A five-star boat sailing four nights on Lake Nasser from Aswan to Abu Simbel, visiting Kalabsha, Wadi El Seboua, Amada and Kasr Ibrim.
A representative meets you on arrival in Aswan and takes you to the boat. After check-in and lunch, the touring starts with the High Dam, built in the 1960s to bring the river's annual flooding under control — and, in doing so, to create the lake you are about to sail. Then across to Agilika Island for the Temple of Philae, built for Isis, and finally the Unfinished Obelisk, still lying half-cut in its quarry.
Kalabsha Temple after breakfast, moved here when Lake Nasser formed. It is Roman-era, built for the Nubian god Mandulis, and its carving mixes Roman and Egyptian imagery in a way you see almost nowhere else. Beit El Wali follows, a small rock-cut temple of Ramesses II also rescued from the rising water. Lunch on board as the boat crosses the Tropic of Cancer heading south.
Wadi El Seboua is known as the Valley of the Lions, after the avenue of sphinxes that leads up to its temples, built by Ramesses II. The Temple of Dakka is next, dedicated to Thoth, the god of wisdom. Lunch back on board and then a long, quiet sail to Amada with nothing but desert on either side.
The Temple of Amada first, the oldest monument on the lake and dating to the 18th Dynasty. Then the Temple of Derr and the relocated Tomb of Pennut, carved for the Viceroy of Nubia. Lunch as the boat sails to Kasr Ibrim, the only monument on Lake Nasser still standing where it was built, which is viewed from the sundeck. On to Abu Simbel in the evening.
Optional: The Sound and Light Show at Abu Simbel in the evening
Breakfast and check-out, then a guided tour of the Abu Simbel Temples themselves, moved in the 1960s to keep them clear of the water. The rock-cut temples of Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari are among the most impressive monuments anywhere in Egypt. Afterwards a transfer to Abu Simbel Airport or to your hotel.