Giza

What You Can Expect

After a hotel pick-up, your Egyptologist guide will lead you to the Egyptian Museum. It was built at 1901 in down town Cairo, by Khedive Abbas Helmi II, and at the façade of the museum he left the first two initials of his name A&H to remind us of this history. With the help of great Egyptologists, Petri, Marriete, Maspero, this museum became one of the largest museums in the world, with a collection of more than 120 thousand pieces. It overlooks a very famous square, originally was called "Ismaileya" square, then the name was changed to "Al Tahrir Square", means the Liberation Square which witnessed the Egyptian revolution at 25th January 2011, and its second wave at 30th June 2013. It has 2 floors, in the first floor the artefacts are organized in a chronological order, the second floor has the marvellous collection of King Tutankhamen including his jewelery, coffin, and his famous mask.

You will then move on to The Citadel of Saladin & the Mosque of Mohamed Ali. Near the End of the Fatimid Caliphate (969 – 1178 CE), the Muslim ruler of Damascus struggled with the Crusaders over the Holy Lands & Jerusalem, so he sent one of his followers, Saladin, to control Egypt and to put an end to the Fatimid Caliphate, and to restore Egypt back to the Sunni doctrine of Islam. Saladin managed to do this, he became the Caliph himself (1174 CE), and decided to build a Citadel "fortress" to defend Cairo against any potential attacks by the Crusaders. The Citadel became the seat of the government for a very long time, until another Egyptian King, "Mohamed Ali", decided to build a mosque and a mausoleum for himself, at (1831 CE), he was the founder of the last Royal Dynasty Egypt had, ending with the expulsion of his last descendent, the famous "King Farouk" (1952 CE).

The next stop will be at The Churches of Old Cairo & the Synagogue of Ben Ezra. Near the Roman Fortress, which was built by the Romans in Cairo, which was called "the Babylon fort", there was a cave believed to house the Holy Family when they visited Egypt, escaping from the cruelty of Herod. This spot became holy, attracted many Egyptian Christians, to build churches in this place, to enjoy the blessings of the place where Jesus stayed, many old churches were built there, a Synagogue, and even when the Arabs conquered Egypt, in the exact same area they built their first city in Egypt "al Fustat", and their first mosque of "Amr Ibn El Aas", considered to be the first mosque in Africa.

In Old Cairo, all religions are intersected, making this place a very interesting place to visit. Lunch will be served in one of old Cairo restaurants. At the end of the tour, you will be transferred back to you hotel.