Osiris
The pyramids of Giza

Private journeys through Egypt, arranged for people who do not queue.

Osiris

Twelve nights, from the pyramids to the stars

Cairo before the gates open. A private dahabiya on the Nile. A camp in the White Desert under a sky with no light for a hundred miles.

See the journey

Egypt, without the crowd between you and it.

Osiris arranges a small number of journeys each year for private parties of two to eight. Every element is held exclusively: the pyramid plateau at dawn before public opening, a dahabiya that carries nobody but you, a desert camp pitched where no other camp can see your fire.

You travel with a resident Egyptologist and a house manager who has done this route more than a hundred times. Nothing is left to a counter, a queue, or a stranger.

12nights on the signature route
2–8guests per journey, never combined
1Egyptologist with you throughout

The signature journey

Three chapters, in the order Egypt reveals itself: the city and its monuments, the river that made them, and the silence beyond both.

Brass lanterns in Khan el-Khalili
Khan el-Khalili, lantern quarter
Chapter one

Cairo, the real one

Three nights

Giza at first light with the plateau closed to everyone else, and the Grand Egyptian Museum with a private slot in the Tutankhamun galleries. Then the Cairo that belongs to Cairenes: a copper workshop off al-Muizz, coffee at a hundred-year-old café, an antiques dealer who opens the back room, a rooftop over Bab Zuweila as the call to prayer overlaps from forty minarets.

  • Pyramid plateau before public opening, interior of the Great Pyramid
  • Grand Egyptian Museum with a curator, Tutankhamun galleries held for you
  • Al-Muizz street and Khan el-Khalili with a historian and a dealer
  • Dinner in a restored Mamluk house, not a hotel
Feluccas on the Nile at Aswan at dusk
The Nile at Aswan, last light
Chapter two

Up the Nile, under sail

Five nights

Luxor first: Karnak as the doors open, the Valley of the Kings with the tomb of Seti I unlocked for you. Then a dahabiya, the gilded sailing house of nineteenth-century Nile travellers, with your party as its only guests. It moors where the big boats cannot: a sandbank, a village, an island of palms. Edfu, Gebel el-Silsila and Kom Ombo arrive at the pace of the wind, and Philae is reached by boat at dusk.

  • Private dahabiya, crew of twelve, no other passengers
  • Tomb of Seti I and Nefertari's tomb by special permit
  • Abu Simbel by private aircraft, back for tea at the Old Cataract
  • Moorings chosen for silence, dinner on the sand
Chalk formations of the White Desert at sunset
White Desert, Farafra
Chapter three

The Western Desert, and its sky

Three nights

West of the Nile the country empties. The Black Desert, Crystal Mountain, then the chalk of the White Desert: wind-carved forms the height of a house, fennec foxes at the edge of the firelight, and a night sky that measures at the darkest end of any scale. A camp is pitched for you alone, with an astronomer, a telescope, and no schedule after sunset.

  • Private camp, one party, moved daily
  • Astronomer and observatory-grade telescope every night
  • Geologist-led day through three deserts in one drive
  • Dawn walk among the formations before the heat
Grand Staircase of the Grand Egyptian Museum
A dahabiya under sail
Inner sanctuary of Abu Simbel
Temple of Isis at Philae
Star trails over the White Desert

A sky the ancients would recognise

The Western Desert has no towns, no roads, no lights. On a moonless night the Milky Way casts a shadow. Our astronomer sets up before dinner and stays as long as you do: the rings of Saturn, the Andromeda galaxy with the naked eye, the same stars Egyptian priests used to time the flood.

We plan desert nights around the new moon, and the camp carries no light brighter than a lantern.

1on the Bortle dark-sky scale, the darkest class
0towns within 100 km of camp
~4,500stars visible to the naked eye

What is arranged before you land

Arrival and movement

  • Met at the aircraft door, passport handled by our fixer
  • Private aircraft Cairo–Luxor, Aswan–Abu Simbel, Aswan–Cairo
  • Armoured vehicles where required, drivers who know the shortcuts
  • Helicopter to the desert on request

Access

  • Giza plateau before opening, by ministry permit
  • Tombs closed to the public: Seti I, Nefertari
  • Tutankhamun galleries at the Grand Egyptian Museum, held privately
  • Workshops, houses and dealers who do not receive tourists

Stays

  • Cairo: a Nile-front suite or a restored palace house
  • Luxor: a villa on the West Bank
  • Nile: private dahabiya, four cabins
  • Desert: tented camp with beds, linen, hot water, chef

Begin with a conversation

Tell us who is travelling and roughly when. We reply within one working day with a first proposal and a call with the person who will run your journey.

CairoZamalek, by appointment
DubaiDIFC
LondonMayfair
enquiries@osiris.travel+20 2 0000 0000
We never share your details and do not send newsletters.
Enquiry sent. You will hear from us within one working day.