A day of travel!

Welcome to present day Cairo and ancient Egypt!

Enjoy a relaxing morning as you wake up to your first day in Egypt. Following lunch, we’re off to the magnificent Cairo museum to explore the wonders of ancient Egypt. The exhibits of the museum’s displays span the entirety of Egypt’s ancient history. It’s here that we begin to learn and understand why God brought His people to this land. Our day concludes with a delicious buffet supper at the wonderful Le Meridian Pyramids Hotel.

The Pyramids, Where Stone Touches Sky.

After breakfast, we make our way to the iconic Great Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, all constructed during ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom period. There, we’ll explore not only how these ancient wonders were constructed but, even more importantly, why? After our Pyramid experience, we make our way to Cairo airport and board a private charter jet. We’ll fly to ancient Thebes, modern day Luxor, where we’re taken to the beautiful Nile River Palace for a good meal and well-earned sleep.

Ancient Thebes: Let My People Go!

Today we enter the world of the New Kingdom, that period when most scholars agree God, through Moses, led His people out of Egypt in the great Exodus. That afternoon, we board the beautiful Sonesta Star Goddess Nile Cruise ship and settle into our suites. Following our evening gourmet supper, you’ll have the chance to disembark and spend the evening seeing beautiful Luxor Temple.

Ancient Thebes: The Center of Power.

After breakfast we begin our journey by visiting the Valley of the Kings as we explore the elaborate tombs of the key Pharaohs. After lunch we will walk through the ancient and wonderfully preserved temple of Karnack before reboarding the Sonesta Star Goddess to cruise and enjoy the Nile River.

Meet the Gods.

Today is a day of cruising and touring as we make our way south. We’ll encounter the great twin temples at Kom Ombo: the first honoring Sobeck, the crocodile-headed protector of Egypt, and the second revering Hathor, the goddess of fertility and wife of Horus. Then, a short cruise to Edfu where we disembark to visit perhaps the best-preserved temple in all of Egypt: the temple of Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis and protector of Pharaoh.

The River of Life.

Without the Nile there is no Egypt; we’ve sailed, celebrated, and enjoyed the Nile – the River of Life. Today, we explore and study one of Egypt’s several creator deities Khnum, whose temple rests on Elephantine Island in the center of the Nile. Next, it’s off to explore an authentic African village where we’ll encounter welcoming shop-keepers and residents. After lunch in an authentic Sudanese restaurant, we make our way to a magnificent granite quarry where the ancients mined and shaped the beautiful stone they quarried there. In the evening, we head back to our cruise ship for dinner and our last night on board.

The Reach of Power.

This morning we bid farewell to our ship and crew and make our way to Aswan airport. There, we’ll board our private chartered jet and fly to Aqaba, Jordan. Once we arrive in Jordan our bus will be waiting to take us to lunch and then on to the spectacular Wadi Rum. Our Bedouin friends will have a traditional supper for us called Zarb, (a roasted lamb and/or chicken feast) waiting for us. We’ll say goodnight and make our way to our personal tents where we spend the evening, “glamping” at Sun City Camp.

Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum to Petra and on to the Land of Promise. It will be an early wake-up call for a very big day! After breakfast, we’ll climb into 4X4 Jeeps for a desert excursion as we experience the wonders of Wadi Rum. Then, we make our way by motor coach to the World Heritage site of Petra to study the Nabateans and see their distinctive Treasury. Finally, it’s back to the motor coach, which will take us to our hotel near Petra: the Old Village.

Plains of Moab & Transitions.

Today is all about transitions. We’ll explore the Plains of Moab and Mt. Nebo, where we’ll consider the transition from Moses to Joshua. We’ll spend time at the baptism site of Jesus and Machaerus, a Herodian fortress. At Machaerus, we’ll study the transition from John the Baptist to Jesus. Along the way, we’ll visit one of the most famous and extensive mosaic shops in all of Jordan. In the evening we’ll head back to the Ramada for a Dead Sea swim (or float).

The Ends of the Earth.

After breakfast, we say goodbye to the Ramada and its gracious staff and make our way north to the Decapolis city of Jerash. Arguably the most remarkably preserved and extensively reconstructed Greco-Roman city in the entire Middle East. It is at Jerash that we gain a sense of the power and world view Jesus and his disciples lovingly confronted and did so to the glory of God. We’ll enjoy Jordanian Grill for lunch and make our way to the Geneva Hotel in Amman to overnight and prepare for their flight home the following day.