Cairo & Giza

Details & Itinerary

We explore Coptic Cairo and visit the Grand Egyptian Museum, an  extraordinary introduction to the civilisation whose monuments we encounter  throughout our journey. Home to more than 100,000 artefacts and the  complete treasures of Tutankhamun, it offers a wider context for the temples,  tombs, myths, and landscapes that unfold across Egypt. Situated beside the  Giza Plateau, the museum presents the story of ancient Egypt on a scale  never before possible.  

There are places that mark a beginning. Giza is one of them.  

In the ancient cosmology, this is Zep Tepi, the First Time: the moment of  creation when order emerged from chaos and the world was first brought into  form.  

Here, the pyramids rise from the desert with a precision that still inspires  wonder. Aligned to the cardinal points and deeply woven into Egypt’s sacred  landscape, they remain among the greatest engineering feats of the ancient  world. Yet fundamental questions endure: how were they built, what purposes  did they ultimately serve, and what role did they play within the wider sacred  landscape of the plateau? Recent discoveries of hidden chambers and  subterranean structures continue to reveal new layers of complexity,  reminding us that Giza still has stories left to tell.  

About 20 miles south of Giza lies Saqqara, the vast necropolis of ancient  Memphis and one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt. For  much of ancient Egyptian history, Saqqara served as the burial ground of  

Memphis, once among the largest and most influential cities in the ancient  world.  

Here stands the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the first pyramid ever built, marking  a profound shift in how the ancient Egyptians conceived of death, the afterlife,  and the journey beyond. The site spans thousands of years of burials, from  early dynastic tombs to later periods, and includes richly decorated tombs,  the Pyramid Texts of Unas, and the enigmatic underground galleries of the  Serapeum. Here, immense granite boxes weighing many tonnes were  fashioned with extraordinary precision, continuing to provoke debate about  their purpose and construction.  

From Saqqara, the story unfolds towards Giza.  

We enter the Sphinx enclosure before dawn on the Spring Equinox. At this  moment of balance between light and darkness, the eastern horizon begins to  

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glow and the first rays of the rising sun illuminate the plateau. Ancient and  enigmatic, the Sphinx stands as a silent guardian at the threshold between  earth and sky, watching over a place that has inspired wonder for millennia.  

Later, we gather within the Great Pyramid during our private access.  Descending into the subterranean chamber deep within the bedrock, and  ascending through the monument’s inner passages to the King’s Chamber,  we encounter one of the most extraordinary spaces of the ancient world.  

Constructed from immense blocks of granite, the King’s Chamber possesses  a unique acoustic quality. Sound resonates differently here, sustained and  amplified by the proportions of the space itself. Meanwhile, ongoing  investigations continue to reveal new layers of complexity beneath and within  the plateau, reminding us that Giza still holds mysteries yet to be fully  understood.  

Stone, silence, geometry, and scale combine in ways that continue to provoke  wonder and inquiry.  

This is more than a visit to monuments. It is an encounter with one of the  world’s oldest and most enduring mysteries.  

A beginning.  

And a return.