| Duration |
10 Days / 9 Nights |
|---|---|
| Tour Location |
Cairo / Aswan / Luxor / Amman / Jerash / Dead Sea / Petra |
| Tour Type |
Daily Tour |
| Pickup |
Cairo Airport or Amman Airport |
Designed for travelers seeking Egypt multi destination tours, this 10 day Egypt and Jordan itinerary combines Cairo's Giza Plateau, a four-night Nile cruise from Aswan through Kom Ombo and Edfu to Luxor, and a three-day Jordan experience featuring Jerash, the Dead Sea, and Petra. It is the shortest Egypt and Jordan tour on the market that includes both a full Nile cruise and a visit to Jerash without compromising either destination.
Day 1 opens in Cairo with a Nile Dinner Cruise past the city's illuminated waterfront. Day 2 covers the Giza Pyramids complex, the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, the Valley Temple, and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Day 3 begins the Nile cruise in Aswan: the High Dam, Philae Temple on its island, and the Unfinished Obelisk still lying in its quarry. Day 4 sails north to Kom Ombo Temple, the dual sanctuary of Sobek and Horus built on a Nile bend, then continues to Edfu. Day 5 covers both the Temple of Horus and Luxor Temple. Day 6: Visit the Karnak Temple, Valley of the Kings, the colonnaded Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, and the Colossi of Memnon, then return to Cairo by air; Day 7 continues to Amman. Day 8 drives north to Jerash, the Oval Plaza, the Cardo, the Nymphaeum, and the Temple of Artemis before descending to the Dead Sea for an afternoon float. Day 9 is full in Petra: the Siq approach, the Treasury reveal, the Royal Tombs, the Great Theatre, and Qasr al-Bint at the city's heart. Day 10 departs from Amman.
Only on this route
The only 10 day Egypt and Jordan tour featuring a full Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor plus Jerash's Roman city and Petra cruise depth in Egypt and complete Jordan coverage.
Arc I · Cairo Heritage
Cairo's riverfront opens into Giza and the Grand Egyptian Museum
Your guide meets you at Cairo International Airport and transfers you to your hotel in the city centre, leaving the afternoon free to rest and orient. After dark, board a dinner cruise on the Nile, the river reflects the lit facades of central Cairo while a buffet and short traditional performance run on the water beside you. Tonight is the only view of Cairo from the river on this itinerary; everything else happens on land and on the cruise south.
Your table sits on the upper deck as the boat moves past Zamalek and Garden City, the embankment lights doubling on the water below. The cruise runs roughly two hours, long enough to calibrate yourself to Cairo's scale before the sites begin tomorrow.
Dinner
A private vehicle collects you from the hotel after breakfast and drives west across the city to where the plateau rises above the suburbs. Your guide leads the full Giza circuit before continuing to the Grand Egyptian Museum on the plateau's edge.
Your guide positions you at the northeast corner first, where all three pyramids align in a single sightline and the scale of the oldest structure still standing among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World becomes measurable. The base alone covers 5.3 hectares, a number that makes more sense standing beside it than reading it.
Meet the mysterious Great Sphinx of Giza, the legendary guardian of the plateau, captivating travelers from around the world.
Your guide takes you inside the causeway temple directly below the Sphinx, built from massive blocks of red Aswan granite and alabaster. This is where the body of Khafre was likely prepared for burial. The pink granite walls and T-shaped hall are among the best-preserved Old Kingdom interiors on the plateau.
Discover the spectacular Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), one of the largest archaeological museums in the world, where ancient treasures meet modern design, an essential stop on any Cairo, Nile Cruise, and Jordan itinerary.
Breakfast, Lunch
Arc II · Nile Cruise
Aswan temples lead north through Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Luxor
A domestic flight carries you from Cairo to Aswan in just over an hour, cutting the distance from the Mediterranean north to the First Cataract in the deep south. Your guide meets the flight and begins the Aswan sites before you board the cruise in the late afternoon. Travelers looking for a longer journey that expands both countries can also explore our 11 Day Family Egypt Jordan Nile Cruise & Petra.
Begin your sightseeing in Aswan with a visit to the High Dam, a modern engineering marvel that tamed the Nile and transformed Egypt’s agriculture. Learn about its construction and its vital role in shaping the country’s economy.
