GEM 2025 Egyptian Course in Egypt with Lucia Gahlin
Lecturer: Lucia Gahlin
A GEM of a Tour: Overview
We have organised this short trip to make sure that we can visit the newly opened galleries of the much anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum. Whilst in Cairo, we will be sure to visit some other key sites to ensure that this trip is packed full of ancient treasures!
28 February – 5th March 2025
- Tour accompanied by Lucia Gahlin, who will deliver a series of lectures to ensure you get the most out of the places we visit.
- Tour comprises: A Day at the GEM. A day at the Giza plateau. Two days at Saqqara.
- Special openings: Access to all three chambers inside the Pyramid of Khufu, Stand between the paws of the sphinx and see the dream stela up close and the small sphinx mud brick temple.
- Special extra ticket to see the workers tombs and view the workers village at Giza.
- 5 nights accommodation at Sofitel Cairo Nile el Gezirah
- Online meetings before and after the tour.
- Course booklet with suggested reading , site plans and maps and further information.
- Special Tour Classroom for handouts, images, and recordings of our two online events.
Price: £2990
Single Room supplement £400
Price excludes airfare – which is by your own arrangement.
(Important: Do not book your flight until we confirm with you that we have the numbers to allow the tour to go ahead.)
Limited Numbers
Places will be offered on a first come first served basis.
You can reserve your place with an initial deposit of £500 and completion of the booking form. Once we have confirmed we have met our minimum number of travellers you will be asked to pay the final balance by 25 Dec 2024 and to arrange your own flight.
A GEM of a Tour
Thursday 6th February 2025.
Pre-Trip Online lecture 7-9pm (UK times)
Join Lucia and your fellow travellers online where Lucia will set the scene for our trip together. Her lecture will highlight all the key pieces that are currently on display in the newly opened galleries of the GEM.
This lecture is exclusively for our group of travellers and will set the scene for our day at the GEM, and give you a chance to get to know the friends you will be travelling with. This is also where we make sure you all have your handouts including the tour booklet complete with maps and site plans. If you cannot make this lecture it will be recorded and placed in the GEM Tour Classroom which we will enrol you into and you will then find in the My Courses section of the Kemet Klub web site. Lucia’s lectures in Egypt will not be recorded.
Friday, 28 February 2025
Arrive in Cairo.
Our Tour is operated by Galal Alsenusy and one of his representatives will meet you at Cairo International Airport. (Just look out for our Kemet Klub logo!) They will assist us to our hotel, the Sofitel Cairo Nile el Gazirah.
Day One: Saturday 1st March – FULL day at the GEM
A guided tour through the much anticipated, newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum. We will explore the galleries that have recently opened and the grand sculpture staircase. We will make the most of the day and will stop for lunch in one of the museum’s restaurants. This will ensure that we have plenty of time to explore the museum and we will make sure we all have some free time here too.
Lecture 2 with Lucia: Giza: Life in a city of the dead
This will set the scene and prepare us for exploring the Giza Plateau the next day.
Group dinner at our hotel
Day Two: on Sunday 2nd March – The Giza Plateau
A day at the Giza Plateau and time to thoroughly explore this iconic landscape. We will follow in the footsteps of King Khufu as we enter the Great Pyramid itself with a very special opening visiting the pyramid outside of normal opening hours. We will have access to all three chambers, the burial chamber, via the grand gallery as well as permission to explore the areas often closed to the public, visiting the so-called Queens chamber and the subterranean chamber. We will also go inside Menkaure’s pyramid to help draw a comparison of the two structures.
We visit the mastaba tombs of the Old Kingdom officials Meresankh (III), Seshemnefer (IV).
We stop for lunch at a specially selected local restaurant before another special opening to the Sphinx, standing between his paws to view the dream stela of Thutmosis IV up close. We will also explore the small mud brick sphinx temple.
We will visit the tombs of the workers from where we will be able to view the workers village as we consider the spectacular site they helped to create.
Lecture 3 with Lucia: Saqqara: Evolution of the royal funerary complex
This will get us all prepared for our two days at Saqqara!
Group Dinner in the hotel.
Seshemnefer’s Tomb
Day Three: Monday 3rd March – Saqqara Part 1
For our first day at this amazing site we will take time to explore Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex, inside and out; the heb sed court and it’s associated structures as well as going inside the pyramid of Djoser to view his huge stone burial chamber. We will also enter the enigmatic South tomb where there are reliefs of the king and the walls dazzle with turquoise faience tiles.
