8 days / 7 nights
Western
Safari desert
Price = $1500
(per person Minimum 2 persons)
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Day 1
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Tours |
Arranged
if time of arrival to Cairo permits this. |
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Transfers |
Meet at
airport and transfer to Hotel |
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Accommodation |
Cairo |
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Day 2
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Tours |
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Transfers |
From Cairo to
Baharia in our 4 Wheel drive |
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Accommodation |
Baharia
oasis |
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Day 3
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Tours |
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Visit the " English
House " to watch the sunset over the desert
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Transfers |
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Accommodation |
Baharia
oasis (With the magical healing hot spring) |
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Description |
. The English house which
was a lookout post during World Was I is today in ruins,
but it's location on "the Black Mountain" give a unique
panorama view over the northern part of the Baharia
Oasis. |
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Day 4
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Tours |
visits around Baharia
Oasis:
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Alexandre the great
temple
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The tomb of
ZedAmonEfAnkh
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The tomb of his son
Bannentiu
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The ancient Roman
spring Ain Bishmu.
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The
Crystal Mountain and the Black Desert
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Transfers |
From Baharia
to White desert near Farafra Oasis. |
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Accommodation |
Sleep the
night in the desert |
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Description |
The early morning is
for visits around Baharia Oasis. There are several
ancient temples in the oasis, The most famous is the one
that has the cartouche (Pharaonic name presentation) of
Alexander the Great. Unfortunately the combination of
wind, location and time has eroded these temples and
there is today not much left to see.
We are going to visit the museum with some of the
amazing "Gold Mummies" found here just recently. Further
two ancient Egyptian tombs, first the tomb of
ZedAmonEfAnkh and then the tomb of his son Bannentiu.
Before starting our journey deeper into the desert, we
will visit the ancient Roman spring Ain Bishmu and see
how the ancient irrigation system could provide enough
water for the farming land.
Back to your four-wheel car, the journey goes south -
but we can't leave Baharia before visiting the Crystal
Mountain and the Black Desert with it's many black
topped mountains. Please remember when coming to places
as the Crystal Mountain: "Take nothing with you, leave
nothing behind".
Out of the Baharia depression and down the escarpment to
Farafra Oasis, one will soon start to see smaller white
chalk cliffs - a forewarning of the adventure ahead. The
white cliffs "grows" going south - and suddenly you are
in the White Desert . If any destination can be called
"magic ", then it's the White Desert.
The Governorate of Wadi Gedid work today together with
the Egyptian Ministry of Environment on protecting the
White Desert through making it a National Natural
Preserved area.
Before the magic night under the stars, in this one of
the greatest treasures of our planet - we will visit the
"El Bahr " Cave with wall paintings from prehistoric
man. The name "El Bahr" come from the word "sea" as one
here find remains from the ocean once covering this
area. Ostrich eggs and other fossils have also been
found here.
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Day 5
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Tours |
- Morning
dive in the hot spring of Bir Sitta
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take a tour in Farafra
Oasis.
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The old Islamic town of
Qasr Dakhla
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Museum in Mut
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Transfers |
White desert -- Farafra oasis --
Dakhla oasis |
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Accommodation |
Dakhla oasis
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Description |
After a magical, but
often cold night in the White Desert, a morning dive in
the hot spring of Bir Sitta is a most welcome start of
the day.
Farafra, or the "Land
of the Cow" as it was named in Ancient Egyptian times,
was up to recently the most remote human settlement in
the desert. So remote that it was not long time ago when
a representative of the Oasis had to take his camel and
ride to Dakhla Oasis to find out what day they should
perform their Friday prayers, as the inhabitants had
totally lost track of the days.
Today the inhabitants
are "mixed", as farmers have immigrated from the Delta
and the Nile Valley. We will see the old city as part of
the new agricultural areas of Farafra during our visit.
From Farafra we drive south towards Dakhla Oasis . In
this huge green farming oasis we will visit:
The old Islamic town of Qasr Dakhla in it's
desert-medieval style, built on top of a city from Roman
times. Mut, the center of Dakhla is still using it's
Ancient Egyptian name after the goddess of Waset
(Luxor), and here we will visit the remains of the old
city Qasr Mut.
The small but important Ethnographic Museum in Mut give
aunique glimpse inside the traditional culture of the
oasis. Plan of a traditional house, locally produced
items as dresses, jewelry, rugs and more. The village
scenes with clay figures by the local artist Mabrouk are
our wide screen in to this culture. The local culture
itself have it's wide screen "out of" the culture in the
next house, as that's the local cinema. Further visits
will take you to the "Temple of the Rock " and the
Colored Mountain.
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Day 6
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Tours |
- The
unique "upside down" mastabas
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Museum where artifacts
from the whole of Wadi Gedid's Ancient Egyptian
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The Amon temple in
Hibis
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Transfers |
Dakhla--Kharga |
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Accommodation |
Kharga Oasis
Hotel |
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Description |
After breakfast we will
visit the unique "upside down" mastabas (burial
monuments from the Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom) found
close to Balat. Important monuments, as the governors of
Dakhla buried here show the importance of the Oasis
already in times the Pyramids where built in the Nile
Valley - some four thousand years ago.