A short motorboat ride deposits you on Agilkia Island, where the entire temple complex was dismantled block by block and rebuilt at a higher elevation between 1972 and 1980 to save it from Lake Nasser's rising waters. Your guide walks you through the Great Pylon into the outer courtyard, the temple is dedicated to Isis, and the relief carvings here are among the most detailed of any Ptolemaic structure in Egypt.
Lying flat in the Northern Quarry, exactly where ancient workers abandoned it after a crack appeared in the granite, this obelisk would have stood 42 metres tall and weighed an estimated 1,200 tonnes, the largest single piece of stone ever attempted in ancient Egypt. The tool marks, workers' guide lines, and the crack itself are all still visible in the rock.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
The cruise begins sailing to Kom Ombo at 12:00 PM. Upon arrival, you will visit the remarkable Kom Ombo Temple. After the tour, return to the cruise ship and continue sailing north toward Edfu, where the vessel will dock overnight in preparation for the next day's sightseeing.
Your guide leads you in from the Nile-facing entrance, where the temple's unusual symmetry becomes immediately clear: two parallel sanctuaries, two sets of columns, two of everything, one side for the crocodile god Sobek and one for the falcon god Horus. In the rear chamber, a collection of mummified crocodiles excavated from the site fills a side room; the largest is over four metres long.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After visiting Edfu Temple, return to the cruise and sail to Luxor. In the evening, explore the beautifully illuminated Luxor Temple before spending the night onboard.
Pass through the 36-metre twin towers of the main pylon, the tallest still standing in Egypt, and enter a forecourt where the granite statue of Horus as a falcon stands guard in full ceremonial regalia. Built between 237 and 57 BCE, this is the most completely preserved temple in the country; the roof, the inner sanctuary, and the original stone doors all survive.
Visit the magnificent Temple of Luxor, beautifully adorned with statues and ancient carvings that come alive as the sun sets over the historic city.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After checking out from the cruise, visit Karnak Temple before crossing to Luxor's West Bank to explore its ancient necropolis. Later, transfer to the airport for your flight back to Cairo, where you will spend the night.
Explore the East bank of the Nile, the immense Karnak Temple Complex, a sacred city of temples, chapels, and colossal columns. As you walk through its grand halls, you’ll experience the spiritual heart of ancient Egypt come to life.
Start with the west bank of the Nile and walk through the legendary Valley of the Kings, the final resting place of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs, including Tutankhamun.
Admire the magnificent Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, gracefully carved into towering limestone cliffs. This architectural masterpiece reflects the power and elegance of one of ancient Egypt’s most remarkable rulers.
Stand in awe before the towering Colossi of Memnon, two colossal statues that have guarded the ancient city of Thebes for thousands of years, echoing stories of Egypt’s glorious past. For travelers who want additional sightseeing time and a more comprehensive experience across both destinations, our 12 Day Egypt & Jordan with Complete Nile Cruise offers an extended itinerary.
Breakfast, Lunch
Arc III · Jordan Highlights
Amman leads to Jerash, the Dead Sea, Petra, and departure
The morning flight from Cairo International Airport to Amman's Queen Alia International Airport crosses the Sinai Peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba in under two hours. Your Jordan guide meets the arrival and transfers you to your Amman hotel. The afternoon is free in the capital; the full Jordan programme begins tomorrow.
Breakfast
An early departure from Amman drives 48 kilometres north to Jerash, one of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities outside Europe. The afternoon descends east from Amman to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth's surface.
Step through the South Gate and the Oval Plaza opens in front of you, an elliptical colonnaded forum 90 metres long, its original flagstones still in place and the column drums still standing at full height. The plaza's unusual oval shape, unique among Roman forums, allowed the city's two main axes to meet at an angle without a jarring intersection.
Walk the full length of the Cardo, the main north south artery, still paved with the original Roman stones, the wheel ruts from ancient carts worn visibly into the surface. Ionic columns line both sides at intervals of roughly four metres; behind them, the outlines of the original shops are still readable in the stone foundations.
Your guide stops at the two-storey ornamental fountain that served as the city's primary public water feature, its facade once clad in marble and animated by cascading water from the upper tier. The semi-circular niche at the back still holds its carved decoration; the fish-scale marble panels on the lower level are original, not restoration.
