Description
Christmas in the Eastern Mediterranean is a very special time and exploring by sea allows us to incorporate a heady mix of fantastic places with great ease from the ancient sites of Turkey and Cyprus and the biblical landmarks of Israel to the wonders of Cairo and Luxor on the Nile. The gentle temperatures and crowd free sites make it a lovely season to explore this corner of antiquity and with the 95-passenger MS Serenissima as our comfortable base, and the aid of our knowledgeable local guides and excellent Guest Speaker, we will learn of some fascinating civilisations.
Setting sail from Turkey’s southern coast city of Antalya we will visit the ancient city of Perge and, from Limassol in Cyprus, the Temple of Apollo and the ruins of Kourion with its Greco-Roman Theatre and lovely coastal views. Continue on to Israel for four days of exploration as we discover an extraordinary collection of both classical and Biblical sites from the City of Annunciation, Nazareth, to the ancient port city of Jaffa and the ‘Golden City’ of Jerusalem. Following our transit of the Suez Canal we spend time in Egypt exploring some of the great monuments of the Pharaohs, the divine kings of thirty dynasties who ruled Egypt for some thirty-five centuries. See the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx and spend some time in Cairo’s magnificent Egyptian Museum.
Enjoy a relaxing Christmas Day at sea as we sail to Safaga from where we have arranged an overnight stay in Luxor in order to maximise our time spent visiting the fascinating sites here such as the Valley of the Kings and the great temples of Karnak. Our journey through history ends in the Red Sea port of Aqaba where we disembark the MS Serenissima with the option to return home or join the post-cruise extension to explore delightful Jordan and one of the most spectacular archaeological cites in the region, the ‘Rose Red City’ of Petra.