Six days on a small dahabiya from Esna to Aswan, stopping at El Kab, Gebel el Silsila and Nile islands, with Edfu and Kom Ombo on the route.
The trip begins at Esna, a merchant town about 33 miles south of Luxor, reached by private transfer. You board, meet the crew, and walk to the Temple of Khnum, which sits nearly 9 metres below the modern street level — you go down into it, and that is why so much of its carving survives. Then a stroll through the streets, full of textiles and local craftwork, before the sails go up.
El Kab in the morning, once the capital of Upper Egypt and home to the temple of Nekhbet, the goddess of protection, with tombs cut into the cliffside above. You reach them by walking up through a quiet riverside village. In the afternoon, Edfu, where a horse-drawn carriage takes you through the streets to the Temple of Horus — a Greco-Roman building and one of the most complete in Egypt. Afterwards the boat sails on to a quiet island and moors for the night.
A day for the river. An optional early walk, then a slow breakfast on deck as the boat sails south with the banks and the desert hills going past. In the afternoon it stops at a Nile island where you can walk, swim, or do neither. Towards dusk there is a walk into a desert valley marked with prehistoric rock inscriptions and hieroglyphs, on what was once a trade route to Libya.
You arrive early at Gebel el Silsila, where the Nile narrows sharply between sandstone cliffs. Large cruise ships cannot stop here, so more often than not you have it to yourself. The Temple of Horemheb comes first, then a walk through the ancient quarries that supplied the building blocks for Karnak and Luxor. Later the boat ties up at a good stretch of bank for lunch and a swim.
You wake at Kom Ombo, set on a bend of the river. The double temple there is built for Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the Elder in two symmetrical halves, and its reliefs include scenes of healing and a great deal of Nile symbolism. The Crocodile Museum next door holds dozens of mummified crocodiles, which is the clearest illustration anywhere of how seriously the animal was taken. One last sail as the sun goes down.
The boat sails quietly into Aswan, where the desert comes close to both banks. Dahabiyas are required to dock near the Aswan Bridge, which is a plainer mooring than the previous nights — worth knowing in advance. We handle your private transfer or onward arrangements from there.