One of our Egypt cruises, MS Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise offers guests a cruise on the Nile River along the landmarks of ancient civilization. Elegant interiors with teak paneling, parquet floors, European antiques and oriental rugs create an atmosphere of luxury. Impeccable service and beautiful atmosphere come together to make this trip a discovery.
Day 1: MS Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise & Arrive Luxor
You can meet and assist through our travel agent upon arrival at Luxor Airport, train station or Luxor hotels. Then you will be transferred by private air-conditioned car to board the Nile cruise. You will have lunch on board Oberoi Philae luxury Nile cruise and then sail to Quina. Afternoon tea and dinner will be served to you. Overnight in Quina.
Day 2: Tour To Dendera temple
After breakfast on board Oberoi Philae luxury Nile cruise, you will transfer by bus to Dendera to visit the temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor – the goddess of love, which is unique because its ceiling depicting the journey of the sun, moon and stars in the sky remains beautifully still and connected. Lunch will be served on board the Oberoi Philae luxury Nile cruise, while sailing to Luxor to visit:
The Temple of Dendera occupies a special place in the annals of Egyptian history and antiquities, and for me personally it remains a mysterious gem in the sands of time. It is without a doubt one of the most intact and complete ancient sites ever discovered. It is said that by the time Napoleon’s expedition arrived, a blanket of sand had gradually built up around its outer walls, as if the desert itself had conspired to protect its secrets.
As you approach the entrance to the Temple of Dendera, you can just see the front of the temple silhouetted against the (always) blue sky. The sides are not visible to you. It is as if there is nothing at all, nothing behind the front façade. Nothing the ancient Egyptians did was an accident; Everything created in temples had a message, function and meaning.
The questions about Dendera are endless. However, it is said that this temple was not completed when the Romans arrived and ordered the priests to hand over all their secrets, teachings and library scrolls. It is implied that the priests wrote their last secrets on the walls of the Temple of Dendera – for all with eyes to see. That’s why there’s so much in Dendera that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Dinner buffet on board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise and overnight in Luxor.
Day 3: Karnak and Luxor temple
After having breakfast at board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise then you can enjoy time at leisure. Lunch is served a board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise, followed by a guided tour to visit the most famous Karnak and Luxor Temples.
The Karnak temple complex in Luxor developed over more than 1,000 years, especially between the Twelfth Dynasty and the Twentieth Dynasty. At its peak, it was the largest and most significant religious complex in ancient Egypt. The most important structure and largest religious building ever built is the Temple of Amun-Ra, which is considered the place where this god lived on Earth with his wife Mut and son Khonsu, who also had temples on the site.
The Temple of Amun-Ra is particularly famous for its vast hypostyle hall, built during the reign of Seti I. After Memphis became the capital of the new dynasty, many of Luxor temples declined in importance. In subsequent centuries, Ptolemaic rulers and Coptic Christians altered parts of the complex for their own uses.
Built over hundreds of years by Amenhotep III, Ramses II, Tutankhamun, and other pharaohs, Luxor Temple was the biggest and most significant religious center in ancient Egypt. In what was then known as Thebes, the Luxor Temple was the “place of the first occasion,” where the god Amun experienced a rebirth during the annual reenactment of the pharaoh’s coronation ceremony. Today, the remains of this massive complex include the massive Great Hypostyle Hall, some 61 meters long, with 28 21-foot-high columns, largely decorated by Tutankhamun around 1330 BC. Many of the temple’s side walls were demolished after the time of the pharaohs and recycled for building materials.
Back to your cruise ship for afternoon tea and dinner aboard Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise, overnight stay a board the cruise in Luxor.
Breakfast on board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise , followed by a guided tour to the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor to visit the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple at El Deir EL Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon. Back to the Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise for lunch and an afternoon tea during sailing to Esna.
The Valley of the Kings (Valley of Biban of the Kings), once called the Great Cemetery of millions of years of Pharaoh’s rule, or the Place of Truth, houses 63 magnificent royal tombs from the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), all very different from each other.