The Pyramid of Unas may not look much from the outside, but it is home to the oldest corpus of religious texts in the world, so we shall venture inside to see the Pyramid Texts that hang like stone curtains on the walls of the Unas’ resting place.
We will also be able to visit the Old Kingdom mastaba tombs of Princess Idut, Mehu, Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotep as well as the New Kingdom temple-tombs of Horemheb and Maya. We have a lot to see today with a full day at this amazing site, but of course our adventures will pause at midday as we enjoy a leisurely lunch at a local restaurant.
Our early evening lecture with Lucia before our dinner will be, Lecture 4: Saqqara: Not just a Royal Cemetery
Tomb of Maya
Tomb of Princess Idut – photo B.Brady
Day Four: Tuesday 4th March – Saqqara Part 2
For our final day we return to Saqqara to enter the Pyramid of Teti who continued the tradition of covering the walls of his monument with Pyramid Texts. The Old Kingdom mastabas of Mereruka, Kagemni, are glorious examples of beautiful tombs made by highly skilled craftsmen. We will visit these, and the tombs of Ankhmahor and Ti.
Will will take a mid day break for lunch at a local restaurant before visiting the most peculiar of burial places, the Serapeum, burial place of the Apis Bulls.
We finish our day at Saqqara with the New Kingdom tombs of Tutankhamun’s wet-nurse Maia, and the official Nemtymes and a trip to the small but fascinating Imhotep museum.
Farewell dinner back at the hotel.
Pyramid of Teti photo B.Brady
Mereruka’s Tomb, photo B.Brady
Serapeum – photo B.Brady
The base of the statue of Imhotep – Imhotep Museum, photo B.Brady
Day Five: Wednesday 5th March
Galal’s team will take us to the airport ready for our homeward flights.
Thursday 20th March 2025 – Our Post-Trip Catch Up
Our Tours are never over until we have all had a chance to catch our breath and sort through our photos! This is an informal catch-up via Zoom a few weeks after our trip. A chance for us share stories and memories along with our favourite photos of our adventures in the GEM, Giza and Saqqara.
Your Lecturer
Lucia Gahlin is an Egyptologist based in the UK, she has been leading archaeological tours to Egypt for 30 years. Her most recent academic position was Honorary Research Fellow at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, where she continues to work closely with one of the world’s most important collections of Egyptian antiquities, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology.
She has worked extensively on the material dating to Akhenaten’s reign in the Petrie Museum and at the archaeological site of Tell el-Amarna, the remains of the pharaoh Akhenaten’s capital city in Middle Egypt, where she has been the Small Finds Registrar. She has been Chair of the Friends of the Petrie Museum, a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society, and Director of Bloomsbury Summer School. She has taught Egyptology for the Universities of London (Birkbeck College and UCL), Reading, Surrey, Sussex, Exeter, Warwick and Bristol. She has also taught many successful courses for Kemet Klub both in person and online. Her publications include Egypt: gods, myths and religion.
Price includes:
- 5 nights at Sofitel Cairo Nile el Gezirah
- Tours and transfers in a modern AC Mercedes bus
- Entry fees
- Tour guide fees
- Visit the workers tombs and view village (on a special extra ticket)
- Special opening to go in between the paws of the Sphinx and the small Sphinx mud brick temple
- Special opening to all three chambers of King Khufo’s Pyramid
- Ghafirs, reps, waiter tip
- 5 breakfasts
- 4 lunches at specially selected local restaurants
- 4 hotel dinners
- Water on the bus and with meals
- Your Egyptian visa
Price does not include:
Airfare
Tip for Egyptian tour guide and driver
Any meals or drinks other than those mentioned in the itinerary
Travel insurance
Any other costs for goods or services not included in the itinerary
FAQ’s
Can I extend my stay in Egypt? -Yes. Galal will be happy to assist you if you would like to spend a few extra days in Egypt either side of our trip.
Do I have to be in the UK to join this trip?– No. You are responsible for arranging your own flights, so you can join us from anywhere in the world. Just make sure you are reach the hotel ready to join the tour in the early morning of the 1st March and let us know your flight information so that Galal and his team can collect you from the airport.
Do I have to arrange my own flights? -Yes, but if you need assistance with this, contact us and we can put you in touch with a trusted travel agent to assist you. Do not buy your flights until you have heard from us that we have reached our minimum number of travellers and that the trip is viable.
Terms and Conditions – just in case you missed them at the top of the page!
The Terms and Conditions of our GEM & Saqqara Tour 2025