CAIRO - FAIYUM OASIS - WADI EL RAYAN - WADI AL HITAN - MINYA
We will leave Cairo early, we will get to know an Egypt that you probably had never imagined: a country of great lakes in the middle of the desert! Stop (entrance included) at the PYRAMID OF MEIDUM, considered as the first pyramid that the ancient Egyptians tried to build, 2600 years before Christ, we are surprised by its stepped structure. We can climb to the door that gives access to the burial chamber (after descending 75 meters) and see the large mastabas that house the tombs of some relatives of the pharaoh.After that we visit the Oasis of Al Faiyum, we outline the great QARUM LAKE that allows the irrigation of the entire oasis making this area "the garden of Egypt". The shores of the lake have numerous leisure points for Egyptians. Al Fayoum is also known for "the Al Fayoum portraits", the oldest portraits in the world (today we can see them in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo). We will stop and have lunch at TUNIS village, a nice place with great ceramic crafts, lunch included. Afterwards we enter among magnificent desert landscapes, we stop at WADI RAYYAN, a saltwater lake where rare species of birds and gazelles live, an area declared a National Park. Time for a walk next to the small falls. We continue entering the desert, we travel to the enclosure of WADI AL HITTAN -the valley of the whales-, declared by Unesco a World Heritage Site. The number, concentration, and quality of the fossils, as well as their location in a protected landscape of great beauty, make the site an exceptional place. We get to visit the museum with fossilized whales (where we get to see their skeletons) and get to know about climate change.Continue to MENIA, a city of 300,000 inhabitants by the Nile, active and pleasant walk along the river. Dinner included.
Great Pyramids of Cheops