The West Bank was the site of royal burials from the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC) onwards. At least three Eleventh Dynasty rulers built their tombs near the modern village of Tareif , northeast of the Valley of the Kings. However, the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty chose the isolated valley dominated by the pyramid-shaped peak of Jebel al-Qarn (the Horn). The secluded site surrounded by steep cliffs was easily patrolled and, when viewed from the plain of Thebes, appeared to be the site of the sunset associated with the ancient Egyptian afterlife.
Also known as Djeser_Djeseru, the magnificent Temple of Hatshepsut was built for the 18th Dynasty “Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut”. It is one of the incomparable temples of ancient Egypt and is considered one of the greatest ancient Egyptian achievements. It is consecrated to Hatshepsut and Amun.
The Egyptian monarch had duties to honor their gods and pharaohs and preserve their memory until eternity by constructing tombs and temples. Queen Hatshepsut was always aware of ways to raise her public image and immortalize her name, and the mortuary temple achieved both. She was the daughter of a very powerful god in Egypt and that is why she ruled as a man would. She ruled for about two decades.
The two giant, faceless Colossi of Memnon, originally representing Pharaoh Amenhotep III and rising majestically about 18 meters from the plain, are the first monuments tourists see when they visit the West Bank. These magnificent colossal statues, each cut from a single block of stone and weighing 1,000 tons, were located at the eastern entrance to the mortuary temple of Amenophis III, the largest on the west bank. Egyptologists are currently excavating the temple and their discoveries can be seen behind the two giant statues.
Dinner on board and overnight a board Philae, Luxury Nile Cruise in Esna.
Day 5: visiting Edfu and Kom Ombo Temples
Breakfast will be served a board of Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile cruise, while sailing to Edfu. Upon to your arrival you will be taken in a guided tour to visit Horus Temple in Edfu. Back to the cruise, began sailing to Kom Ombo. Lunch on board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile cruise. A guided tour to visit the temple shared by the two main gods Sobek and Haroeris.
The temple is built over much older ruins dating back to the reign of Ramesses III, and was built over a period of 180 years under a variety of rulers during Egypt’s Ptolemaic era. This period represents the period of Greek rule.
Each pharaoh was a descendant of Ptolemy, a general in Alexander the Great army who controlled the region a few centuries before the temple was built. However, the temple personify the traditional architecture of ancient Egypt, and is largely free of Hellenistic influence.
The temple itself is dedicated to the worship of the Egyptian god Horus, who was frequently conflated with the Greek god Apollo. In fact, the city of Edfu was renamed Apollonopolis Magna during Greco-Roman reign in Egypt.
The Temple of Kom Ombo was built 180 years ago (BC) by the Ptolemaic Dynasty during the Roman invasion. What distinguishes the Temple of Kom Ombo is that it is located directly on the riverbank between Edfu and Aswan, making it a wonderful stop on the Nile. Cruises and the most prominent tourist attractions in Aswan. The temple is dedicated to two gods, Sobek the crocodile god and Haroeris (the falcon god Horus). It is strange for any Egyptian temple to be created for two gods. It is unusual for there to be double devotion. The travel agency to Egypt has already provided tourist tours in Egypt, including visits to the Kom Ombo Temple.
Dinner a board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile cruise and Galabeya party entertainment. Overnight in Kom Ombo.
Day 6: Aswan sightseeing Tour
Breakfast a board the Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile cruise, followed by an early tour to visit the High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk, and the wonderful Philae Temple.
One of the huge engineering projects that international experts described as an engineering miracle unprecedented in the twentieth century.
The High Dam Is a rock-filled dam, with a capacity of 42 million cubic meters. Its body includes a vertical curtain of impermeable material that prevents water leakage. The width of the curtain at the base is 60 meters, and at the top it is 10 meters. The dam itself is 980 meters wide at its base. Its total length is four km, and its height above the bed level is 111 m. A 40-metre-wide road runs along the top of the dam.
