Exploring Egypt Aboard Sun Goddess

Arrive in Cairo, the ancient capital of Egypt, and check in to the five-star St. Regis hotel, your home for the next three nights.<b>Arrival Time:</b> Arrive before 3:00 p.m. local time.<br /><b>Arrival City:</b> Cairo, Egypt

After a morning welcome briefing, start the day exploring the most iconic and mysterious of all things in Egypt: the Pyramids and Sphinx complex in Giza. Among the seven wonders of the ancient world, only the Pyramids of Giza have survived. The magnificent Pyramid of Cheops was built from over two million blocks of stone and took tens of thousands of workers twenty years to build. Nearby is the great Sphinx, carved out of a single massive piece of stone, showing the Pharaoh Chefren’s head on the body of a lion. Privileged access takes you inside the barrier for an up-close experience with the Sphinx. You’ll have the chance to go inside the Great Pyramid, following the narrow passageway of the Grand Gallery to the burial chamber of Cheops. Your Egyptologist will regale you with stories and details of the site's construction while your National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions Certified Photo Instructor will be on hand to ensure you get the perfect photos. After lunch, explore the galleries of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) with expert Egyptologists. Witness the 3,200-year-old statue of Ramses II in the Grand Hall, the Solar Boat and select treasures from the prehistoric to the Greco-Roman period. Enjoy a festive welcome reception at the hotel tonight. Dinner is at your leisure.

Egyptian treasures are legendary, and expertly guided visits to the finest collections are essential for a complete experience. This morning, travel to Saqqara to see the Step Pyramid of the pharaoh Zoser, a revolutionary design that initiated the art of pyramid-building. You'll also see some of Egypt’s most charming wall paintings and reliefs, showing scenes of harvesting, fishing, music-making and dancing, as well as the elaborate and exquisite mastaba of Mereruka, the largest in Saqqara. While not a royal, Mereruka (or Meri) was, among other things, “Chief Justice and Vizier” to Pharaoh Teti of the Sixth Dynasty, wealthy enough to build such a large and colorful tomb for his afterlife.   Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant and then return to the hotel where you can enjoy the hotel amenities, chat with the Egyptologist, visit the National Museum of Egyptian Culture or explore on your own. Before dinner, you will have special after-hours access to the legendary Antiquities Museum with ample time to marvel at the King Tut collection without the crowds. Enjoy dinner at the hotel this evening.

Fly early via private charter flight to Luxor, in Upper Egypt, where you’ll visit Karnak Temple. For 2,000 years some 30 pharaohs added their own monuments and shrines to this vast temple. The 134 columns of the great hall create a forest of stone 70 feet high, while the towering obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut shadows the rear of the temple. The reliefs and carvings, created by some of Ancient Egypt’s finest artisans, are dramatic. Embark the elegant all-suite <i>Sun Goddess</i> in time for a late lunch. Onboard you will find spacious cabins, warm public areas and a welcoming Egyptian crew offering impeccable service. This evening, explore the exquisite Luxor Temple, guarded by massive statues of Ramses II, with magnificent pylons, columns and statues. It has been a place of worship for millennia, as attested to by the mosque that was built atop the site. Luxor Temple is well-lit in the evenings and a wonderful site to visit after sunset.  

This morning, cross the Nile to the fabled West Bank and Valley of the Kings, burial ground for hundreds of years to Egypt's greatest pharaohs. Explore and photograph the tombs of Seti I and Tutankhamun. Visit the Valley of the Queens and the most remarkable tomb of them all: that of Nefertari.* Vivid paintings show the queen's beauty and depict her journey to the afterlife in exquisite color and quality found nowhere else in Egypt. See the temple of Hatshepsut, dramatically set beneath sandstone cliffs. Return to the ship for lunch and time to relax as the ship casts off from Luxor to spend the afternoon marveling at the rich and verdant riverbanks and farmland that has sustained life along the Nile for thousands of years. Enjoy the views from your suite or join your friends in the lounge or on the top deck to watch life and history go by. The program continues with presentations from your Egyptologists and National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions Certified Photo Instructor later this evening. Pass through Esna lock before enjoying an elegant dinner and overnighting in Esna.  *Note: The tomb of Nefertari is temporarily closed for renovations. In the meantime, you'll instead visit the spectacular Ramesseum, the funerary temple of Ramses II.

Early this morning, walk to the nearby Temple of Khnum, which lies beneath the contemporary town of Esna and has not yet been fully excavated. Your Egyptologist will explain how silt from centuries of the Nile's annual floods buried the temple, which sits below street level. Walk back to the ship through the narrow streets of Esna, talking with locals, sharing stories and learning about everyday Egyptian small-town life. Enjoy more time onboard where you can relax, dip into the ship's library of Egyptian history or take a cool swim in the pool. Presentations onboard will cover ancient and modern Egypt. Later, visit Kom Ombo, set strikingly atop a hill overlooking the Nile. Built during the Ptolemaic era, Kom Ombo is dedicated to two gods—hawk-headed Haroeris and crocodile headed Sobek. It is richly decorated, and even has a hieroglyphic calendar.  

Stand on deck as you approach Aswan, a glorious location on the Nile, backed by hills, with granite rocks protruding from the riverbed and sailboats (called <i>feluccas</i>) plying the water. Aswan is just downstream of the northernmost Nile cataract, which historically made it a frontier town and trading center with Nubia. This morning, visit the lovely Temple of Isis on the island of Philae. In Greek, Philae means "the end", an apt name since the island lies on the border with ancient Nubia. Like Abu Simbel, the Temple of Isis would have been lost to the floods caused by the building of the High Dam if not painstakingly dismantled, moved and reconstructed at its present location. Visit a granite quarry to learn about how massive obelisks and other structures were carefully cut from solid rock and transported to the river for sailing the Nile to Lower Egypt. Get a good look at an unfinished obelisk before a Nubian cultural show on board this evening.  

Disembark <i>Sun Goddess</i> and fly by private charter to southern Nubia and the remarkable site of Abu Simbel, on a sunbaked island in the azure waters of Lake Nasser. Two temples are found here; one large, dedicated to Ramses II's victory at Kadesh, and one small, dedicated to his beloved Queen Nefertari. Constructed in a different location in the mid-13th century BC, Abu Simbel was excavated from the sand in 1817. In 1968 the temples were cut and moved piece by piece to avoid being lost again, this time not to sand and neglect but to the creation of modern Lake Nasser. After lunch, reboard a privately-chartered aircraft to Cairo and check into the 5-star InterContinental Citystars Hotel. Gather for your final dinner with the group this evening.  

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for flights home. <b>Departure Time:</b> Anytime.<br /><br /><b>Departure City:</b> Cairo, Egypt