Thursday, January 13 - Meet at Wilmington Airport. Flight will be with Delta Airways flying Wilmington to Charlotte, then Charlotte to Munich, Germany on Lufthansa Airlines. *Dinner and overnight on the plane.

 

Friday, January 14 - *Breakfast on the plane. Arrive in Munich and continue on Lufthansa Airlines. Arrive in Athens, Greece. Meet our tour director and bus driver and depart for the hotel. Free time until dinner. Overnight in Athens.

 

OUR TIME ON OUR TOUR WILL BE DIVIDED AS SUCH:

 

3 NIGHTS IN ATHENS, GREECE          
3 NIGHTS IN CAIRO.
7 NIGHTS ABOARD A RIVER SHIP CRUISE ON THE NILE RIVER

 

DURING OUR TIME IN CAIRO, YOU WILL SEE:

Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, Contemporary Cairo and the City of the Dead. You will visit the fantastic Egyptian Museum. You will also visit Giza where you will see the three Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. You will also visit Sakkara, the Step Pyramid, and Memphis, the first capital in ancient Egypt.

 

**BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND DINNER ARE INCLUDED EVERY DAY THAT WE ARE IN EGYPT.

 

The Coptic Cairo area was first settled by the Persians in about 500 B.C. It was an important settlement because it was the fortress guarding the junction of the Nile River with the canal linking it to the Red Sea. It became known as Babylon-in-Egypt, later as Fortress of the Beacon, and now as Coptic Cairo. This area also had a strong Christian population and the Coptic Church, even though Arabic is the official language spoken in the Coptic church, is very close to the Orthodox churches of Armenia, Ethiopia and Syria. After the spread of Christianity throughout Egypt, it became a Christian stronghold with as many as twenty churches built within an area of one square mile. Now only five of these churches remain.

 

We will visit the Church of St. Sergius, also known as Abu Sarga. According to Coptic Christian belief, Jesus spent his first three years in Memphis, Egypt, and also visited many other places in Lower and Upper Egypt. The most famous of all the places in Egypt where He spent time is here at the site of Abu Sarga. The church is built over a crypt in which Jesus lived during his sojourn in the Jewish quarter of Babylon-in-Egypt.

Another Coptic Christian belief is that the Holy Family sought refuge here during their flight to Egypt and the places where they sat and hid in the crypt are still visible and we will see them.

 

Another church that we will see is El-Mauallaqua (Al-Mu'Allaqah) also known as the Hanging Church or the Church of the Virgin. It is called "the hanging church" because it is built on the top of three stone piers of the semi-flooded ancient Roman Water Gate. It is said that the last Byzantine viceroy, Bishop Cyrus, fled from here by boat as the Muslim army arrived to destroy this section of the city.

 

The City of the Dead is one of those sites that will always be etched in your memory. To the east of the Islamic section of Cairo, lies the great Northern Cemetery. It is a large cemetery, covering approximately 4 1/2 miles of area that has become home to about 1/2 million people who live there. The mausoleums and tombs have been settled into as houses in addition to the added makeshift housing that has been squeezed into any open spaces. While it is true that the Egyptians maintain a long and close relationship with the dead, most of the people who live here are here because of the shortage of housing in the city of Cairo. The inhabitants have formed their own society and call themselves the "Cairenes." They live basically on and around the graves of their ancestors.

 

The Egyptian Museum in Contemporary Cairo is fantastic. The experience of the Egyptian Museum, alone, is worth the entire cost of this trip. You don't have to be an Egyptologist to appreciate the gold treasurers that are on display from King Tutankhamun's tomb, for example. You will see his magnificent gold coffin, gold chairs, gold bed and gold living accouterments. His coffin is made of 450 pounds of gold and the goldsmithing is said to be of the finest quality work in the world. You will be amazed at so many of the beautifully done statues of the ancient royals, and you will be fascinated with the mummies in the mummy room.

 

At Giza, you will see the three great pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Micerinus. This is the world's most famous funerary complex. To build his pyramid, Cheops forced 300,000 men into slave labor, who worked for ten years to build the track along which the blocks for the pyramid were hauled from the hills of Arabia to the Nile, then across the Nile to the Libyan hills. It took another 10 years to build the pyramid. including the underground burial chambers on the hill on which the pyramid stood.

 

Approximately 1000 feet from Cheops is the Great Sphinx, known in Arabic as Abu el-Hol, which means "the father of terror." This huge statue, about 2 1/2 football fields long, represents a lion with a human head which some say is modeled after Chephren (who, by the way, is buried in one of the three Great Pyramids) and stands guard over his own tomb.

