Trip program –
D1: Meet at the hotel in Cairo.
D2: Free day in Cairo, hotel.
D3: Morning visit the Giza pyramids and the Sphynx. In the afternoon we drive to St Catherine, in the center of the Sinai peninsula.
D4: Early morning climb mount Sinai (2285m) (2h30). After our descent to the valley we visit St Catherine monastery (IV cent AD) still active and manned by Greek orthodox monks. We then depart for an off-road drive till the White Canyon. Pleasant 2h30 hike inside the canyon going down to the valley. Overnight in a wonderful oasis that has plenty of water and is composed of green woods and provides shelter to many gracious birds.
D5: Short hike through the mountains till Desco (3h), a well known place in the area where the nomads meet.
We depart in a vehicle through a long gorge to Ras Abugalum (2h), a very wide and solitary beach between the high mountains and the Red Sea. We hike on the shore to the Blue Hole (2h) where you can also swim. Transfer to Nuweiba where we lodge at a beach hotel. Remainder of the afternoon is free.
D6: Early morning departure to Aqaba in Jordan on the fast boat. Transfer to Wadi Rum, the famous desert in Jordan known for its high cliffs surrounded by a golden sand. Tent.
D7 to D9: Itinerant hiking 5-6h per day. We follow the long El Barrah gorge till a very wide valley where we may meet some encamped nomads. We pass the curious stone arch at Um Fruth. The vehicles will transport our luggage to the next camp at Um Rashed. The fauna here is not abundant and luckily we may observe ibex, jackals, eagles, vultures or wild goats.
Then we hike to Um Sabata passing the impressive Jebel Khazali mountain and return to Rum village. Transport to Petra. Hotel.
D10: Petra. We walk along the Siq (1.2km) gorge to find the first impressive building at its end: Al Khazneh, the Treasury, entirely sculpted from the rocky cliff. This city was the capital of the Nabataen kingdom, rich and powerful by the I cent AD. Then we climb mount Al Madbah where we visit the Sacrifice and from where we will enjoy a wonderful panorama of Petra's geology and many of its monuments. We proceed our visit to the several temples, palaces, tombs, dwellings and several very diverse chambers.
We climb long stairs to reach the monastery, Al Deir (III cent bC), located at the top of a mountain. Returning to our hotel we pass by the royal tombs, the façades avenue and the grand theatre (I cent AD) with its 7000 places and entirely sculpted from the cliff . (6h).
D11: Drive to Kerak and visit its massive crusade castle from the XII cent. We then conitnue to the Dead Sea where we may swim then to Madaba and mount Nebo where we will enjoy their ancient mosaics dating from the first centuries AD.
Transport to the hotel at Amman.
D12: Visit Jerash, a very interesting and well kept roman city founded in the II cent AD with its long colonnaded avenues and several temples. Further on we cross the border into Syria and continue to Bosra, another very large and interesting roman city which has the largest theatre (15000 places).
Transport to the hotel in Damascus.
D13: Morning visit of old Damascus, inside the roman citadel: it includes the National Museum, the Ommayad mosque (III cent AD), the Azem palace, the churches of Ananyas and St Paul along the straight avenue, the Teikieh Suleimanieh mosque (XVI cent). Transport to Palmyra (3h).
D14: Morning visit of Palmyra, the famous citadel built by the romans in the II cent AD which is one of the richest and most interesting roman archeological site. Within its 50h it offers us a wide profusion of ancient architecture and art. We drive to the famous and imposing Krak des Chevaliers, the most well kept crusader fort dating from the XII cent. Then we visit Homs where we visit the Ibn al Walid mosque (VII cent AD)), and continue to Hama, hotel.
D15: Hama is well known for its very tall water wheels which we visit, as well as its old town centre. On our way back to Damascus we also visit Apamea which has the remains of a roman city, and Maaloula, a mountain village built on the cliffs where its inhabitants still speak aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ.
End of the program on arrival to Damascus.
Difficulty: easy to moderate.
Price: Eur 1520.
Dates: Feb 14-29, Mar 27-Apr 11, Oct 1-16, Oct 29-Nov 13, Nov 24-Dec 9, Dec 29-Jan 13; 2005: Jan 29-Feb 13, Mar 12-27, Apr 23-May 8.
Single supplement: Eur 196.
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