The MS Le Fayan, launched in 2011, has 57 cabins with floor-to-ceiling windows and sails five days from Luxor to Aswan, visiting Karnak, Edfu and Philae.
Our representative meets you on arrival at Luxor and checks you aboard before lunch. The afternoon covers the Karnak Temple Complex — chapels, pylons and sacred lakes across a site that was the religious centre of ancient Thebes — and then Luxor Temple, standing in the middle of the modern town and lit as the light goes. Tea on the sun deck at sunset, then dinner on board.
Across the river after breakfast to the burial ground of the pharaohs and nobles: the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut built into the mountainside, and a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, which are all that is left standing of the temple they guarded. Lunch on board as the ship sails south and goes through the Esna Lock, which is a slow and oddly satisfying half-hour to watch.
An early start and a horse-drawn carriage to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the most complete temple in Egypt. Breakfast back on board and then on to Kom Ombo and its twin temple, built for the crocodile god and the falcon god together, with the Crocodile Mummification Museum next to it. Dinner and a Galabiya party — traditional dress and live music — as the ship sails on towards Aswan.
The High Dam first, then a boat out to the Temple of Philae, moved stone by stone from its original island to keep it clear of the water. The Unfinished Obelisk follows, still attached to the quarry bed, which shows how these monuments were shaped better than any finished one. Lunch on board, then a free afternoon — a felucca, or Aswan's Botanical Garden on its own island. Dinner and a Nubian music and dance show.
A last breakfast on board before you disembark.
Optional: An early road trip to Abu Simbel, for the rock-cut temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari, aligned to the rising sun and rescued by UNESCO