The Nile has beguiled travellers for millennia, and rightly so. But it is also the thread that leads to everything else, and Egypt rewards those who follow it outward into a country far bigger and stranger than its most famous river suggests.
Cairo alone justifies the flight. The Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx need no introduction, but the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum and the labyrinthine lanes of the Khan el-Khalili bazaar reward slow exploration, best followed by a felucca (traditional wooden sailboat) drifting downriver at dusk. North, on the Mediterranean coast, Alexandria trades pharaohs for a Greco-Roman past: the striking Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the sea-facing Qaitbay Citadel and catacombs carved deep beneath the city.
The Red Sea to the South offers something else entirely. Hurghada and the lagoon town of El Gouna open onto some of the finest coral reefs on earth, all warm water and technicolour fish. And in the country’s remote West, the Siwa Oasis shimmers near the Libyan border: salt lakes, hot springs, mudbrick architecture and the ancient Oracle Temple once consulted by Alexander the Great.
Weaving it all together is Karma Karnak, our flagship Nile cruise, at its finest in September when the evenings are cool and the crowds are thin ahead of peak season.
Wherever Egypt calls you, your Karma Concierge can design the journey around you.
