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Tour to Cairo and Nile cruise from Sharm el Sheikh by Air |
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Tour to Cairo from Sharm el Sheikh to visit The National Egyptian museum, Pyramids and to have romantic Nile cruise dinner with folklore show
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Pick up from the hotel Pick up from your hotel in Sharm el Sheikh, transfer by Air conditioned van or bus to Sharm el Sheikh Airport and fly to Cairo. Meet & assist in Cairo Airport Our English speaking guide will be waiting for you outside the arrival hall of Cairo airport with the sign "Sharm-club.com" . |
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| Visit of The National Egyptian museum Start your day with the visiting of The National Egyptian museum where 120 000 pieces are exhibited, we will see all the collection of the museum, Old kingdom, Middle kingdom, New kingdom and king Tut Anch Amun collection. Nile cruise with a small motor-boat Visit of Pyramids & Sphinx |
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Nile Cruise, romantic dinner with folklore show & belley dance Sail for 2 hours on a floating hotel along the Nile and experience an unforgettable Nile cruise with romantic dinner. Watch night Cairo sightseeing from another side, have dinner on the boat during the sailing, then watch folklore Darwish show and belley dance. Fly back to Sharm el Sheikh Drive to Cairo Airport, fly back to Sharm el Sheikh Airport and drive back to your hotel. |
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The program includes: |
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| price: 190£ per person with Nile cruise dinner show Option 4 |
Solar boats of Khufu |
Five boat pits have been discovered in the pyramid complex of Khufu; three boat-shaped pits with narrow prows and sterns at the east side of the pyramid, and other two on the southern side that are rectangular in shape and were cut to house full-size wooden boats that had been dismantled. |
The magnificent 4,600-year-old wooden funerary barge of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, discovered in 1954 was an important archaeological discovery by any standards, and because it came shortly after the Egyptian revolution it was a source of national pride. It proved to be by far the most ancient and well-preserved vessel that has ever come to light and, moreover, it has been a vital source of information about ancient ships, their design and construction during one of the grandest periods of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. When it was discovered, the boat was a puzzle of separate pieces. The dismantled parts, mostly made of Lebanese cedar wood, had been placed in systematic order. The major parts were laid out in 13 layers of 651 definable groups, a total of 1,224 pieces. Remains of ropes made of halfa grass were also discovered. These were used to connect the various parts, and in the matting which originally covered the cabins. It was noticed that hieratic signs - a simpler writing method than hieroglyphs - had been carved on each end of most of the larger wooden blocks, and archaeological research proved that these were used not only in boat-building but also in all building work in Egypt at the time. The wooden pieces were lifted from the pit and housed on the western side of the Great Pyramid in a temporary shelter especially built for use during the chemical treatment and restoration. All the boat blocks were connected to each other according to the signs indicated that the ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom believed that these instructions were necessary so that the dismantled boat could be reconstructed in the afterlife. Estimated reconstruction would take 10 years. In fact it took 14, and on completion the vessel was magnificent to see. It was flat-bottomed with a massive curving hull. The thick planks were literally "sewn" together with a system of ropes looped through holes that met on the inside. The elegant prow and stern posts were in the form of papyrus-bud finials. Propulsion of the ship was by means of ten oars, steered using two large oar rudders. On deck was a small forward cabin, probably for the captain. Dozens of metres of rope were found in coiled confusion at the bottom of the pit. It was decided to build a special museum to display the boat and nn international tender was invited and that of Italian architect France Minissi was chosen. Minissi's design was an elongated, boat-shaped museum designed to complement the vessel in both size and shape, and to take advantage of the latest advances in modern display methods so that the visitor could view it from all sides. The vessel was to be dismantled and rebuilt at the centre of the museum, directly above the pit in which it was found, the idea being to give a visitor an overall view of how it was preserved through the ages. Terraces on different levels enabled the boat to be seen from all angles, including from below. Construction of the museum began in 1961, but it was delayed several times and stopped completely while technical and engineering problems were overcome. |
In the neighbouring pit, the boat remained sealed in its pit up until 1987 when it was examined by the American National Geographic Society in association with the Egyptian office for historical monuments. They bore a hole into the limestone beams covering it and inserted a micro camera and measuring equipment. The void space over the boat was photographed and air measurements made, after which the pit was sealed again. It was thought that the pit had been so well sealed that the air inside would be as it had been since ancient Egyptian times, but sadly this has not been the case, as natural air leaked into the pit and mixed with the air inside it. This has allowed insect to thrive and affect some parts of the wooden beams. In 1992, a Japanese scientific and archaeological team from Waseda University offered a grant of $10 millions to remove the boat from the pit, restore and reassemble it and put it on show to the public. They cleaned the pit of insects but water had leaked from the nearby museum which housed the first solar boat. This had affected a small part of the wood, hence the necessity quickly to finish the studies and restore the wood. Japanese team has inserted a camera through a hole in the chamber's limestone ceiling to transmit video images of the boat onto a small TV monitor on the site. Images are screened showing layers of wooden beams and timbers of cedar and acacia, as well as ropes, mats and remains of limestone blocks and small pieces of white plaster. |
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