is due neither to the greatness of its dimensions nor to the splendour of its materials. It is neither so large as the great mosque at Damascus, nor so rich in costly marbles as Saint Sophia in Constantinople ; but in design, proportion, and a certain lofty grace impossible to describe, it surpasses these, and every other mosque, whether original or adapted, with which the writer is acquainted.

The whole structure is purely national. Every line and curve in it, and every inch of detail, is in the best style of the best period of the Arabian school. And above all, it was designed expressly for its present purpose. The two famous mosques of Damascus and Constantinople having, on the contrary, been Christian churches, betray evidences of adaptation. In Saint Sophia, the space once occupied by the figure of the Redeemer may be distinctly traced in the mosaic-work of the apse, filled in with gold tesseræ of later date ; while the magnificent gates of the great mosque at Damascus are decorated, among other Christian emblems, with the sacramental chalice. But the mosque of Sultan Hassan, built by En Nasîr Hassan in the high and palmy days of the Memlook rule, is marred by no discrepancies. For a mosque it was designed, and a mosque it remains. Too soon it will be only a beautiful ruin. >>>

Day 3 - Cairo / LUXOR Monday
Transfer is included from your hotel ( please advise your hotel name or ask us to help with your hotel reservation).
The flight is usually around 6 or 7 AM ( always subject to change). Air fare is included Cairo Luxor Cairo , in economy class , tax included.
Arrive early morning in Luxor , we'll meet you at the airport , and escort you to your hotel ( Al-Moudira on the West Bank or Winter Palace Pavilion or the Old Winter ).Today We tour the magnificent tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, including the great temple of Queen Hatshepsut, stopping also at the Colossi of Memnon before heading back to Luxor . Break for siesta . This afternoon we stand in awe before the gigantic Great Temple of Amon at Karnak, and the mighty Temple of Luxor

• Meals as indicated, preset menu: BLD: Breakfast, Lunch, dinner.
  
  
• Domestic air fare Cairo Luxor --- Aswan Cairo , economy class , tax included , with free upgrade to business class , subject to the plane seating and configuration.
  
  
• Cairo hotel accommodationas listed and hotels in Luxor : Sheraton, Hilton , Meridien or similar , tax and continental breakfast included .
  
  
• Shore excursions are included as indicated.
  
  
• Resident guide/Egyptologist onboard.
  
• One bottle of water per person per day.
  
• Welcome fruit basket.
  
• Fuel, docking fees for the Garrar Tug Boat that is needed in case winds die down.
  
• The service of an English Speaking guide. Resident on board your felucca.
  
• Complimentary transfers in Luxor & Aswan as indicated.
  
• The service of a small tug boat with it's 2 crew member , that will always be on a standby sailing with us, in case of lack of wind to power our sail.

• Transfers in Cairo and Luxor - ALWAYS- on a private basis, private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur.
  
• Private tour in Cairo , as per itinerary , private Egyptologist in Cairo, private air-conditioned vehicle, private chauffeur.
  
• All entrance fees for the sites listed in the tour

• Click here for your Royal Barge images
• Read more on : Cleopatra, Antony and Caesar. The Greatest Love Story of all Time
• As you can imagine, the Royal Cleopatra is in high demand, so please contact us as early as possible if you wish to reserve your yacht on a charter basis.
• Regrettably, discounts are not available for children on  this cruise/tour.
• Please remember that we can also arrange a cruise for you on one of our large, spacious, luxurious air-conditioned Nile cruisers with all the conveniences: a different experience from the intimate ambiance of the "Royal Cleopatra."
• Rates are per person in US. Itinerary is subject to change without notice. 

WITH UPWARDS OF SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY G. PEARSON
AFTER FINISHED DRAWINGS EXECUTED ON THE SPOT BY THE AUTHOR.

Amelia;s own drawing of Abu Simbel Temples in Nubia

PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION

FIRST published in 1877, this book has been out of print for several years. I have therefore very gladly revised it for a new and cheaper edition. In so revising it, I have corrected some of the historical notes by the light of later discoveries; but I have left the narrative untouched. Of the political changes which have come over the land of Egypt since that narrative was written, I have taken no note; and because I in no sense offer myself as a guide to others, I say nothing of the altered conditions under which most Nile travellers now perform the trip. All these things will be more satisfactorily, and more practically, learned from the pages of Baedeker and Murray.

AMELIA B. EDWARDS.

WESTBURY-ON-TRYM,
October 1888.

PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION

FIRST published in 1877, this book has been out of print for several years. I have therefore very gladly revised it for a new and cheaper edition. In so revising it, I have corrected some of the historical notes by the light of later discoveries; but I have left the narrative untouched. Of the political changes which have come over the land of Egypt since that narrative was written, I have taken no note; and because I in no sense offer myself as a guide to others, I say nothing of the altered conditions under which most Nile travellers now perform the trip. All these things will be more satisfactorily, and more practically, learned from the pages of Baedeker and Murray.

AMELIA B. EDWARDS.

WESTBURY-ON-TRYM,
October 1888.

Chapter 2

...................................But the difficulties were all over now, and everything was settled ; though not in the way we had at first intended. For in place of a small boat, we had secured one of the largest on the river ; and instead of going alone, we had decided to throw in our lot with that of three other travellers. One of these three was already known to the Writer. The other two, friends of the first, were on their way out from Europe, and were not expected in Cairo for another week. We knew nothing of them but their names.

Meanwhile L. and the Writer, assuming sole possession of the dahabeeyah, were about to start ten days in advance ; it being their intention to push on as far as Rhoda (the ultimate point then reached by the Nile railway), and there to await the arrival of the rest of the party. Now Rhoda (more correctly Roda) is just one hundred and eighty miles south of Cairo ; and we calculated upon seeing the Sakkârah pyramids, the Turra quarries, the tombs of Beni Hassan, and the famous grotto of the Colossus on the Sledge, before our fellow-travellers should be due.