NOVEMBER TRIP 14 DAYS/ 13 NIGHTS IN EGYPT

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Saturday, November  2   Departure from USA

Day 1: Sunday, November 3 Arrival  

Arrival in Cairo airport. Transfer to hotel, dinner and overnight.

Day 2: Monday, November 4  Cairo  

Morning visit Saqqara, we visit the Step Pyramid of King Zoser, the Mastaba Tomb of Ti, Tomb of Ptahotep, the Serapeum and the Pyramid of Sekhemkhet. Only opened sites.

In the afternoon visits to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, an archaeological site on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments includes the three pyramid complexes known as the Great Pyramids, the massive sculpture known as the Great Sphinx, several cemeteries, a workers' village and an industrial complex. Dinner and overnight in our hotel.

Day 3: Tuesday, November 5  Cairo: The Holy Family, Old Cairo & Civilization. 

After breakfast at the hotel, we will start our journey with the visit of The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The NMEC is large museum in the ancient city of Fustat, now part of Cairo Egypt. The museum partially opened in February 2017 and will display a collection of 50,000 artefacts, presenting Egyptian civilization from prehistoric times to the present day. 

Then we will move to one of the most important districts Cairo in the journey of the Holy Family. The old Cairo where are several churches and convent, The Holy Family blessed the site and they stayed there for a while. Dinner and overnight at our hotel.

Day 4: Wednesday, November 6  The Holy Family at Wadi Al Natrun:  

The Holy Family crossed the western branch of the river Nile (Rosetta branch) to the west of the Delta and they moved after that to the south to Wadi AI-Natrun According to tradition the Virgin Mary and her son the child Jesus Christ blessed the four directions of the valley the desert of Shehiet. Nowadays there are about four monasteries dating back to the 4th C. teeming with monks at Wadi Al Natrun.

1. The Monastery of St. Bishoy. It belongs to the oldest monastic settlements in Wadi Al Natrun. It has suffered from the numerous Berber raids. It's the monastery where Pope Shenouda the third (117) is buried.

2. The Monastery of St. Macarius, 92 kilometers from Cairo on the western side of the desert road to Alexandria. It was founded in 360 A.D. by St. Macarius the Egyptian, who was spiritual father to more than four thousand monks of different nationalities-Egyptians, Greeks, Ethiopians, Armenians, Nubians, Asians, Palestinians, Italians, and Span-lards. There were among them men of letters and philosophers, and members of the aristocracy of the time, along with simple illiterate peasants. From the fourth century up to the present day the monastery has been continuously inhabited by monks.

Lunch during the visits.

Return back to Cairo & proceed El – Maadi district: (depend on time and circulation) 

EI-Maadi district: (will do this visit on last day (day 13)

The Holy Family left Old Cairo towards the south, where they reached El Maadi district the plural of meaadeia (ferry). Here lays a beautiful church built after the name of St Mary. One of the incidents which happened at that church was that on Friday the third of Paramhat - the twelfth of March 1976 those who attended the Holy Mass, on their going out of the church and while they were still at the outside yard on the Nile shore, they saw a big open book on the surface of the water going up and down Taken out of the water (from an ancient staircase), it was find to be a copy of the Holy Bible, and it was opened on the book of Isaiah, chapter 19, on the verse of "Blessed is Egypt My People" Isaiah 19:25 This Holy Bible is exhibited in a glass closet opened on the same page it was found in a small museum inside the church. This incident happened when some scholars asked pope Shenouda for scientific evidence to the visit of the holy family to this place.

Dinner and overnight at our hotel.

Day 5: Thursday, November 7  Cairo 

Visit Samaan El Kharaz Mokkattam hills and lunch. 

Dinner and overnight in our hotel.

Day 6: Friday, November 8  The Holy Family at The Monastery of Al- Muharraq & the monastery of Saint Mary ( Deir Drunka)

The monastery of Al – Muharraq near the mountains of Qusqam where, according to tradition, the Holy family stayed there for more than six months in an old, abandoned house on the edge of the desert where was consecrated the first church in Egypt at the place that was to become the church of the virgin in the monastery of the Holy virgin, fulfilling Isaiah's prophesy, "on that day there will be a church in the

center of the land of Egypt" (Isaiah 19:19)

Progressing upon the journey we reach our last visit, the monastery of Saint Mary (Deir Drunka). After they had lived six months in the place that was to become the monastery of Al- Muharraq, an angel brought the Holy family the message that Herod had died and that it was safe to return back. According to recent oral tradition, in order to go home, the Holy family had to journey some fifty km farther to present-day Assiut, the closest to the main Nile port. They found a cave to the southwest of the city where they lodged before finding a boat to take them north which became the monastery of the Holy virgin at Durunka.  Dinner and overnight in Assiut.

