Welcome to the #virtualnilecruise! These pages are intended as a quick-reference atlas of archaeological sites in Egypt providing photos and short descriptions, key facts, notes on, and links to, further reading etc. This is an expanded version of a series of posts to social media from 2020 when the world was in lockdown and travel to Egypt from the UK was impossible (for more on the background see here).

To ‘visit’ any of these sites please follow the links below, or see them on a map in Google Earth here. All photographs are my own unless otherwise stated. To reproduce any of them please contact me.

A note on names: ancient sites in Egypt are often known by more than one name – typically by a modern Arabic name, an ancient Greek one, and sometimes one used only or mainly in Egyptology. In the lists below I have used what seem to me to be the most commonly used names, but I have added alternatives where that has seemed helpful.

A note on further reading: I have not attempted to provide any bibliography for the sites except for those about which there is a really excellent resource online. The ‘bible’ of Egyptian archaeology remains The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings more commonly known as the ‘TopBib’ or ‘Porter and Moss’ after its original editors. The topographical volumes (I-VII) are no longer up-to-dates for sites at which any work has been undertaken in recent years, but they provide excellent maps and plans of all the major monuments which are still very reliable. All seven volumes are now freely available as PDFs via the website of the Griffith Institute (here). Another quick and easy reference guide I would recommend is Bard, K (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt which is available as a very handy e-book (e.g. here).

SITE ENTRIES

The sites below are arranged according to the order I adopted for my daily ‘virtual Nile cruise’ posts during the lockdowns. As a Nile cruise would typically start in Cairo, that’s where the list begins. We then go south as far as Aswan where such cruises typically end. I then added sites further up the Nile into Sudan as far as Khartoum, and then, a few months later, extended the virtual exploration to an itinerary taking in the Nile Delta, and the loop of oases in the Western Desert. An alternative list which fits with the arrangement of sites in Porter and Moss a little better is here.

#virtualnilecruise ORIGINAL LIST

VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 01. Alexandria
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 02. Cairo
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 03. Giza
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 04. Saqqara
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 05. Dahshur
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 06. Meidum
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 07. Beni Hasan
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 08. Amarna
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 09. We’re just sailing today folks…
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 10. Hermopolis Magna
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 11. Abydos
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 12. Akhmim
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 13. Dendera
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 14. Coptos
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 15. Karnak
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 16. Luxor
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 17. Colossi of Memnon
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 18. The Ramesseum
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 19. Medinet Habu
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 20. Tombs of the Nobles
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 21. Deir el-Medina
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 22. Deir el-Bahri
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 23. The Valley of Kings
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 24. Balloons
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 25. el-Tod
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 26. Edfu
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 27. Kom Ombo
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 28. Gebel es-Silsila
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 29. Aswan
VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day 30. Philae

VIRTUAL NILE CRUISE Day off

Virtual Nile Cruise Day 31 (Or Virtual Lake Nasser Cruise Day 1). Lake Nasser
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 32 (Lake Nasser Day 2). Kalabsha
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 33 (Lake Nasser Day 3). Sebua
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 34 (Lake Nasser Day 4). Amada
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 35 (Lake Nasser Day 5). Qasr Ibrim
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 36 (Lake Nasser Day 6). Abu Simbel
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 37 (Sudan Day 1). Buhen and Semna
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 38 (Sudan Day 2). The 2nd to 3rd Cataracts
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 39 (Sudan Day 3). Tombos
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 40 (Sudan Day 4). Kerma
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 41 (Sudan Day 5). Old Dongola
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 42 (Sudan Day 6). el-Kurru
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 43 (Sudan Day 7). Gebel Barkal
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 44 (Sudan Day 8). Gebel Barkal – PYRAMIDS
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 45 (Sudan Day 9). Nuri
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 46 (Sudan Day 10). Bayuda Desert
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 47 (Sudan Day 11). The Pyramids of Meroe
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 48 (Sudan Day 12). The Royal City of Meroe
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 49 (Sudan Day 13). Musawwarat es-Sufra
Virtual Nile Cruise Day 50 (Sudan Day 14). Naqa

Well folks, after 50 days our virtual Nile Cruise ends here, in Khartoum

Folks we’re back in lockdown. Time for THE RETURN OF THE #VIRTUALNILECRUISE

#delta_deserts day 01: Heliopolis
#delta_deserts day 02: Quesna & Sais
#delta_deserts day 03: Alexandria
#delta_deserts day 04: Alexandrian TOMBS
#delta_deserts day 05: Taposiris Magna
#delta_deserts day 06: Mutubis, Nashwein, Kom ed-Daba
#delta_deserts day 07: Behbeit el-Hagar
#delta_deserts day 08: Tanis
#delta_deserts day 09: Tell Basta / Bubastis
#delta_deserts day 10: Back in Cairo
#delta_deserts day 11: Abusir
#delta_deserts day 12: Memphis
#delta_deserts day 13: Karanis
#delta_deserts day 14. Faiyum – local colour
#delta_deserts day 15. Hawara
#delta_deserts day 16. Lahun
#delta_deserts day 17. Medinet Madi
#delta_deserts day 18. Wadi el-Hitan
#delta_deserts day 19. Black Desert, White Desert and ‘The Carpet’
#delta_deserts day 20. Deir el-Hagar, the ‘monastery of stone’
#delta_deserts day 21: Musawakka
#delta_deserts day 22: Dakhla
#delta_deserts day 23: Ayn Asil
#delta_deserts day 24: el-Qasr or Kasr ed-Dakhla
#delta_deserts day 25: ed-Deir, Bagawat
#delta_deserts day 26: Hibis Temple
#delta_deserts day 27: Qasr el-Zayan
#delta_deserts day 28: Qasr el-Ghueita
#delta_deserts day 29: Qasr el-Labekha
#delta_deserts day 30: Dush
#delta_deserts THANK YOU!