Climb the monumental staircase to the raised precinct of the city's main deity and stand between columns that are 13 metres tall and visibly move in the wind, a slight oscillation caused by their intentionally flexible lead-jointed foundations, an engineering detail your guide demonstrates by pressing a coin into the base of a column drum. The temple was begun around 150 CE and left unfinished; the partially built state makes the construction sequence legible.
Wade in from the shore, and the water lifts you before you have decided to float. The salinity, ten times that of ocean water, makes immersion involuntary. The surface sits 430 metres below sea level, the lowest point of any body of water on earth; the Jordanian shore faces the West Bank directly across a sea that is roughly 15 kilometres wide at this point.
Breakfast, Lunch
A two-hour drive south from Amman brings you to the visitor centre at the entrance to Petra. Your guide leads the full circuit on foot, beginning at the Siq and finishing at Qasr al-Bint before the return drive to Amman in the late afternoon.
Your guide leads you into the kilometre-long slot canyon on foot, the walls narrow to four metres in places and rise over 160 metres, the light shifting from direct to ambient as the passage bends. Watch the carved Nabataean water channels cut into both walls at shoulder height; the entire city's water supply was engineered through this single entrance corridor.
The Siq opens without warning onto a 40-metre facade carved directly into rose-red sandstone. The proportions are Hellenistic, but the execution is Nabataean, a hybrid that dates to roughly the first century BCE. The interior is a single, undecorated chamber; the elaborate exterior was the statement, not the space behind it.
Your guide walks you along the base of the cliff face, where four major tomb facades, the Urn Tomb, the Silk Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb, and the Palace Tomb, are carved in sequence into the sandstone at different heights. The colour variation in the stone, banded in cream, rust, and violet, is natural iron oxide weathering; no two sections of the cliff read the same.
Cut directly into the hillside below the Royal Tombs, the theatre seated approximately 8,500 spectators and was carved from the rock face rather than built up from the ground. The rows of seating, the orchestra pit, and the stage wall are all excavated from the sandstone. Nabataean tomb facades are visible in the cliff directly above the stage, partially cut away when the theatre was enlarged.
At the far end of the colonnaded street stands the only free-standing built structure in Petra, a temple constructed from dressed stone blocks rather than carved from the cliff. Rising 23 metres, it was likely dedicated to the Nabataean god Dushara; the massive lintel above the main entrance is still in place, as are sections of the original plaster that once covered the exterior.
Breakfast, Lunch
Your guide transfers you from the hotel to Queen Alia International Airport for your outbound flight. No sites today check-out, transfer, and departure complete the 10 day circuit. If you prefer a broader itinerary with extra destinations and more time in both countries, consider our 13 Day Egypt Jordan Cairo Nile Cruise Multi-City.
Breakfast
* You can let us know if you'd like to customize your tour itinerary to meet your needs. We value your input and aim to accommodate your requirements.
This tour includes 3 nights in a Cairo hotel, 4 nights aboard a Nile cruise ship sailing from Aswan to Luxor with all meals, and 3 nights in an Amman hotel plus private guides, entrance fees for all listed sites in both Egypt and Jordan, and two domestic Egypt flights. Jerash, the Dead Sea, and Petra are all covered on the Jordan leg.
This is the only 10 day Egypt and Jordan itinerary that includes a full Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor alongside Jerash's Roman ruins and Petra. No other 10 day format delivers cruise depth in Egypt and complete Jordan coverage in the same package. The 10 day overland alternative covers Hurghada instead of the Nile cruise; this tour is the cruise format at the shortest available duration.
Travelers will experience:
Jerash is a Roman provincial city 48 kilometres north of Amman, continuously occupied from the Bronze Age through the Byzantine period and abandoned after a series of earthquakes in the 8th century CE, leaving its colonnaded streets, temples, and theatres largely intact. It is the most completely preserved Roman city in the Middle East outside of Pompeii, and this 10 day tour is the only itinerary in this duration band that includes it alongside a full Nile cruise and Petra.
The tour includes hand picked hotels in Cairo and Amman, along with private cabins on an elegant Nile Cruise, offering comfort, river views, and modern amenities throughout your journey.
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