ITINERARY ONE THE NILE VALLEY

Start point: Cairo • End point: Abu Simbel

Distance travelled: 725 miles • Average length: 10 days

Herodotus, the 5th-century BCE Greek historian, famously called Egypt the ‘gift of the Nile’, but perhaps that description doesn’t go far enough. Egypt would be almost nothing without it. The river, the longest in the world, isn’t simply a watery artery stretching nearly 1,000 miles across the length of the country — it’s a genuine lifeline, and one of the world’s earliest civilisations wouldn’t have started here without its life-giving properties.

Ancient Egypt’s major temples and cities were located along the Nile’s fertile banks, called Kemet (‘the black land’) by its inhabitants. The fact that the river flows from south to north was key to the Egyptians’ worldview, with its focus on the daily journey of the sun between the horizons. The desert fringes on the Nile’s west bank — symbolically associated with the land of the dead — are where you’ll find most of the country’s tombs and pyramids. The ancient Egyptian idea of paradise, the ‘Field of Reeds’, was but a heavenly version of the real-life abundance of greenery along the Nile. Today, some 95% of Egyptians still live within a few miles of the water.

This itinerary, following the Nile’s course upriver on a boat cruise, has been travelled since the days of the pharaohs, and it remains the most popular way to explore Egypt, hitting all of the country’s major historic sites. To escape the crowds, slow down — linger longer in Luxor, dig deeper in Cairo and relax in Aswan. Egypt hides many more treasures beyond the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings for travellers who take the time to seek them out.

HIGHLIGHTS

CAIRO

Dive into Egypt’s chaotic capital. The Pyramids of Giza are the stars of the show, and the nearby Grand Egyptian Museum will be a blockbuster when it finally opens. For now, marvel at the 20 royal mummies at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and find the gold death mask of Tutankhamun, housed in the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square until the GEM is ready. visit-gem.com nmec.gov.eg egyptianmuseumcairo.eg

LUXOR

Take the train (around 10 hours, daytime or sleeper) to Luxor, built atop the ancient capital of Thebes. Big-hitters at this UNESCO site include the Luxor Temple and religious complex of Karnak, and the tombs of pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings outside town.

Other nearby sites include the Ramesseum, whose giant statues inspired the poem ‘Ozymandias’, and the temple of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. egymonuments.gov.eg thebanmappingproject.com

EDFU

Board a cruise boat in Luxor and spend the best part of the day sailing the Nile, with scenes of desert dunes and a shoreline punctuated with date palms unspooling outside your cabin.

The standard first stop 70 miles upriver is

Edfu, a tiny town with a well-preserved temple.

KOM OMBO

The Nile crocodile takes centre stage at Kom Ombo, another 40 miles or around five hours’ sailing from Edfu. Half of the unique ‘double’ temple is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodileheaded god of pharaonic power and fertility, and an intriguing museum of mummified crocodiles awaits at the end of your visit.

ASWAN

All cruises dock at Aswan, after two nights on board en route from Luxor. The Nile is at its most fascinating here. Take a felucca (small sailboat) to Gharb Soheil, a brightly painted village home to a few thousand Nubians, an Indigenous group that has lived in the region since pharaonic times. For sunset, have a drink on the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel, made famous by Agatha Christie, who wrote part of Death on the Nile here. sofitel.accor.com

ABU SIMBEL

Abu Simbel sits on the shore of Lake Nasser, created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1970. The temples were rescued from rising waters by moving them stone by stone to higher ground. Twice a year, the sun still illuminates the figure of Ramses II and two of the three gods in the temple’s inner sanctum.

HOW TO DO IT: For a Nile cruise, try an operator such as Viking or board a smaller dahabiya, a twomasted sailboat; Nour El Nil has beautifully built options. vikingrivercruises.com nourelnil.com

Statues and pillars inside the Luxor Temple, built around 3,400 years ago Left: Felucca sailing boats on the Nile Previous pages: A camel train at the Pyramids of Giza near Cairo