Highlights of Egypt and Jordan

Egypt,Jordan, 12 Nights

Visit classical sights of Egypt and Jordan. Cruise the Upper Nile and be amazed by The Rose Red city of Petra.

Highlights:

• Classical sites of Egypt
• Crusing the Nile
• Cairo
• West Bank of Luxor including the Valley of the Kings
• Aswan
• The Rose Red city of Petra

Day 1 - London/Cairo
Arrive in Egypt's capital city after your convenient British Midland International flight from London. Enjoy three nights at the Fairmont Nile City.

Day 2 - Cairo
This morning is at leisure but to make the most of your Cairo experience, optional excursions are available to see the marble sphinx at Memphis, the great stepped pyramid at Sakkara or medieval Cairo. This afternoon tour the fascinating Egyptian Antiquities Museum to see a vast array of antiquities including the some of the riches of Tutankhamun and the eerie Mummies Room.

Day 3 - Cairo
See the seventh wonder of the Ancient world, the breathtaking pyramids at Giza. View the famed Sphinx and the Solar Boat Museum showcasing two funeral barques. Enjoy an afternoon of relaxation or book an optional excursion.

Day 4 - Cairo/Luxor
This morning fly to Luxor to join the M.S. Sanctuary Nile Adventurer, spending the next four nights afloat. Start your Tour to the East bank by visiting 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.  After that your Egyptologist will guide you on a tour of the strikingly graceful Temple of Luxor dedicated to the god Amun. Return to your cruise for afternoon tea on board in the lounge.

Day 5 - Luxor/Esna
Morning visit to the West Bank of Luxor to 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.  You will also have the chance to visit at least one tomb in the Valley of the Queens.  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. On the way back to the river Nile, your road passes by the famed Colossi of Memnon, known in Ancient Greek times for their haunting voices at dawn. Lunch on board while you cruise to Esna.

Day 6 - Esna/Kom Ombo
This morning, your Egyptologist will guide you round 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 metres below present-day street level. Lunch on board, while you cruise to Edfu. This afternoon, explore the largest and most completely preserved Pharaonic - albeit Greek-built - temple in Egypt, the extraordinary Temple of Horus at Edfu. Afternoon tea will be served while you cruise to Kom Ombo.

Day 7 - Kom Ombo/Aswan
Visit the Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile-god Sobek. The temple stands at a bend in the Nile where in ancient times sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the riverbank. Return to your boat for lunch on board, while you cruise to Aswan. Take a short motorboat ride to visit the romantic and majestic Philae Temple on the Island of Agilka.Next we proceed to the Granite Quarries, which supplied the ancient Egyptians with most of the hard stone used in pyramids and temples, and still hold a huge unfinished obelisk. In the afternoon take a ride on a felucca, a typical Egyptian sail boat, around Elephantine Island, Lord Kitchener's Botanical Gardens, and the Agha Khan Mausoleum.

Day 8 - Aswan/Cairo/Amman
After breakfast board your flight to biblical Jordan. Spend the night at the Intercontinental Amman.

Day 9 - Amman/Petra
Famed for its scenic beauty, follow the ancient Kings' Highway, travelling through rugged scenery to once-flourishing Byzantine towns.

Your first stop is Mount Nebo the mountain where Moses was allowed to see the Holy Land but not allowed to enter it. Nowadays the mountain is a memorial site.  Here you will find the "Church of Moses", built by the first Christians.  Ever since the first days of Christianity this mountain has been a holy place and a destination for pilgrimage. Like Moses, you can have a great view over Jordan, the Dead Sea and Israel.  When the weather is clear, you should even be able to see Jerusalem, which is about 60 kilometres away.

Continue to Madaba the "City of Mosaics" that stands perched on an archaeological site with more than 4,000 years of history buried beneath it. The quality and quantity of mosaic flooring has made Madaba one of the most prominent cities in the world for mosaics. Visit St. George's Church which houses the world famous mosaic floor depicting a large mosaic map of Palestine. Centrally located on this mosaic floor is a detailed map of Jerusalem as it was during the sixth century AD.  At the Church of the Apostles, at the southern entrance of the city, is a mosaic floor attributed to the craftsman Salamanios, depicting the sea, with the central figure of a woman encircled with a selection of creatures, vegetation and an inscription.