Then it's time to say goodbye to the beautiful Oasis of
Dakhla, and start our drive towards the last oasis for
our desert journey. This is the Kharga Oasis, the center
for the Governorate of Wadi Gedid - a Governorate
responsible for 40 percent of Egypt's land area.
Kharga
Visits in Kharga will of course have to include the
Museum where artifacts from the whole of Wadi Gedid's
Ancient Egyptian, Christian and Islamic periods are
exhibited. The Amon temple in Hibis is one of the only
two temples known built during Persian rule of Egypt
(26th Dynasty). The inscriptions on the later built
Roman gate give very important understanding about Roman
imperial rule in Egypt. After Christianity came to Egypt
with St. Mark the Evangelist, the Christian community
was in periods under hard prosecutions from Roman rule
with thousand and thousand of martyrs. Many fled to the
desert for protection. Kharga was one of these places
and the result of this is that we in Bagawat got one of
the oldest and best-preserved Christian cemeteries in
the world.
Hibis temple
On top of a hill close to Hibis lies the Roman
temple-fortress Nadura, a typical lookout as the English
House visited in Baharia - apart from the fact that
Nadura was built nearly two thousand years earlier.
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Day 7
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Tours |
- The
old market area of Kharga.
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The village New Baris.
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Transfers |
Kharga -- Dakhla in our 4x4 Wheel drive |
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Accommodation |
Luxor City |
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Description |
.We cannot leave the center
of Kharga Oasis before you got the opportunity to visit
the old market area of Kharga. The market is mainly
serving the local population, but as visitor you will
first of all be able to see the real desert market. Then
it will always be items as hand-woven baskets that are
good items to have back from the journey, and your
"souvenir" will be a small contribution to the local
industry as well. Especially Dakhla and Kharga have many
beautiful and locally produced crafts as the mentioned
baskets (most made from palm leaves), mats, rugs,
pottery, some jewelry (silver work basically), local
dresses and the traditional hats made of palm leaves in
Dakhla.
Before leaving the oasis depression we will drive south
passing many villages also belonging to Kharga Oasis. Of
newer history the village New Baris is of special
importance, as it was here the word renowned architect
Hassan Fathy tried to build a village for the oasis. Now
close to deserted, it still have the mark of a grand
idea and a beautiful architecture built on local
traditions and in local material. The counterpart to New
Baris is Hassan Fathy's New Gourna in Luxor.
Leaving the area where the prehistoric Nile was flowing,
we are driving east towards the Nile and the famous Nile
Valley - or should we rather say the "Nile Oasis"? Fact
is that the thin valley is a long Oasis surrounded by
waste deserts on both sides. The Western Desert (before
named the "Libyan Desert") - which we have traveled, and
in East the "Eastern Desert" (formerly the "Arabian
Desert") which cover the area all the way to the Red
Sea.
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Day 8
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Tours |
- Monuments from
the times of Ancient Waset
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Transfers |
Night Train back to Cairo |
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Accommodation |
Luxor City |
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Description |
.After a good breakfast we
will visit some monuments from the times of Ancient
Waset (or Theben which the Greek called Luxor later)
Some may have been here before, so we will customize our
visits according to this and interest.
May this be the Valley of the Kings and Karnak or less
known temples and monuments here. Important for all will
be to visit some of the tombs of the Nobles showing the
people, daily life and agriculture in this Nile Oasis
town some thousand years ago.
There are tombs here with reference to the Oases, and
depending on which tombs are open we will visit these |
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Price
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US$ 1500 per person
Minimum 2 persons.
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Includes |
All meals, starting with dinner the
first day and ending with farwell dinner the last full
day (day 7)
All visits and entrance fees according to above program.
Own desert and archeological guide (most major
languages).
Own four by four wheel drive air conditioned car with
desert driver. Important: while nearly all
safari tours in Egypt use cars where you sit on
benches sideways, this
safari expedition only use cars where you sit in the
driver direction. Its long distances to cover, so we
consider this essential comfort. Maximum 3 adult persons
per car . With 4 persons there will be 2 cars, and so
forth.
All hotels, see link to the desert hotels under day two,
four and five. Accommodation price is based on per
person in double room. Single room supplement is US$
186.00
For the one night in open air (day 3), most prefer to
bring own sleeping bag. If you need sleeping bag, please
advise.
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Does not include |
International flight.
Passport and visa fees.
Cancellation/accident/baggage/insurance.
Alcoholic beverages or others not included in the meals.
Phone calls, faxes, etc.
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Availability & Reservations |
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Click on the reservation button and we
will check the 8days Western desert
Safari availability and prices.
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Welcome
to ...SafariEgypt.com (8
days / 7 nights Western
Safari
desert)