Nile Cruise 4-Day Luxor to Aswan with Abu Simbel

Luxor's West Bank: the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut

The cruise begins with a pickup at about seven in the morning from your hotel in Luxor, and the first visits are on the West Bank. The Valley of the Kings is the royal burial ground of the New Kingdom, where pharaohs were buried in rock-cut tombs painted with funerary texts from about 1500 BC. Your Egyptologist explains the scenes and chooses the tombs that best show the art.

Then you visit the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, the terraced mortuary temple of the woman who ruled Egypt as pharaoh, set against a limestone cliff. After the visits you are transferred to the ship, check in to your cabin and have lunch before sailing from Luxor. Entry fees to the sites are not included in this cruise.

Life on the Nile ship and the Esna Lock

A Nile cruise is as much about the ship as the temples. Your 5-star ship has comfortable cabins with a private bathroom, a restaurant serving all meals, a lounge and a sun deck where you can watch the river slide by. After lunch on the first day you settle in and go to the upper deck to see the islands of Luxor, small boats, villages, farm animals and green fields pass by.

In the evening the ship passes through the Esna Lock, where the river drops and boats queue to pass, an interesting moment to watch from the deck. The sailing schedule may be adjusted slightly according to the weekly timetable, but the total nights, the check-in and check-out times and all included tours are guaranteed. The ship sails on to Edfu, where it stays for the night.

Edfu: the Temple of Horus by horse and carriage

On the second morning you travel to the Temple of Horus at Edfu by horse and carriage, a traditional way to see the town. The temple was built by the Ptolemaic kings from 237 BC and is widely considered the best-preserved major temple in Egypt, dedicated to the falcon god Horus.

Your guide leads you through the enormous pylon, the courtyard and the dark sanctuary, explaining the inscriptions that tell the story of Horus and Seth. After the visit, you return to the ship and continue sailing toward Kom Ombo, with time on the sun deck to relax, read or watch the banks. The horse and carriage ride is also a good chance for photographs of everyday life in Edfu.

Kom Ombo at sunset

At about sunset the ship reaches Kom Ombo, where the temple stands on a bend of the Nile, shining in the evening light. It is a double temple, dedicated to Sobek the crocodile god and to Haroeris, a form of Horus, and everything is symmetrical, with two entrances and two sanctuaries.

The reliefs include scenes of medical instruments and a calendar, and the setting beside the river gives some of the best photographs of the cruise. After the visit the ship continues sailing through the night toward Aswan. Dinner is served on board while you sail, and the evening light on the river and the temple walls makes this one of the most photogenic moments of the trip, so keep your camera ready.

Abu Simbel

On the third morning, an air-conditioned bus collects you from the ship at about four fifteen for the excursion to Abu Simbel, about three hours south of Aswan, close to the Sudanese border. The two temples were carved into a sandstone cliff by Ramesses II around 1260 BC: the Great Temple, fronted by four seated colossi, and the smaller Temple of Nefertari, dedicated to Hathor.

In the 1960s both temples were cut into blocks and moved to higher ground to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, one of the great rescue projects of the century. Twice a year, around late February and late October, the sun reaches into the inner sanctuary. The early start gives you cooler hours, and you return to the ship in the afternoon to rest.

Aswan: the High Dam and the Temple of Philae

On the last morning, after breakfast and check-out, you visit the High Dam, the great embankment that created Lake Nasser and was completed in 1970, and learn the story of its construction. Then you see the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis, on its island, reached by motorboat.

Philae was moved from its original island by a rescue project in the 1960s and 1970s so that it would not be flooded, and its setting among palms and water is one of the loveliest in Egypt. The tour ends at about two in the afternoon with drop-off. Tell us if you need an airport or train station transfer. Leave your luggage ready in the cabin before breakfast, so the morning runs smoothly.