Enjoy a visit to Jordan Jewel for Art & Mosaic a philanthropy mosaic project where young disabled artists create works of art in a huge workshop. Enjoy watching the artists in situ. The project supports hundreds of families.

After lunch at a local restaurant in Madaba, continue to Kerak to visit the Crusader's castle that was built here overlooking a valley. Situated midway between Jerusalem and Shobak, another Crusader castle, Kerak is perched on a hilltop 1,000 metres above sea level and surrounded on three sides by a valley. After walking around the castle, proceed to Petra. Check into your hotel the Movenpick Resort Petra.

Day 10 - Petra
Today enjoy a full day visiting Petra with your expert guide. Put on your walking shoes for a trek through the 'Rose-Red City' of Petra. Entrance to the city is through the Siq, a narrow gorge, over 1km in length, which is flanked on either side by soaring, 80m high cliffs. Just walking through the Siq is an experience in itself. The colours and formations of the rocks are dazzling. As you reach the end of the Siq you will catch your first glimpse of Al-Khazneh (Treasury).

The ancient city of Petra was built from 800 BC to 100 AD by Nabetean Arabs. In this era Petra was a fortress, carved out of craggy rocks in an area which was virtually inaccessible. In the first and second century, after the Romans took over, the city reached the peak of its fame.  Petra covers an area of about 100 square km where over 800 monuments can be found. When shipping slowly displaced caravan routes, the city's importance gradually dwindled; it fell into disuse and was lost to the world until 1812, when it was re-discovered by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

There are hundreds of elaborate rock-cut tombs with intricate carvings - unlike the houses, which were destroyed mostly by earthquakes, the tombs were carved to last throughout the afterlife and 500 have survived, empty but bewitching as you file past their dark openings. Here also is a massive Nabataean-built, Roman-style theatre, which could seat 3,000 people. There are obelisks, temples, sacrificial altars and colonnaded streets.

Your walking tour continues down the path to the impressive 8000-seat Roman Amphitheatre. Archaeologists first believed that the Romans constructed the site in the 2nd century; further excavations have now shown that the amphitheatre was actually carved out by the Nabataeans around the time of Jesus Christ.

Day 11 - Petra/Amman
After breakfast check out from hotel. Drive via the Desert Highway to the place where Jesus was baptised - known as Bethany Beyond or the Baptism Site. The excavations conducted at Bethany in Jordan have uncovered a first century AD settlement with plastered pools and water systems that were used almost certainly for mass baptisms, and a fifth to sixth century Byzantine settlement with churches, a monastery, and other structures most probably catering to religious pilgrims. After your visit drive to the lowest point on the Earth - the Dead Sea for lunch.

At 400 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea is infinite in what it has to offer.  Ever since the days of Herod the Great, people have flocked to the Dead Sea in search of its curative secrets. Due to high annual temperatures, low humidity and high atmospheric pressure, the air is extremely oxygenous, and the high content of oxygen and magnesium in the air make breathing a lot easier. With the highest content of minerals and salts in the world, the Dead Sea water possesses anti-inflammatory properties, and the dark mud found on The shores have been used for over 2,000 years for therapeutic purposes. Return to Amman for your final few nights at the Intercontinental Amman.

Day 12 - Amman
This morning visit downtown Amman with your expert guide. The capital of Jordan, Amman, is known in history as Rabbath-Ammon and in Greco-Roman times as Philadelphia. High above the city, at the ancient Citadel, study the traces of Amman's many lives: the regal columns of a roman temple in silhouette against the sky, the elegant capitals of a Byzantine church, endlessly inventive carvings in the Umayyad Palace, fascinating displays in the Archaeological Museum, and digs and ruins everywhere you step. At the foot of the Citadel, take a seat in the Roman Theatre, a deep-sided bowl carved into the hill and still used for cultural events. This afternoon you are at leisure to explore or relax before returning home tomorrow.

Day 13 - Amman/London
With your journey complete depart with British Midland International to London-Heathrow.

Pricing
At A&K all of our journeys are individually tailored to suit your needs and timescale. As a guide, this 13 day suggested journey in Egypt & Jordan will cost from £3,195 per person based on two adults sharing with flights from the UK and subject to availability.