Reviving History: A Journey Through Historic Landmarks in 2024

When it comes to travelling back in time, there’s only one place we can start. The remarkably well-preserved remains of Ancient Egypt have drawn visitors the world over for centuries and centuries. This much studied, much fabled civilisation is one of the most culturally and geographically significant in history – the region was later occupied by colonies of Ancient Greece and Rome – but its the unrivalled combination of age and scale that makes its monuments among the most intoxicating on Earth. Our nine-day Egyptian odyssey is full of mind-blowing historical sights. We’ll start with the obvious, exploring the Great Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza, as well as visiting the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum. You’ll tour the oldest streets of Cairo before cruising down the Nile to Luxor and Aswan, where you’ll visit the temples of Karnak and Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and Kom Ombo. You can even extend the trip with an optional added day tour to Abu Simbel, featuring four colossal statues of Ramses II.

After Ancient Egypt came the Greeks and, like their historical predecessors, the legacy of this classical civilisation is immeasurable, particularly on modern Europe. There are ruins and remains sprinkled across both the mainland and archipelago of Greece, but the most vivid and spectacular symbol of this bygone era can be found at the centre of its capital city. The Acropolis was a politically and culturally vital hilltop citadel, which still towers over Athens centuries later. Its most iconic feature, and indeed the enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, is the Parthenon. There’s something transportive about getting up close to its famous columns, which is exactly how we start our island-hopping adventure in Greece, on a guided tour of the whole Acropolis complex. Our island stops include Milos, where the Venus de Milo was discovered and Naxos, where you can visit the Portara (Great Door), a marble archway of an unfinished temple from 530BCE.

Jordan, like much of the Middle East, has seen an awful lot of history come and go. It’s most iconic sight is the ancient city of Petra, dating back around 2,000 years, although people inhabited the area as far back as 7000 BC. It was the Nabataeans, a nomadic Bedouin tribe, who turned it into a desert city, constructing a series of classic Hellenistic structures, which themselves point towards the trade relations the Nabataeans had with various Greek-influenced cultures. The Romans and Byzantines eventually roamed these lands, but it’s the work of the Nabataeans that still draws visitors from all over the world today. The most famous image of Petra is the Treasury, an elaborate mausoleum carved directly into the sandstone rock face, with the pretty facade remaining remarkably well intact to this day. You’ll visit the Treasury, as well as the even-older Monastery, on our eight-day tour of Jordan.