From Luxor to Minya: 3 days – 2 nights

Transfer from your hotel in Luxor to the train station (around 10:00 AM) to take the train to Minya (approximately 460 km).
Arrival in Minya in the late afternoon and transfer from the station to your hotel.
Check-in at the hotel and a short city outing.
Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.
Departure for a full-day visit:

Beni Hassan Necropolis

Located about 20 km south of Minya on the west bank of the Nile, the Beni Hassan necropolis majestically overlooks the valley from a natural terrace carved into limestone cliffs.
This site includes 39 rock-cut tombs dating from 2400 to 1900 BC, mainly from the Middle Kingdom. These tombs belonged to local governors and nobles and are famous for their rich and original decorations. Visitors can see fascinating frescoes depicting daily life, craft activities, sports such as wrestling, as well as scenes of battles and military conflicts. The realism and vibrant colors give these tombs exceptional artistic and historical value.

Lunch during the trip (packed meal).

The remains of the city of Akhenaten (Tell el-Amarna)

Tell el-Amarna marks one of the most fascinating chapters in pharaonic history. This city was founded by King Akhenaten, a visionary ruler who revolutionized religious traditions by promoting the sun god Aten as the sole deity. This spiritual transformation makes Akhenaten the first known monotheist in human history.

Located on the east bank of the Nile, about 40 km south of Minya, the ancient city lies in a vast desert basin surrounded by cliffs and open only toward the river. Visitors can still see impressive remains of this short-lived capital: palaces, temples, houses, markets, and a large rock-cut necropolis.

The road leading to the site offers a breathtaking journey through lush agricultural lands, traditional villages, and majestic desert scenery — a visual immersion into eternal Egypt.

Return to the hotel in the late afternoon.
Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.

 Departure for a day of visit:

The archaeological site of Tounah El-Djebel  : located in the middle of the desert which runs along the foot of the cliff of the western desert about 49km from Minia. A veritable city of the dead whose most important tombs are:

• The tomb of Petosiris: its painted reliefs are a marvelous illustration of the composite art of the period where purely Egyptian motifs are executed in the Greek style which highlights the fluidity of gestures and the diversity of postures, more natural than those of the classic cannon.
• The tomb of Isadora: dating from the year 120 AD. According to tradition, it is the tomb of a young girl (Isadora) drowned in the Nile, the victim of a romantic and dramatic love story! His mummy remains well preserved.
• The tomb of Neith: whose realism of the painted scenes is distinctly Hellenistic . It dates from the first century BC.

The site also includes fascinating underground galleries used for mummified ibis and baboons, sacred animals of the god Thoth, to whom the site is dedicated. A staircase leads to three main corridors containing pottery and stone sarcophagi. There is also the “House of Graffiti,” a reconstructed structure with rooms and a ceremonial chamber used for funerary rituals.

Lunch en route (packed lunch)

The historic site of Ashmounein  : located 47 km from Minia (2 to 3 km from the site of Touna El-Djebel) on the west bank of the Nile. It houses the remains of the ancient city of Hermopolis which was one of the great religious centers of Pharaonic Egypt, dedicated to the god Thoth.

You can see the remains of the once fortified city which was delimited by a wall 15m thick, surrounding the great temple dedicated to Thoth. At the entrance to the site are two colossal statues of Thoth, represented as a baboon. The remains of a Roman basilica and its covered market (Agora) with its beautiful columns with Corinthian capitals. The remains of small temples of Seti 1 and Ramses 2, built of limestone blocks taken with their original reliefs from the monuments of Akhenaton.
Return to town and have dinner at a local restaurant

Transfer to Minia station to take the night train to Luxor.

Arrive in Luxor and transfer from the train station to your hotel.

Note: The trips to these sites outside the city itself are out of time, you are entering a land of eternity. Along the mossy waters, flamboyant olive trees, swaying palms pass hamlets with tiny houses of dried mud. Men walk along, one on his donkey, the other slowly pushing his buffaloes... a thousand-year-old landscape!