This elegant travel program is designed to evoke an historic event in Egypt's recent past: the grand opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, attended by the crown heads of Europe including the Empress Eugenie of France. The M.S. Eugenie was constructed in 1993 in the style of a turn-of-the-last-century Nile steamship. Likewise the Eugenie, the first ship to sail Lake Nasser, launched a new era of tourism, offering travelers fresh vistas of Egypt's natural beauty and archeological treasures. Lake Nasser extended the boundaries of Egypt's touristic possibilities, while the Eugenie reminds us of this ancient country’s endless capacity for renewal.



This same period is reflected with your stay in Cairo. The Villa Belle Epoque is just a short walk from the Maadi district just south of Cairo. On the main street, Road 9, you will find a small souk with many small boutiques worth a browse; from gold, silver to copper ware and bookstores. In addition there are plenty of coffee and tea houses and restaurants as well as the metro station for convenient transport into central Cairo avoiding the traffic of the city.



Maadi (sometimes spelled Ma'adi) is the name of one of the first fully excavated predynastic sites in Egypt; and it is the site for the Maadi culture, the Upper Egypt flavor of predynastic history. Located in a suburb of Cairo, Maadi lies on a rocky ridge next to the Nile River floodplain.



This trip will recall travel in days gone by!




Day 1 Wednesday

Depart US on Egypt Air.



Day 2 Thursday

Arrive Cairo and be transferred to your hotel. Rest of day at leisure. Overnight in Cairo Villa Belle Époque Hotel.



Day 3 Friday

After breakfast at your hotel, fly to Aswan. Arrival in Aswan to board the M/S Eugenie. Lunch served on board. Visit to Kalabsha temple, Beit El Wali, and the kiosk of Kertassi. Afternoon tea is served in the lounge. Dinner and overnight on board in the Aswan Harbour. (B,L,D)



Day 4 Saturday

Breakfast on board. Today sail to Wadi El Seboua and cocktail while passing the Tropic of Cancer. Lunch served on boar. Visit to Wadi El Seboua temple, the temple of Dakka and temple of Meharakka. Sail to Amada. Dinner and overnight aboard. (B,L,D)



Day 5 Sunday

Breakfast followed by morning visit to the temples of Amada and Derr as well as the tomb of Penout. Sail to Kasr Ibrim. Visit the citadel of Kasr Ibrim. (Tour is conducted from the ship's sundeck as entrance to the site is not permitted).



Sailing to Abu Simbel. Lunch served on board. Visit the Abu Simbel temples. Optional Sound & Light show at Abu Simbel temples. Candlelight dinner on board and overnight. (B,L,D)



Day 6 Monday

After breakfast on board, disembarkation and fly to Cairo. Remainder of day at leisure.
Overnight in Cairo, at Villa Belle Époque Hotel. (B)



Day 7 Tuesday

After breakfast at your hotel, visit the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, which houses the world's largest collection of artifacts from the era of the pharaohs including some belonging to King Tut. Tour Old Cairo, where early Judaism and Christianity flourished in Egypt. Visit sites like the Ben Ezra Synagogue, and the Moallaka Church where the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus took refuge. Spend the afternoon at the Great Pyramids of Giza built for Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinos, and the defending Sphinx. End the day at the bazaar of Khan El Khalili. Optional Sound and Light Show available this evening. Overnight in Cairo, at Villa Belle Époque Hotel in a Club Room. (B/L)



Day 8 Wednesday

After breakfast transfer to Cairo airport for your trip home. (B)



History of Nubia

Nubia is located in today's southern Egypt and northern Sudan. The modern inhabitants of southern Egypt and Sudan still refer to themselves as Nubians. They speak the Nubian language as well as Arabic. Thousands of Nubians from the north were forced to relocate from their endangered homelands to be resettled in Egypt and Sudan. This land has one of the harshest climates in the world. The temperatures are high throughout most of the year, and rainfall is infrequent. The banks of the Nile are narrow in much of Nubia, making farming difficult. Yet, in antiquity, Nubia was a land of great natural wealth, of gold mines, ebony, ivory and incense which was always prized by her neighbors.



The land of Nubia is a desert divided by the river Nile. For want of water and rich soil, most of Nubia has never been able to support a large population for long periods. However, some of Africa's greatest civilizations emerged here, centers of achievement whose existence was based on industry and trade. Because they did not write their own languages until very late in ancient times, we know these centers and their people largely through their archaeology and what the Egyptians and Greeks said about them.



To the ancient Mediterranean world, the land south of Egypt was a territory of mystery and legend. Wealth and exotic products came from there. It was the home of the Ethiopians, whom Homer called blameless and stories about its great achievements endured to tantalize the modern world. This land is one of enormous distances, and its exploration was long impeded by problems of transport and political unrest. In the last hundred years, Nubia has slowly yielded its secrets, its vanished peoples, abandoned cities and lost kingdoms brought to light by the excavator and analysis of inscriptions. This exhibit is a selection of objects recovered over twenty years ago by the Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition in the effort to rescue archaeology from the rising water behind the Aswan Dam.



In the 1960's, a dam was constructed at Aswan, Egypt. It created a 500 mile long lake which permanently flooded ancient temples and tombs as well as hundreds of modern villages in Nubia. While the dam was under construction, hundreds of archaeologists worked in Egypt and Sudan to excavate as many ancient sites as possible. The Oriental Institute worked in Nubia from 1960 until 68. Today, the 5000 Nubian objects in the collection of The Oriental Institute Museum and thousands of objects in other museums are our sole resource for recovering the rich civilization of northern Nubia, for the sites themselves now lie beneath the waters of Lake Nasser. In contrast, expeditions from many countries are working in southern Nubia.