 Alumni
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Egypt ItinerarySewanee Alumni Tour
The tour will be conducted by Nigel McGilchrist. Between 1988 and 2005 he accompanied numerous generations of Sewanee students to Greece, Turkey and Italy, through the European Studies program, on which he taught every year, and for which he served as Dean for seven years between 1993 and 2000.
McGilchrist was a scholar at Winchester College in England, and is a First Class Honours Graduate of Oxford University, where he also won three University prizes and medals in English and in Art History. He is an art historian who has lived in the Mediterranean area - Italy , Greece and Turkey - for more than 20 years, working for a period for the Italian Government's Ministry of Arts as an external consultant in the field of fresco conservation. He was Director of the Anglo-Italian Institute in Rome for six years, has taught at the University of Rome, the University of Massachusetts, and was for seven years Dean of European Studies at Sewanee. PRELIMINARY ITINERARY
Depart USA (Suggested flight: Delta 84, ex-JFK at10.20 pm, non-stop for Cairo.) Arrive Cairo Intl. at 4.25 pm. Transfer to the nearby Fairmont Towers Hotel for a light supper, leg-stretch and the possibility to freshen up, before returning to the airport to take Egypt Air flight MS 387 from Cairo at 9.30 pm, arriving into Aswan in Upper Egypt at 10.55 pm. Transfer (25 mins.) by coach and boat to the Five-star luxury Movenpick Elephantine Island Resort Hotel, on its own private island in the middle of the Nile. A peaceful and luxurious hotel to relax in after such a long journey. (Overnight Movenpick Elephantine Island Resort Hotel, Aswan – B&B) Some leisurely morning visits in and around Aswan, to see the 3,500 year old ‘Unfinished Obelisk’ lying in its rock-cradle; the High Dam of Aswan; and a short sail to the ancient temple of Philae on an island in Lake Nasr. At sunset, an evening sail on the river in a traditional felucca, while cocktails are served. Dinner in the hotel. (Overnight Movenpick Elephantine Island Resort Hotel, Aswan – HB) Morning excursion, after breakfast, down the east bank of the Nile to the ancient temple of Qom Ombo. Afternoon visit to the evocative ruins of the St Simeon Monastery on the edge of the desert, followed by an evening stroll through the city’s colourful bazaar and dinner at the Aswan Moon – a floating restaurant on the river with good, local Nubian food. (Overnight Movenpick Elephantine Island Resort Hotel, Aswan – B&B) Sunday 20th Morning check-out and departure from Aswan by train (3-4 hours – First Class, air-conditioned accommodation) to Luxor, passing along the banks of the Nile. Transfer on arrival to either the Al Moudira or Sofitel Old Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor – both five-star luxury hotels of extraordinary beauty. After a rest, an afternoon visit to the great Temple of Karnak, in the mellowing light. Dinner in hotel. (Overnight Al Moudira or Old Winter Palace Hotel, Luxor – HB) Monday 21st A really early morning visit at 6.30 am to a selection of the Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings, specifically so as to avoid the crowds and the heat. After lunch, leave Luxor by the desert road towards the Red Sea. Transfer from our private coach to 4WD jeeps to go into the desert in the evening light to see the abandoned, Ancient Roman granite quarries, monuments and the settlement at Mons Claudianus site. Re-boarding our coach afterwards we drop down in to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast. Dinner and overnight in Hurghada. (Overnight at Meridien Makadi Bay Hotel, Hurghada – HB) Today some real, frontier exploration – going where nobody goes: a safari back into the desert again in 4WD jeeps to Gebel Dukhan, ‘Mons Porphyritis’ – the world’s only source of the pure, purple porhyry which was quarried here by the Ancient Romans for just over three centuries. Picnic lunch beside the ancient settlement’s well or in ruins of the temple of Serapis. (Overnight at Meridien Makadi Bay Hotel, Hurghada – HB) Morning free by the swimming-pool or the sea. Late morning transfer to Hurghada airport for Egypt Air flight MS 414 at 12.55 p.m. to Sharm el Sheikh, across the water on the Sinai peninsula, at 1.35 pm. Continue by private coach through an increasingly bizarre desert landscape to the 6th Century Monastery of St Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments. After all the 5-star luxury, the silent and rigorously monastic accommodation here will be a real change… (Dinner and overnight in Monastery Guest House, St Catherine, Sinai – HB) Morning visit to the St Catherine’s Monastery, to see the ‘Burning Bush’ of Moses, and the astonishing and unique icons in wax encaustic technique in the monastery’s small museum. Afterwards, leave for Cairo through the Sinai mountains, with stops at the tranquil Oasis of El Feiran and at the Suez Canal on the way. Mid-afternoon check-in to the historic Cairo Marriott Hotel in Zamalek, Central Cairo. After a rest, an evening walk through the exotic bustle of Mediaeval Cairo, finishing with dinner in a first-class Cairene restaurant to sample the best of Egyptian food. (Overnight in Cairo Marriott Hotel, Zamalek – B&B) Friday 25th Morning visits to the great Islamic masterpieces of Cairo – the 9th century mosque of Ibn Tulun and the later Mameluke, 14th century mosque of Sultan Hassan. Lunch at the peaceful Lakeside Café in the new Al Azhar Park, so as to rest and prepare for the biggest and most crowded of all our visits this afternoon – to Giza for the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Return (exhausted) to the hotel. In the evening, dinner on the steam-boat Peking Nile as it cruises on the Nile in the midst of the city. The boat is said to be the model of the boat in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Yikes. (Overnight in Cairo Marriott Hotel, Zamalek – B&B) Saturday 26th Morning visit a little way out of Cairo to Egypt’s most venerable architectural monuments at Saqqara: the Step Pyramid complex, and the fascinating Imhotep Museum adjacent to it. Lunch afterwards in the hotel. (I hope to be able to obtain a late check-out for us.) Then some final visits or shopping in Cairo before heading in the evening to Cairo Intl Airport for the departure of Delta 85 at 11.25 pm, arriving into JFK at 5.15 am on Sunday 27th February. Plus: Optional four-day extension, deep into the Western Desert to the extraordinary Oasis of Siwa: Early check-out and departure from Cairo by private coach for the Mediterranean coast. Stop for break and lunch at Marsa Matruh, before crossing the desert to the Oasis of Siwa which lies 190 miles inland. We will arrive before a magnificent sunset – which precedes an extraordinarily rich firmament of stars against a deep black sky. I hope to get a good rate at the exquisite Adrère Amellal ‘Eco Lodge’ at Siwa, but may have to settle for something simpler if the price is too much. (Overnight in hotel in Siwa – HB) Visit to the ancient Oracle-Temple of Amun, where Alexander the Great received a prophesy that changed his life; afterwards visit (and even swim in) the ‘Pool of Cleopatra’. In the afternoon, an excursion in desert-vehicles to the curious Valley of Fossils in the Sahara, before finding a vantage-point for a perfect desert sunset. (Overnight in hotel in Siwa - HB) Morning free in the beautiful oasis. Depart at 12 pm for Alexandria, where we check into the beautiful and historic Hotel Cecil on the water front. A special fish dinner on the city’s corniche at Samakmak Restaurant. (Overnight in Sofitel Hotel Cecil, Alexandria - B&B) Morning visit to some of the sites of Alexandria: the catacomb-complex of Kom Esh-Shuqqafa and the futuristic New Library of Alexandria. Mid-afternoon departure from Alexandria for Cairo. At 9.30 pm arrive at Cairo International Airport for Delta 85, departing at 11.25 pm, and arriving JFK at 5.15 am on Thursday 3rd March. |
