Itinerary · 8 days · 32 places
8 Days in Egypt
Three days in Luxor on the East and West Banks, then upstream via Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo to Aswan, where Philae and the islands of the First Cataract round things off.
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Photo: Natalya Cotenko · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival on the Nile
Arrival in Luxor
Hotel check-in
Base yourself on the Corniche el-Nil in the East Bank centre, a few minutes' walk from Luxor Temple and the bazaar.
Nile Corniche in Luxor
A first stroll along the riverside promenade, past the felucca landings and the Sofitel Winter Palace.
Evening: Luxor Temple by night
The temple is open and floodlit until 9 pm — the colossi of Ramesses, the obelisk and the colonnaded court look more striking under the spotlights than in the heat of the day.
Day 2East Bank: Karnak and the museums
Karnak Temple
The great precinct of Amun with the hypostyle hall of 134 papyrus columns, the Sacred Lake and the obelisks of Hatshepsut.
Avenue of Sphinxes
The excavated processional way, lined with around 1,050 ram- and human-headed sphinxes, linking Karnak with Luxor Temple.
Luxor Museum
Small, cool and excellently labelled: statues from the Cachette find, Akhenaten's talatat wall and two royal mummies.
Mummification Museum
Tools, canopic jars and a mummified crocodile explain step by step how embalming was done.
Evening: Sharia al-Souk
The covered bazaar street behind Luxor Temple runs until late — spices, galabiyas, reed baskets; haggling is part of the deal.
Day 3West Bank: tombs and mortuary temples
Valley of the Kings
Three tombs are included in the standard ticket — Ramesses III, Ramesses IV and Merenptah are the most rewarding for their colourful ceiling paintings.
Temple of Hatshepsut
The three-tiered terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari with reliefs of the expedition to Punt, set right into the cliff face.
Deir el-Medina
The village of the tomb workers, with the tiny, brightly painted tombs of Sennedjem and Inherkhau.
Medinet Habu
The mortuary temple of Ramesses III — the deeply cut battle reliefs against the Sea Peoples have partly kept their colour.
Colossi of Memnon
Two 18-metre seated statues of Amenhotep III, all that remains above ground of the largest mortuary temple in Thebes.
Evening: Sound and Light Show at Karnak
An evening walk through the illuminated temple precinct with spoken narration; shows run in different languages, so check the schedule for yours in advance.
Day 4Nile cruise to Esna
Onward to Esna
Hotel check-in
Temple of Khnum at Esna
The excavated hypostyle hall lies nine metres below today's street level; the freshly cleaned ceilings once again show their original constellations.
Wikala al-Gaddawi
The restored Ottoman caravanserai with a two-storey courtyard, where camel caravans from Sudan were once unloaded.
Esna covered bazaar
The restored qisariya lane next to the temple: fabrics, spices and workshops, far less geared to tourists than in Luxor.
Evening: sun deck at the Esna landing
Until the night sailing to Edfu the ship stays moored at the landing; from the sun deck you look out over the lit riverside road, and in the dark the river falls completely quiet.
Day 5Edfu and the Temple of Horus
Onward to Edfu
Hotel check-in
Carriage ride through Edfu
The horse-drawn carriages from the landing drive through the residential quarters and across the market square to the temple gate — agree the price before you get in.
Temple of Horus at Edfu
Egypt's best-preserved temple: pylon, granite falcon statues and, in the sanctuary, the barque chapel with its naos of Aswan granite.
Mammisi of Edfu
The birth house in the temple forecourt, with reliefs of the birth of the child Horus and figures of Bes on the column capitals.
Edfu bazaar
The market between the temple and the carriage stand: pottery, sugarcane juice and dates from the surrounding fields.
Evening: galabiya night on board
The customary costume evening on the sun deck as the ship sails upstream — you can pick up a galabiya in the bazaar during the day.
Day 6Kom Ombo: Sobek and Haroeris
Onward to Kom Ombo
Hotel check-in
Double Temple of Kom Ombo
Two mirror-image halves for the crocodile Sobek and the falcon Haroeris — on the left, the famous relief of surgical instruments.
Crocodile Museum, Kom Ombo
Some 20-odd mummified crocodiles from the nearby necropolis, plus clay coffins and Sobek amulets, air-conditioned and well explained.
Nilometer of Kom Ombo
The round well shaft with a staircase in the temple precinct, where the priests read the level of the Nile — and with it the year's tax burden.
Evening: sun deck above the illuminated temple
From the mooring, the floodlit Double Temple stands right above the bank — the best view is from the stern of the sun deck.
Day 7Aswan: Philae and Nubia
Onward to Aswan
Hotel check-in
Nubian Museum
The history of Nubia from rock carvings to the resettlement caused by the dam — the best museum south of Cairo.
Unfinished Obelisk
In the granite quarry lies the 42-metre obelisk that cracked in the rock; the chisel marks show how it was being carved out.
Philae Temple
The Temple of Isis on Agilkia Island, rescued stone by stone from the reservoir — the motorboat ride out is part of the experience.
Evening: Sharia as-Souq in Aswan
The long bazaar street parallel to the Corniche, with hibiscus, karkadeh stalls and Nubian spices, at its liveliest in the evening.
Day 8Islands in the cataract and departure
Kitchener's Island
The botanical garden on the narrow Nile island, with palms and trees from all over Africa; you get there by felucca from the Corniche.
Nubian village on Elephantine
The blue- and ochre-painted lanes of Siou and Koti, with the ruins of the old Khnum precinct in between and a Nilometer on the shore.
Departure from Aswan
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