Pictures from Egypt

An Exodus Pilgrimage

The Nile, Cairo and the Sinai

Led by:

The Rev. Orion Davis
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
Sparta, NJ

February 28 - March 14, 2009

Trip map

DAY 1, Saturday, February 28, 2009 - We depart from one of the New York City airports bound for Cairo, Egypt.  Dinner on board the aircraft. D

DAY 2: Sunday, March 1, 2009 - We will arrive at the Cairo Airport where we will clear immigration and meet our guide who will be with us until the end of our journey.  We will be taken to our hotel near the area of the pyramids where we will have dinner and overnight.  Breakfast and lunch on board the aircraft and dinner at our hotel. BLD

DAY 3: Monday, March 2, 2009 - We will take a morning flight to Luxor where we will be transferred to our Nile cruise boat.  We will enjoy lunch on board the boat and then our guide will escort us to begin our exploration of Luxor Luxor is now a noisy, bustling big city strung along the banks of the Nile.  The many monuments and temples are in the heart of the city.  We will cross to the West Bank of the Nile to visit the Thebes Necropolis also known as the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.  These royal burial sites contained magnificent treasures but only the tomb of Tutankhamun was found intact.  We will visit the magnificent Deir el-Bahri (Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut).  Hatshepsut was one of the few female pharaohs.  We will see the two Memnon Colossi, both 64 feet high which originally guarded the gates of the Mortuary Temple of Amenophis III.  We will return to our boat for dinner and overnight.  The boat sails to Esna tonight. BLD

DAY 4: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 - We will visit the Temple of Khnum built by Ptolemy VI and dedicated to the Ram-headed god Khnum, god of creation.  We will now sail to Edfu for a visit to the Temple of Horus, second in size to only the Temple of Karnak and the best preserved of all of Egypt’s temples.  We will continue on the Nile to Aswan where we will overnight. BLD

DAY 5: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - We will begin with a visit to the High Dam at Aswan, Egypt’s most southern city.  The dam helps the Nile provide the water for all of Egypt.  We will see the Unfinished Obelisk which was probably intended to join the Lateran Obelisk in front of the Temple of Tuthmosis III at Karnak.  We will visit the Temple of Isis at Philae which, in Roman times, was the most important pilgrimage destination in Egypt.  We will overnight at Aswan. (In case of long queues of boats at Esna lock, Kom Ombo visit and sailing to Aswan will be on Thursday morning instead of Wednesday evening, and in this case Aswan visit will be P.M. instead of A.M. Overnight at Aswan.) BLD

DAY 6: Thursday, March 5, 2009 - This morning we will sail by felucca, an open topped sailing boat, and get that old fashioned feeling of sailing up the Nile.  We will see Aga Khan’s Mausoleum, a simple structure from which one can have breathtaking views of the surrounding country.  We will return to our Nile boat and overnight at Aswan. BLD

DAY 7: Friday, March 6, 2009 - We will depart from Aswan this morning and sail to Kom Ombo to visit the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek.  The temple is famous for its bisymmetry with its twin entrances and sanctuaries and the halls that divide the building in half.  The left side is dedicated to Haroeris and the right side is dedicated to the crocodile god, Sobek.  We will continue sailing today to Edfu and to Esna where we will overnight. BLD

DAY 8: Saturday, March 7, 2009 - We continue sailing to Luxor today and upon arrival, we will explore the East Bank of the Nile.  Here we will find Karnak which surpasses every other complex of pharaonic temples.  The site at Karnak encompasses 100 acres and is the most magnificent temple complex in Egypt and maybe even in the world.  We will overnight on the boat in Luxor. BLD

DAY 9: Sunday, March 8, 2009 - We will continue our exploration of the magnificent ruins around Luxor.  We will overnight on our boat that will be docked at Luxor. BLD

DAY 10: Monday, March 9, 2009 - We will disembark after breakfast and fly back to Cairo where we will visit the amazing Egyptian Museum with its Tutankhamen Collection.  We continue on to Old Cairo to see the Church of Abu Sraga, built to commemorate the Flight of the Christ Child to Egypt.  We will see the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Mar Mosque.  We will visit the Church of St. George, a modern building sitting over a Roman tower, where priests wrap heavy chains around the heads and waists of believers while they chant prayers in the memory of St. George by the Romans.  We will end the day with a visit to the Khan el Khalili Bazaar.  Dinner and overnight Cairo. BLD

DAY 11: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - This morning we will see the famous Pyramids of Giza and enter the Cheops Pyramid.  We continue on to the famous Sphinx, carved out of a single block of rock.  From there we will drive to the ancient capital of the Pharaohs, Memphis, and see the exotic decorations with which it is adorned.  We will continue on to Sakkara, probably one of the earliest Pharonic sites, where we will see the Steppe Pyramids.  Dinner and overnight Cairo. BLD

Day 12: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - We will have a very early wake up call and depart Cairo to begin our journey into the desert from Cairo to St. Catherine’s in the Sinai.  Along the way, we will stop to see Moses Well and enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the desert. BLD

DAY 13: Thursday, March 12, 2009 - Early morning climb to the top of Mt. Sinai (for those who wish, there will be camels available to ride) which commemorates the spot where Moses received the Ten Commandments.  Once we reach the summit, we will celebrate Holy Eucharist.  In the afternoon, we will explore the 5th century St. Catherine’s Monastery, commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in AD 530 to protect those of Greek Orthodox faith.  It is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world.  Inside the monastery, we will see the Church of the Transfiguration (now called the Church of St. Catherine) where some of the rarest icons in the world are displayed along with the relics of St. Catherine.  Dinner and overnight near St. Catherine’s. BLD

DAY 14: Friday, March 13, 2009 - After breakfast, we will return to Cairo.  We will stop to visit the Citadel, which along with the minarets of Muhammad Ali’s mosque, tower over the city of Cairo.  We will see the breathtaking views of the city from the Citadel before we return to our hotel near the pyramids.  We will have a “farewell to Egypt” dinner and overnight in Cairo. BLD

DAY 15: Saturday, March 14, 2009 - We will board our return flight the US arriving back into the US this afternoon. BL

Price: $3,299.00 Price is based on double occupancy without airline taxes and fuel surcharges.  Roundtrip air from New York area airport.  Air transportation available from other cities.  Single supplement $699.00.

Final Payment due November 15, 2008

Cancellation Penalties
◊ Deposit of $300 per person due by October 1.
◊ Until November 14, 2008 - $300 plus any unrecoverable fees
◊ After November 15, 2008: NO REFUND

An application for travel insurance will be included with the receipt for your deposit.  We strongly recommend that you seriously consider this coverage.

Meals: B Breakfast, L Lunch, D Dinner, S Snack

The itinerary is subject to change due to local conditions or at the discretion and direction of the leader or guide.