ANCIENT EGYPT & THE NILE

From our hotel overlooking the Pyramids at Giza, and then from our private sailing yacht on the Nile, this study course unravels the secrets behind one of antiquity's most beguiling civilisations: the ancient Egyptians.

Our two-week tour focuses on some of archaic man’s most stunning achievements: the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid, Luxor, Thebes, the Valley of the Kings, the vast Karnak temple complex and Abu Simbel, home to four colossal statues of Ramses II. We also explore that most fascinating of Islamic cities, Cairo, renowned for its mosques, madrasas and hammams.

We will glide down the Nile in a dahabiyya, an old-fashioned, two-masted sailing yacht, a common sight in the days of the monarchy, when the sophisticated traveller would meander from temple to temple in a rented vessel.

It is on the outskirts of Cairo that our course begins, at Saqqara, once the cemetery for ancient Memphis, now best known for its proto-typical Step Pyramid. An in-depth tour of Giza follows, as well as the first of two visits to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, the splendid repository for the Pharaonic treasures rescued from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Leaving Cairo behind, we transfer by air to Abu Simbel, with its Great Temple of Ramses II on the shores of Lake Nasser, before flying onwards to Aswan, where we will board our dahabiyya, fitted out in traditional timber and furnished with period pieces.

From Aswan onwards our dahabiyya will navigate the Nile at a leisurely pace, mooring each evening on the banks of the Nile beside a village or in the open countryside.

We will visit the famous marble quarries and the High Dam at Aswan as well as the nearby Temple of Isis on the island of Philae. Kom Ombo, dominating a promontory on a bend in the Nile, provides the most striking of settings for the temples of Sobek and Haroeris, dedicated respectively to the crocodile god and the falcon-headed god.

A detailed investigation of Luxor and its environs follows, from the great necropolis of the Valley of the Kings to the sandstone colossi of Memnon; from the temples, sphinxes and monumental gateways of Karnak to Amon, the world's largest columned temple.

The base for our first three nights is the elegant Oberoi Mena House Hotel in the shadow of the Pyramids at Giza. Originally a royal hunting lodge, this luxurious retreat was a favourite of Churchill's and it is here that Presidents Carter and Sadat once famously met.