 

WHEN IT IS TIME TO LEAVE CAIRO, WE WILL FLY EITHER TO ASWAN OR TO LUXOR, DEPENDING ON THE RIVER SHIP SCHEDULE. ~(YOU WILL RECEIVE THE COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF THE EXACT DATES AND TIMES  AT THE FIRST  GROUP INFORMATIONAL MEETING.)

 

When we go to Aswan, we will have an Aswan guide who will take us on a tour of the area of the Aswan Dam. The Aswan Dam project was entrusted to the Soviet Union and the construction was started in January 1960. This was to be Egypt's protection against hunger. On May 14, 1964, the first waters were released into what is now Lake Nasser, the second largest man-made lake in the world. The dam greatly increased the areas under cultivation, supported a sophisticated irrigation system and greatly increased the annual production of electrical energy.

 

THE SEVEN NIGHTS THAT WE ARE CRUISING ABOARD THE RIVER SHIP WE WILL SEE AND VISIT THE FOLLOWING PLACES BELOW: 

 

Our deluxe, five star River Ship has a no more than 150 passengers. You will be able relax in the ebb and flow of the river's gentle current. You will unpack only once, and unwind in the ship's magnificent ambiance; experiencing the majestic Nile River from the open sun deck, with a pool, a shaded bar for your comfort, or from the privacy of your cabin with floor to ceiling windows, air conditioning, T.V., music sound system, mini bar, in-room security safe and private bath and shower….and much,  much more!  Sights include:

 

The village of Esna is famous for its Temple of Khum. The face of the temple is a typical example of Ptolemaic art, with its columns closed halfway by walls decorated with bias-reliefs. The 24 columns are covered with wonderful sculptures in a large variety of floral designs.

 

The ancient Temple of Horns at Edfu. (More on this at a future meeting).

View Kitchener's Botanical Garden and Elephantine Island while on the Felluca boat ride. (More on this at a future meeting).

 

The burial places of the kings of Bibran el-Muluk is the famous Valley of the Kings, located on a mountain-side behind Thebes. The tombs of kings were often hidden in the mountains to protect them from the looters who might be prone to rob the more popular burial sites. (In fact, it is still not known how many undiscovered tombs still exist in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens.) Even still, no matter how well-hidden the tombs were, they were still found and systematically plundered in attempts to obtain the jewels and treasurers that were buried with the deceased. (Ramses III had to be moved and reburied three times to protect his tomb.)

 

So far, the tombs of 36 pharaohs have been discovered in this area. In 1881, when these tombs were opened, the bodies of the pharaohs were all moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo--where they still remain. When the peasants in the area learned of the move, they gathered on the riverbanks to offer prayers and laments for the dead--the respect for the pharaohs dead for over 2000 years had not faded.

 

Still more tombs were uncovered. King Tutankhamon's Tomb was never discovered until 1922, so imagine the thrill of unearthing this great treasure. Some of it is on constant world tour, but a large amount is at the Egyptian Museum. King Tut died at the age of 18 and the treasurers buried with him were the grandest yet to be discovered in a tomb. King Tut's body was in a relatively modest tomb, and the thinking for this is because he died at such a young age, that there was not enough time to build a more elaborate structure. His body, however, was encased in three sarcophagi: the first and second ones made of gilded wood, and the third made of 450 pounds of solid gold. The importance of the tomb was because of the treasurers in it as opposed to the structure.

 

The most beautiful wall paintings in the Valley of the Kings belong to the Tomb of King Tutmose M. The most complex burial structure here is that of King Seti I - in that his tomb is laced with staircases and galleries that eventually lead to his sarcophagus.

 

Eighty tombs have been discovered, so far, in the Valley of the Queens, located about 1 1/2 miles from the Valley of the Kings. These tombs date back to 1300 - 1100 B.C. The most famous tombs here are that of Queen Nefertari Meremut, the wife of Ramses III and that of Prince Kamuast, their son who died in childbirth.

 

We will also visit the tomb of Pharaoh Maatkare Hatshepsut. (More on this at a future meeting).

 

We will also visit the Temple at Kom Ombo.  (More on this at a future meeting).

 

A majestic avenue of sphinxes leads to the Temples at Karnak. The complex at Karnak was so large that it even included a lake. The Great Temple of Amon, for example, is so large that Notre Dame of Paris could easily fit inside of it. It took over 81,000 people to build the temple, and the tops of the columns are so large that 51 people can easily stand on them. The ruins have withstood time so well that in some places you can still see the original painted designs on the columns.

 

AFTER SEEING AND VISITING ALL THIS, WE WILL:

 

Wednesday, January 26  Fly back to Athens, then dinner and overnight.

 

Thursday, January 27     Transfer to the airport for our flight home.