Five days on the Mövenpick Prince Abbas across Lake Nasser from Aswan to Abu Simbel, stopping at Kalabsha, Wadi El Seboua, Amada and Derr.
Our representative meets you on arrival at Aswan and takes you to the boat. After check-in and lunch, the afternoon covers the city: the High Dam, begun in 1960 to bring the river's flooding under control, then a motorboat across to Agilika Island for the Temple of Philae, built for Isis, and finally the Unfinished Obelisk, still attached to the bedrock of the granite quarries where it was being cut.
Kalabsha Temple after breakfast, moved from its original site to keep it above the water. It dates from the late Ptolemaic and Roman periods, was built for the Nubian god Mandulis, and its art mixes Egyptian and Roman conventions in a way you see almost nowhere else. Beit El Wali follows, a small rock-cut temple of Ramesses II, also relocated with international help, laid out as a cross and still carrying colour on reliefs of military victories and worship. Lunch on board, and in the afternoon the ship sails for Wadi El Seboua, crossing the Tropic of Cancer on the way.
Ashore after breakfast at Wadi El Seboua — the Valley of the Lions — where an avenue lined with sphinxes leads up to a temple built by Ramesses II. The Temple of Dakka, built for Thoth, and the Temple of Maharraqa, which retains its spiral staircase, are both nearby. Lunch on board as the ship sails on to Amada.
Amada Temple first, the oldest monument in Nubia, going back to Thutmose III, and its interior reliefs still hold their colour. Then the Temple of Derr, another rock-cut sanctuary of Ramesses II, and the Tomb of Pennut, Viceroy of Kush. Later the ship passes Kasr Ibrim, the only ancient site in Nubia still standing on its original ground; landing is not permitted, so you view it from the sun deck. On to Abu Simbel in the evening.
Optional: The Sound and Light Show at Abu Simbel in the evening
Breakfast, then the two temples Ramesses II had carved into the mountainside, moved in the 1960s to keep them clear of the rising lake. The colossal seated figures at the entrance are the image everyone knows; the interior reliefs are the reason to go inside. Back to the boat to check out, then a transfer to Abu Simbel Airport or onward.