For our third leg, we will cross the Nile again westwards for a short hop to the Giza Pyramid Complex. Then we head east to the Suez Canal, cross the Sinai Peninsula in order to reach Aqaba and the Wadi Rum. The ancient city of Petra is just 100 km (60 miles) north of it. From there we’ll fly further north to the Dead Sea, Tel Aviv and Haifa, where this leg of our tour will end. 

 

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Pyramid Complex. Built over a 10- to 20-year period, it was finished around 2560 BC. Initially at 146.5 meters (481 feet), it was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. The other two pyramids are the Chephren and Menkaure pyramid. And then of course there is the equally famous Sphinx.

 

A few miles further south, there are four other, but much smaller pyramids

 

Now we turn east and head towards the Suez Canal

 

If you look a bit closer, you can even see some of the Hendrik Nielsen AI ships in the canal

 

Our next destination will be Aqaba and the Wadi Rum. But for this we first have to cross the Sinai Peninsula. In the distance you can see the Red Sea

 

On the Eastern shore of the peninsula is the gulf of Aqaba, which is also the northern tip of the Red Sea

 

Below us is Aqaba and the valley you see in the distance was the way Lawrence of Arabia had chosen to reach the town and take it over from the Turks in July 1917

 

We flew along the valley and have reached the Wadi Rum (in English: valley of light sand)

 

Also known as the “Roman valley” it is cut into the sandstone and granite rock formations in southern Jordan. It is also the largest wadi in Jordan

 

 

This time the photoscenery has a much higher resolution and looks quite close to the real world

 

Our next highlight will be Petra, an archeological city that dates back with its first settlements to 9,000 BC. In the following centuries it became a big regional trading hub with over 20,000 inhabitants in its peak days during the first century AD.

 

As many of the city’s more famous buildings were built into the rock formations, one cannot see that much of them from the air. The next two pictures should give you a better impression of Petra’s most famous building, the “Treasury” or “Al Khazneh” in Arabic

 

It is an even more special place, when people light their candles in the evening. Around 600,000 tourists visit Petra annually

 

After Petra we head further north to the Red Sea. At its northern tip we turn west again for Tel Aviv

 

Above Tel Aviv we turn north to our final destination of today: Haifa

 

Haifa

 

Thanks for viewing and see you hopefully on our next leg, which will bring us to Cyprus

 

Excellent voyage. A wonderful lesson in geography and history!

Many thanks for your kind comment!

Stunning!  What sceneries are you using if I may ask...