7-Day Egypt Solar Eclipse Tour 2027

After breakfast you set out on a private guided tour of the Giza Plateau, where the last surviving Wonder of the ancient world rises from the desert. Standing before the Great Pyramid of Khufu, your Egyptologist unpacks how a 4,500-year-old monument was raised stone by colossal stone. You meet the enigmatic Great Sphinx face to face and step inside the granite-clad Valley Temple, one of the best-preserved Old Kingdom structures in Egypt. A short drive brings you to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the dazzling home of Tutankhamun's complete treasure collection beside the plateau it overlooks. In the afternoon you continue to Saqqara to admire the Step Pyramid of Djoser, humanity's earliest large stone building and the blueprint for everything at Giza. Every stop is timed to sidestep the crowds and give you space to absorb ancient Egypt at its grandest.

• Giza Pyramids Complex
• The Great Pyramid
• The Great Sphinx
• The Valley Temple
• The Grand Egyptian Museum
• Saqqara Step Pyramid

Today you trace Egypt's story across the ages on a private guided tour of historic Cairo. You begin at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, where more than 120,000 artefacts crowd its grand halls and your guide draws out the finest pieces. Next you wander the lanes of Coptic Cairo to the Hanging Church, suspended above a Roman gatehouse, then step into the Mosque of Amr Ibn Al Aas, the first mosque built in all of Africa. At the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization you stand quietly before the Royal Mummies, a moving gallery where Egypt's greatest pharaohs finally rest. The day closes in the labyrinth of Khan El Khalili bazaar, its stalls glinting with lanterns, spices and silver. Sip a cardamom coffee at a centuries-old café before returning to your hotel, packed and ready for tomorrow's flight south.

• The Egyptian Museum
• The Hanging Church
• Amr Ibn Al Aas Mosque
• The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
• Khan El Khalili Bazaar

This is the day you came for. An early flight carries you to Luxor, the world's greatest open-air museum, positioned squarely within the path of totality for the total solar eclipse of 2 August 2027, one of the longest of the entire century. You begin on the West Bank in the Valley of the Kings, descending into the painted tombs of the New Kingdom pharaohs, then admire the soaring terraces of Hatshepsut's Temple and the towering Colossi of Memnon. As midday nears, your guide positions you for the main event, when the moon slides fully across the sun and Luxor plunges into an eerie, star-flecked darkness for more than six astonishing minutes. Afterwards, still buzzing, you cross to the East Bank for the vast hypostyle hall of Karnak Temple, its forest of giant columns glowing in the returned light of afternoon.

• Valley of the Kings
• Hatshepsut Temple
• Colossi of Memnon
• Karnak Temple

After breakfast you travel south to Aswan, Egypt's gentlest and most beautiful city, where the Nile threads between golden dunes and granite islands. Your private guided tour opens at the Aswan High Dam, the mid-century engineering feat that tamed the river's annual flood and reshaped modern Egypt. Nearby you stand at the foot of the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in its ancient granite quarry, a 1,000-tonne monument abandoned when the stone cracked, and a window into how the pharaohs carved their giants. In the afternoon a short motorboat glides you across to the island Temple of Philae, the romantic sanctuary of the goddess Isis, rescued stone by stone from the rising waters and rebuilt on higher ground. As the sun lowers over the cataract, you settle into Aswan's unhurried rhythm for the evening.

• Aswan High Dam
• The Unfinished Obelisk
• Philae Temple

Rise before dawn for the unforgettable journey to Abu Simbel, close to the Sudanese border, where Ramesses II carved his two greatest temples straight into a Nubian mountainside more than 3,200 years ago. Four seated colossi of the pharaoh, each over 20 metres tall, guard the entrance to the Great Temple, while inside your Egyptologist reveals the halls where, twice a year, the rising sun still pierces the sanctuary to illuminate the gods. Beside it stands the graceful temple Ramesses dedicated to his beloved queen Nefertari. Your guide tells the extraordinary story of how the entire complex was cut apart and lifted to safety above the waters of Lake Nasser in the 1960s, one of the boldest rescues in history. In the evening you fly north to Cairo, ready for tomorrow's onward journey.

• Abu Simbel Temples

Your Egyptian journey comes to a close today. After a leisurely breakfast and, schedule permitting, a final unhurried morning, your Travel Joy representative meets you at the hotel for a private, air-conditioned transfer to Cairo International Airport in good time for your departure flight. There is assistance with check-in and a warm goodbye from the team who has looked after you all week. You leave with far more than photographs: the silhouette of the pyramids at dawn, the hush of the painted tombs, and above all the memory of standing in Luxor as the sky went dark and the sun's corona blazed overhead during one of the longest total solar eclipses of the century. Travel Joy Egypt looks forward to welcoming you back for the temples, cruises and desert horizons still waiting to be explored.