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Day 1: Cairo - Pyramids of Giza - Bahariya Oasis
Pick-up in the morning at your hotel in Cairo.
Today we drive towards Bahariya
Oasis. For the votary we visit the pyramids of Giza. Actually you must
have seen it. When you see the pyramids of the pharaohs Khufu (Cheops),
Khafre (Chefren) and Menkaure (Mycerinos) and the Sphinx, you realize why they are
one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.
Bahariya is the closest oasis to Cairo but is the most
distant oasis in time. Here the Bedouins live traditional. Bawiti is the main town of the oasis. In the Greco-Roman times
Bahariya was very important. Many tombs and temples remains from
this period. But also at the times of the pharaoh's colorful
tombs as Qasr Selim remains. The ruin on the top of Jebel el-Ingleez (Black
Mountain) was during World War I
an English lookout post to observe troop movements
by the Sanusi. Late in the afternoon we will arrive at Bawiti. Not far outside Bawiti we make our camp for tonight.
Meals included: 1 breakfast,
1 lunch, 1 dinner
Day 2: Bahariya Oasis - Pyramid Mountains
In and
around Bawiti there are many things to see. This
morning we'll visit the ruins of the temple of Alexander the
Great (332 BC), Ain el-Muftella (26th dynasty), the beautiful tombs
of Bannantiu and his father Zed-Amun-ef-Ankh at Qasr Selim
(26th dynasty)
and the famous Golden Mummies.
After lunch we drive to el-Hara
(one of the villages of Bahariya Oasis).
We drive
through the fabulous area of Pyramid Mountains and along the
seif sand dunes of Ghard Abu Muharrik, 'dune with an
Engine'. The dune-belt of Ghard Abu Muharrik fills the hollows
of the shallow longitudinal depression that cuts through the
plateau from north to south. It is the longest dune field in the
entire Western Desert (and probably in the whole world). For 350
km, Abu Muharrik advances in persistence from northeast of
Bahariya oasis towards the depression of Kharga in the south. ‘Muharrik’ comes from the Arabic word haraka meaning ‘movement’,
it is the dune-belt that moves. Dr. John Ball who had surveyed
Abu Muharrik in the 1920’s, recorded that the dunes creep some
10 m per year.
In the middle of the desert
we'll make camp.
Meals included: 1 breakfast,
1 lunch, 1
dinner
Day 3: Pyramid Mountains - Ghard Abu Muharrik -
Cave Djara
After breakfast we drive along Ghard
Abu Muharrik towards Cave Djara, also known as Gara
Cave. Gerhard Rohlfs (1831-1896) discovered it when he
and his expedition team traveled the caravan route Darb Asyut in
December 1873. The cave
begins as a fissure in the ground. It has wonderful white
stalactites. You can find also rock carvings of ostriches,
antelopes and other animals, dating from between 8,000 and 5,000
BC.
On our way to Batieg we make camp.
Meals included: 1 breakfast,
1 lunch, 1 dinner
Day 4: Batieg - Aqabat - Magic Spring
Today we drive along Batieg (watermelon valley). It got its name through the
huge bullet black stones. You can only find it in this part
of the Western Desert. Via Wadi Sant, the valley of
the acacias, and 'the Docter Hill' we drive towards Aqabat and
Magic Spring.
Here in this spectacular area we'll
camp. And for sure you will not easily forget the sunset with
the palm trees of Magic Spring on the background. While the
Bedouins make our camp and dinner you can take a bath.
Meals included: 1 breakfast,
1 lunch, 1 dinner
Day 5: Magic Spring - White Desert - Western
Desert
In the area around Magic Spring you
can find fossils of shells. Nearby, in one of
the hills, you can find mummies. Our driver will brings us
to the famous New White Desert. The wind has eroded chalk
monoliths into surreal forms resembling skulls, hawks,
mushrooms. The ground and the chalk monoliths are littered with
shells, crystals and iron pyrites shaped like sea urchins, twigs
or turds. Through the White Desert we drive towards Farafra Oasis.
While the Bedouins buy fresh vegetables and meat you can have a
look in the small village of Farafra. Then we drive to
the Western Desert, a breathtaking mountain landscape and maybe
the nicest part of the entire Western Desert. Here we spend another night camping
in the great outdoors, with only the whispering wind and sands
to distract us.
Meals included: 1 breakfast,
1 lunch, 1 dinner
Day 6: Western Desert - Aqabat - Crystal
Mountain - Black Desert
Today, via the magnificent area of Aqabat and Crystal Mountains we move towards the Black Desert.
This area is dominated by dozens and dozens of small
black-topped mountains. The ground is overlaid by colorful
limestone and basalt from the Eocene period. From a mountain at
al-Zuqaq you have a great view over the Black Desert. Here, in the Black Desert, we'll enjoy our last desert camp before
returning to Cairo.
Meals included: 1 breakfast,
1 lunch, 1 dinner
Day 7: Black Desert - Bahariya
Oasis - Cairo
In the morning you can explore and walk around
at Bawiti, to visit the local market and the local
souvenir-shops or just to wander around to see the old village
and the groves of palms and fruit trees. After lunch we drive to Cairo to
your hotel. Tour ends in Cairo; we expect to reach your hotel in
the afternoon.
Meals included: 1 breakfast
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