Emily Smith
Oct. 1, 2024, 11 a.m.The tour was overall amazing. The guides were knowledgeable, and camping in the desert was a unique experience. Seeing Wadi Al Hitan was like stepping into another world. A little bit more time at the oasis would have been nice, but still an amazing trip!
1) Day 1-Cairo-Fayoum
Pick up from your hotel in Cairo and transferred by air-conditioned Car to El Fayoum oasis in the Western DesertStart the desert adventure with 4x4 Jeep from Tunis village Qarun lake, Make a Desert Trip to Wadi El Hitan. It’s ‘ Wadi Al Hitan ’ The site today is a Protected area and a Natural Heritage Site added in 2005 by the UNESCO as world heritage site, WADI EL-HITAN is also known for scientists in the Zeuglodon Valley, have been discovered in 1936, it is located 35 KM west of the Wadi El-Ryan, right deep into the desert western desert, is It is an area of fossils; considered as an open museum, dates back to 45 million years and contains petrified primitive whales skeletons, shark teeth , shells and roots of Mangroves preserved in soft rocks. Everywhere you go here you find petrified sea shell and corals, Visit the Fossil & Climate Change Museum
Museum which hosts a variety of whale fossils, and skeletons that are displayed outdoors, as for the museum it has a variety of fossils, skeletons, fossilized mangroves, and ancient seashells exhibited indoors in glass boxes, Enjoy your lunch, watch the sunset in the desert then Enjoy Bbq dinner and watch the stars like an Arabian Nights.
2) Day 2- Fayoum- Tunis village
Enjoy Egyptian Breakfast, following with sand dunes Trip, and visit Qusur El Arab. Wadi El Rayan. 1-The Petrified forest Situated in the north of Lake Qaroun in Gabal Qatrani is the largest petrified forest in the world, home to 40 meters high trees that have survived in ossified form for thousands of years 2-Then Dimet el Sabah Dimeh al-Siba (Dime, Dimia, and nearby Qasr al-Sangha) on the northern side of Lake Qaroun is one of the most interesting in the Fayoum,Dimeh al-Siba, Dimeh of the Lions, was a Ptolemaic city believed to be founded by Ptolemy II in the third century BC, on a site that shows evidence of habitation from the Neolithic period. Today, it is more isolated, but during Ptolemaic times it was at the shore of the much larger lake, situated at the edge of Moeris Bay and the beginning of the caravan routes into the Western Desert, The ruins of Dimeh al-Siba contain the two temples, houses, underground chambers, streets and ten-meter high walls that are sometimes up to five meters thick. The walls themselves are a testament to the survivability of mudbrick in the desert environment. The ground is strewn with debris. An uncountable number of shards cover the entire temple mound. 3- Qaser Al Sagha The Golden Fortress(Qaser Al Sagha) is an unusual Middle kingdom, The building situated North of the lake, The temple is constructed of limestone. The Function of this unusual temple is unclear. Drive back to Tunis village and overnight in one Tunis villages Lodge
3) Day 3- Fayoum to Cairo
After breakfast Drive back to Cairo on the way Visit the Pyramids of Fayoum, 1-Hawra Pyramids The Pyramid of Hawara ( Arsinoiton Polis) was built by King Amunemhat III during the twelfth Dynasty the Pyramid, its casing removed in Roman times, looks like a heap of rubble, but the site was one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Egypt. The Mortuary temple was the labyrinth that so mazed The greek traveler ( Herodotus) I visited this Place and found it to surpass the descriptions( He said the Labyrinth was believed to have been hewn from one single rock and Contained over 3000 rooms, It was also mentioned by almost every ancient traveler Strabo, Diodorus Here at Hawara 146, Fayoum portraits were found in the Cemetery North of the Pyramids( You Can see a few of them at Kom Aushim Museum and in Cairo Museum) 2- Medium Pyramids The pyramid at Meidum is thought to be just the second pyramid built after Djoser's and may have been originally built for Huni, the last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, and continued by Senfru This started as a stepped pyramid, but as it neared completion the steps were packed with stone and the whole structure was cased in finest limestone. In its final form, the pyramid stood approximately 311ft (95m) high.
Unfortunately, the pyramid was unsound. Its heavy outer layers eventually slid downwards, leaving a square, three-stepped core standing in a mountain of sand and rubble and the ruins of the pyramid complex. We do not know when this disaster occurred, although as there are New Kingdom tombs incorporated in the rubble we know that the pyramid had at least partially collapsed by the time of the New Kingdom (which started around 1550 BC). Then drive to Cairo to your Hotel