Day 7: Saturday, November 9  Assiut - Abydos - Denderah – Luxor 

After breakfast at the hotel, we begin our tour through the historic temple complex at Abydos, which was the center of the worship of Osiris, God of the dead. Although there were shrines dedicated to the parts of Osiris throughout Egypt, the Abydos temple used to be the most important of them. This was a place that most Egyptians wanted to visit once in their life or have them buried here. So, the area of Abydos was used as a cemetery dating to predynastic times Christian (4000 BC-600 AD). The pharaohs of the first dynasty were buried in Abydos, including Narmer, the founder of the first dynasty. Nine or ten temples were built here in Abydos in the first Dynasty to the twenty-sixth dynasty. The array of temples including the great temple of Osiris, the temple of Seti I and the Temple of Ramses II., Of which the temple of Seti I is the best preserved. Then we will visit the Temple of Dendera, which contains the Temple of Hathor belongs to the best-preserved ancient temples throughout Egypt. The entire complex covers about 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a wall of mud brick enclosed heavy. The present building dates back to the Ptolemaic dynasty and was completed by the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it rests on the foundations of earlier buildings dating back to the 4th dynasty [c. 2613-c. 2494 BC].

Proceed to Luxor. Dinner and overnight at our hotel.

Day 8: Sunday, November 10  Free day ( lunch on your own)

Day 9: Monday, November 11  Luxor  

Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer by private bus on board for the Nile cruise. Lunch on board. In the afternoon visit the Monumental Complex of Karnak and Luxor Temple. Luxor is the modern name of the ancient Uaset called Thebes by the Greeks, the beautiful capital during the New Kingdom and the seat of the two temples of Luxor and Karnak. The temple of Luxor, a jewel of Egypt, built by Amenhotep III and completed by Ramses II, surprised by the harmony of proportions and the elegance of its findings; Karnak temple is fascinating for its grandeur and complexity, many details of great interest, from the huge Hypostyle Hall, a forest of 136 columns towering over 20 meters, the elegant obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut, the "Ballroom." At the end of the tour, return on board for dinner and overnight on board.

DAY 10: Tuesday, November 12  Luxor - Esna -Edfu

Breakfast on board. In the morning visit the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile; proceed to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, and on the way back, the last stop at the Colossi of Memnon, the two famous statues at the entrance of the temple of Amenhotep III. The west bank of Luxor is the area dedicated to funerary structures, because the West, the place where the sun sets, it was considered the land of the dead and the entrance to the afterlife. Here the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were made to dig their graves in the rock and decorated it with beautiful paintings; here Queen Hatshepsut built his mortuary temple, the Sublime of the Sublime, extremely bold architectural and disconcerting modernity; here the Colossi of Memnon, lonely sentinels, witness the glory and splendor of the distant past.  At the end of the visit back on board and start sailing to Esna, where you can watch the passage of the Dam.

Dinner and overnight on board.

DAY 11:  Wednesday, November 13  Edfu - Kom Ombo – Aswan 

Breakfast on board. In the morning start sailing to Edfu. Upon arrival in Edfu visit the Temple of Edfu dedicated to the god Horus; Built during the Ptolemaic temple of Edfu is the best preserved of all Egypt, and is the classic example of the Egyptian temple, where all the components, from the pylon at the entrance to the sanctuary, are perfectly legible. The reliefs on the walls depict important moments in the religious life of the ancient Egyptians, the ritual foundation of the struggle of Horus, the god to whom the temple is dedicated, against Seth, the murderer of Osiris god and symbol of the forces of chaos and disorder. At the end of the visits, return on board to continue sailing until Kom Ombo. In the afternoon visit the Temple of the two Gods' Horus and Sobek at Kom Ombo. The temple of Kom Ombo dedicated to two gods, Horus the falcon and Sobek the crocodile, and has the special feature of the duplication of all parts of the temple itself: double entry, double sanctuary, and so on. In both temples, pads, in excellent condition, offering a beautiful example of Ptolemy, where lost the classical era pharaonic Egyptian art is open to new solutions, derived from the encounter with Greek civilization, which produce results of great beauty. At the end of the visit back on board and start sailing to Aswan. Dinner and overnight on board. 

DAY 12: Thursday, November 14  Aswan 

Breakfast on board. In the morning, possibility of an optional excursion to Abu Simbel. In the afternoon visit the Temple of Philae and the High Dam of Aswan. Built by Ramses II as a testimony of his power in the Nubian land, the cave temples of Abu Simbel are all unique in Egyptian architecture: facades are decorated with colossal statues of the king, in the case of the Great Temple, more than 20 meters in height. Threatened by the waters of Lake Nasser, the temples, thanks to a campaign by UNESCO, were dismantled and reconstructed 60 meters higher. The beauty of the place and the harmony of the buildings have inspired writers and artists and have attached file to the nickname "Pearl of the Nile" To save them from the waters of the Nile that they would be completely submerged after the construction of the High Dam in Aswan. Dinner and overnight on board.

DAY 13:  Friday, November 15  Aswan - Cairo- 

Breakfast Buffet on board. Transfer to the Aswan Airport and travel to Cairo.  Dinner and overnight in Cairo 

DAY 14: Saturday, November 16  Cairo- Departure 

Breakfast Buffet and check out. Visit Maadi church and lunch . Transfer to Cairo Airport for final departure.