Cairo - Upper Egypt Highlights: Abu Simbel and Luxor East/West

Day 1.

• After a domestic flight to Aswan, you drive with private air-conditioned transportation on a 3 to 4-hour desert trip to the southernmost archaeological site, the Nubian Monuments of Abu Simbel, where you visit the temples, commissioned by Ramses II for himself and his most beloved wife, the Nubian Queen Nefertari. Like the Nubian population, the temples were relocated in the 1960s due to the construction of the High Dam and the creation of the reservoir, Lake Nasser.
• You drive back north via Aswan to Luxor where you spend the night in a 4*/5* luxury hotel.
• Optional tours (extra charges apply), recommended by your guide will be an evening Sound &and Light Show in the Karnak Temple, a 2 hour City Tour with a horse-drawn carriage, early morning Hot Air Balloon flight on the West Bank. (Airport Transfer in Cairo is excluded but can be arranged upon request).

Day 2.

• We start at the necropolis in the Theban Mountains at the Valley of the Kings, where you descend into 3 Royal Tombs.
• Next is a visit to the mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Deir El Bahari where you are pointed out the most beautiful murals of the expeditions to Punt and have time to wander around this unique temple, dedicated to the Goddess Hathor.
• You continue for a quick photo-stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two statues guarding the ongoing excavation of the palace of Amenhotep III before driving to the East Bank of Luxor.
• After lunch, you visit the Karnak Temple where Pharaohs like Tutankhamun, Hatshepsut and Ramses II performed their sacred rituals. The Karnak Temple complex contains holy lakes, hypostyle halls, obelisks, pylons and shrines.
• The Luxor Temple gracefully decorates the banks of the river Nile, dedicated, not to a deity or pharaoh but to the Rejuvenation of Kingship.
• You will be brought to Luxor International Airport for a domestic flight back to Cairo. (Airport Transfer in Cairo is excluded but can be arranged upon request).