Cairo - Siwa - White Desert

Ready for Adventure!!!

Departure to Siwa Oasis, The largest (23,000 habitants) & most remote Egyptian Oasis lying some 17m below sea level. Crossing the Western Desert with a stop in Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean Sea for lunch.

Afternoon arrive in Siwa, lunch and touring Shali Old Town. Some buildings here are still in use but due to their construction of salt, mud & plaster they fall into ruin year after year.

End your day with a relaxing sunset scene in Fitnas Island lies 4 km to the west of Siwa, which is covered completely by palm trees, except for the circular, tiled pool.

Following visits to Cleopatra Spring, Amun temple (Om Obayda) dates back to the 30th dynasty, and the Oracle Temple where Alexander the Great consulted the oracle to validate his status as the son of Zeus and thus legitimate ruler of the country.

Spend today's late afternoon at Bir Wahed set out 12 km southwest of Siwa. A hot spring at the edge of Great Sand Sea with water right in the middle of the sand dunes.Dinner & overnight at Siwa Shali Resort.

Get ready for Bahariya Oasis trip!!!!

Heading towards Bahariya; it is desert all the way. Then the palm trees take over. Bahariya is the nearest oasis to Cairo, surrounded by black hills made up of ferruginous quartzite and dolerite, and famous for its 398 mineral & sulfur springs, some of which have temperatures reaching up to 45 degrees and are famous for their curative effects.

Arrive in Bawiti the capital of the Oasis occupying a hillside. After lunch, you will start an afternoon tour amongst top sights of Bahariya, including  El Meftella Mountain, Salty Lake, Dest (Pyramid Mountain) & Maghrafa Mountain, stroll to Bir el Ghaba & el Matar warm springs with opportunity for bathing.

Dive into the history of the Oasis by visiting the Tomb of Bannantiu "26 Dynasty" with its still vibrantly colored decorations.

Move to the Ruins of the temple of Alexander The Great; believed that the Greek conqueror passed through Bahariya while returning from the oracle of Ammon at siwa Oasis.

Visiting the valley of the Golden Mummies; A huge burial site, where around 250 mummies form the different periods of the Egyptian history were discovered.

Time permitting; a visit to the English Mountain will take place by sunset. Here, the old English outpost was used by British troops as it showed strategic views of the area.

Early morning breakfast before journeying out into the Black Desert surrounding Bahariya Oasis, where the iron in the desert is one of the reasons for the black rocks.

You will walk to explore Gabal el Marsos (Divided Mountain), and then drive towards the small Bedouin village El Hez with outdoor lunch break.

Making your way to the White Desert 160-km on/off road, you will stop by the Crystal Mountain & Agabat el Sharkia, El Santa tree, go across the sands of the White Desert with its chalky, cream landscape, and the wind carved mushroom-shaped formations that resemble both human and animal faces. Tonight you will watch the sunset over the exquisite sands of the desert, dine under the stars and overnight in camps

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 .

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 its desert-medieval style, built on top of a city from Roman times. Mut, the center of Dakhla is still using its 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 a unique 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. Further visits will take you to the "Temple of the Rock” and the Colored Mountain .

Accommodation in Dakhla oasis

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 .

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.

Where artifact 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 .

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 .

Accommodation  Kharga Oasis  Hotel.

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.

Before leaving the oasis we will drive south passing many villages also belonging to Kharga Oasis. New Baris has a special importance, as it was here the word renowned architect Hassan Fathy tried to build a beautiful architecture built on local traditions and in local material. The counterpart to New Baris is Hassan Fathy's New Gourna in Luxor . Afternoon head off back to Cairo