The rate of blasting and transporting rocks per hour reached 3000 tons/hour.
The High Dam outperforms other dams in the world in terms of its reservoir capacity. The reservoir has an area of 5,000 square kilometers, and extends 500 kilometers east of the dam. The capacity of the reservoir is 157 million cubic meters of water, which is enough to expand the arable land in Egypt by 1.3 million acres of land irrigated by basins for permanent irrigation.
The project, which employed 34,000 people, 50% of whom were technicians, resulted in profits amounting to 34,000 Egyptian pounds. 234 million increase in national income annually.
The unfinished obelisk was cut out of the rock, but abandoned after a flaw in the stone was discovered. Had it been completed, the obelisk would have weighed 1,168 tons and been about 42 meters high, and is believed to have been the intended companion to the so-called Lateran Obelisk in Rome, which originally stood in front of the temple of Thutmose III at Karnak and still stands today.
It is credited as the largest obelisk in the world. From chisel marks and discarded tools, archaeologists have been able to deduce Pharaonic quarrying techniques, such as soaking wooden stakes to split notches, and using quartz sand slurry as an abrasive. The visitor’s path winds through the quarries past some illustrations of dolphins and ostriches drawn by ancient quarry workers.
Interesting Facts: There are more obelisks all over the world now that have left Egypt after being purchased by various governments and shipped abroad to be placed in prominent locations in major cities such as Rome (11 in Italy in total), Paris, and London (4 in the UK), Istanbul, Israel, Poland and New York City along with many temples and sites in Egypt (8 in total remaining in Egypt).
The Temple of Philae is the crown jewel of the Nile River that stands majestically on the island of Agilkia in southern Egypt. This legendary site was built in 690 BC to honor Isis, the Egyptian goddess of healing and magic. As one of the last places of worship built in the classical Egyptian style, the Temple of Philae has a complex and fascinating history.
The Temple of Philae Is located below the controversial Aswan High Dam on Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. Brave explorers can cruise the tranquil Nile River before jumping in to explore the rich expanse of the Philae Temple.
The temple complex Is recorded in many classical texts of ancient writers, including Ptolemy, Seneca and Pliny the Elder. The Temple of Philae also provides the backdrop for some beloved novels. Are you familiar with a certain Belgian (not French!) character who solved the puzzles here?
Overnight stay on board Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile cruise in Aswan.
Day 7: MS Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise & Aswan – Disembarkation
Get off after breakfast. Sail by small motor boat to visit the Botanical Garden. Transfer to Aswan Airport, train station, or Aswan hotels.
Tour Inclusions & Exclusions
Meet and assist service upon arrival & departure.
Assistance of our personnel during your stay and excursions.
Accommodation on board The Oberoi Philae Nile Cruise on full board basis.
All Nile Cruise excursions as mentioned in the itinerary sharing nile cruise group.
English-speaking tour guide during your excursions.
01 bottle of water per day per person.
All service charges and taxes.
Egypt Entry Visa.
Tipping.
Personal Expenses.
Any Optional tours you may require.
FAQ for Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise
The Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise is a premium cruise experience that allows guests to explore the historical and cultural treasures along the Nile River in Egypt, combining luxury accommodations with guided excursions to iconic sites.
The accommodations on the Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise feature elegantly designed cabins and suites with panoramic views of the Nile, luxurious amenities, private balconies, and en-suite bathrooms, ensuring a comfortable and opulent stay.
Onboard amenities include a spa, fitness center, swimming pool, restaurants offering gourmet cuisine, a bar, and a lounge area. The Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise also features attentive service and various entertainment options.
The cruise includes guided excursions to historic sites such as the temples of Karnak and Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Philae, and more, providing guests with a rich cultural experience throughout their journey.
The Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise typically offers itineraries ranging from three to seven nights, depending on the specific route and destinations chosen.
Yes, dining is included in the Oberoi Philae Luxury Nile Cruise cruise package. Guests can enjoy a variety of gourmet meals prepared by skilled chefs, with options for both international and Egyptian cuisine.