Day 1-4 Cairo

Arrive in Cairo

Arrival in the Land of the Pharaohs, at Cairo International airport, A Crawford Concierge Representative will be waiting for you after you get your luggage and clear customs and will be holding your name, then escort you to your hotel. 

ACTIVITIES:

• Tour the Pyramids

Drive to the Giza Plateau, home of Egypt signature attractions, the Great Pyramids, proclaimed by the Greeks to be among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The largest among these is the Great Pyramid of Cheops, probably built more than 2,600 years before the time of Christ. Standing 480 feet tall this is the last of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world that still standing. Little is known of Cheops, you’ll also see the inscrutable and mysterious Sphinx, known in Arabic as Abu al-Hol (“the Father of Terror”) and carved almost entirely from one piece of limestone.

Continue to Memphis. Founded around 3,100 BC, is the legendary city of Menes, the King who united Upper and Lower Egypt. Early on, Memphis was more likely a fortress from which Menes controlled the land and water routes between Upper Egypt and the Delta. 

After Lunch, proceed to Sakkara is one section of the great necropolis of Memphis, the Old Kingdom capital and the kings of the 1st Dynasty, as well as that of the 2nd Dynasty, are mostly buried in this section of the Memphis necropolis.

It has been of constant interest to Egyptologists. Three major discoveries have recently been made at Sakkara, including a prime minister tomb, a queen’s pyramid, and the tomb of the son of a dynasty founding king. 

Each discovery has a fascinating story, with many adventures for the archaeologists as they revealed the secrets of the past. 

• Cairo City Tour

Enjoy a Cairo City Tour with a guided tour of the Egyptian Museum where you`ll stroll through the halls highlighting each historical period of this ancient land, Marvel at the glittering treasures of King Tutankhamun, unparalleled in their variety, exquisite beauty, and sheer weight in gold. Seeing this treasure of more than 1,700 fabulous items buried with a young and relatively unimportant king, who can even imagine what the tombs of great and long-lived pharaohs must have contained? 

You may want to enter the Royal Mummies room for an additional fee and view the “sleeping” Kings of ancient Egypt.

After Lunch, proceed to Old Cairo explore some of the early religious monuments of the city. You’ll visit the El Muallaqa Church, dating to the late fourth and early V Century. This basilica was named for its location on top of the south gate of the Fortress of Babylon. Muallaqa means “suspended or hanging.” Destroyed in a ninth-century earthquake, the church became the center of the Coptic (or Christian) Church of Egypt from the time it was rebuilt in the eleventh century until the XIV Century. 

Make a stop at the Ben Ezra Synagogue, built sometime between the VI-IX Centuries AD. The temple contains a Jewish Heritage Library, containing documents found here in 1896 that describe the economic and social conditions of Jews under Arab rule as well as descriptions of relations between various Jewish sects.

End the day with a walking tour of the largest XIII Century covered oriental market, the largest traditional shopping bazaar in the world, the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar. 

In the tiny alleyways, there are hundreds of shops where you can watch gold and coppersmiths, brass makers, and fortune tellers at work. Look also for leather goods and woodwork inlaid with camel bone and mother-of-pearl.

Bargaining, Arab-style, is the norm here and practiced as a national pastime.