We checked out of the Hotel Sheraton and boarded the coach with Marco for our last trip. We drove out of Cairo to Saqqara and the Step Pyramid of Djoser. It is the earliest Egyptian pyramid, built by the architect Imhotep around 2630 BC, surrounded by a vast mortuary complex. It looked busy so we...

Today we visited Coptic Cairo, a historic, spiritual district in Old Cairo hosting some of Egypt’s most revered churches within the Roman era Babylon Fortress. The Coptic Orthodox Church was established by Saint Mark in the 1st century, making it one of the oldest Christian communities. We went inside the Church of St Sergius and...

Sadly we left our cruise ship and took a short flight to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is two huge temples hewn out of the rock, in the 13th century dedicated to Ramases II and his favourite wife Nefertari. Following the construction of the High Dam in the 1960s it was realised that the temples would...

Our coach took us to see the ‘unfinished obelisk’, the largest known obelisk. It was commissioned by Queen Hatshepsut during the 18th dynasty. It was abandoned after cracks appeared as it was being prepared. It was quite an arduous climb (for me!) We drove past the British dam of 1902 on our way to the...

We woke up to find ourselves docked in Edfu. Our coach took us to Edfu temple. Some of the tourists travel there in a horse and carriage but they look in such poor condition that Great Rail Journeys stopped using them. Off the coach, we first had to walk through the ‘Valley of the Vultures’...