Explore the world's most fascinating ancient civilizations and cultural heritage sites through these unique cruising routes.
Tracing temple-studded coastlines and rivers that gave birth to epoch-shaping civilizations, these sailings reveal how the waves have shaped our world. Water has memory they say and what would it reveal if someone followed its ways? Fortunately, the most remarkable heritage sites of antique societies are dotted along the coastlines and riverbanks of our modern world.
With Cruisers remaining among the most popular means of maritime travel this year, they are an easy choice to combine a sea-scape with a true culture fix. Here are six of the best sailing routes to take this summer when the wanderlust doesn’t simply lead to far-away places but to a trip down ancient memory. \Ancient Egyptian society owed much to the Nile, its fertile banks providing rich farmland, its waters allowing for the construction of vast tombs and temples. Featuring illuminating tales from on-board experts such as veteran storyteller David Braun and Egyptologist Nora Shawki, Lindblad’s Passage Through Egypt welcomes its 44 passengers in Cairo, where the National Museum of Egyptian Culture hosts the remains of 22 kings and queens, including the 3,500-year-old mummy of Amenhotep I (1514-1494 BCE). After a stop in Luxor to wander the sphinx-lined walkways of the Karnak Temple Complex, the Oberoi Philae flows downriver from Dendera to Aswan. Complete with a library stocked with books about Egyptian history, the sleek river cruiser takes its name from the island of Philae, a highlight of day 10. Mentioned by ancient writers like Seneca and Strabo, the lonely isle was a place of worship for millennia and today hosts the reconstructed Temple of Isis, a goddess of fertility, motherhood and magic worshipped throughout the ancient world. \The ornate temple of Dendera, home to bas reliefs depicting the empress Cleopatra. \Taking in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, Azamara’s 20-night Ancient Trade Routes itinerary traces an oceanic trade network almost as old as human civilization itself. Historically, the Spice Routes saw the exchange of pepper, cinnamon, star anise and cloves between Southeast Asia and the Arabian and Mediterranean worlds, with seafaring merchants exchanging precious goods along with radical religious ideas from as early as 2,000 BCE. Passengers board the Azamara Onward in Singapore before embarking on a voyage that includes a stop in Hambantota in Sri Lanka, where spice traders from China, Indonesia and Siam (modern-day Thailand) once sought anchorage in the beach-trimmed harbour. Later, in India, heritage-seekers can opt to explore the Elephanta Caves — fifth- and sixth-century monolithic temples hewn into the basalt of Elephanta Island. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to some of the most revered examples of rock art in western India, including several colossal, ornate sculptures depicting the god Shiva. A guided walking tour of Mumbai’s Lalbagh Spice Market, where vendors tout cardamom, nutmeg and more. \Follow the passage of medieval merchants on Viking’s Trade Routes of the Middle Ages voyage. Travelling on the Viking Sky, passengers trace the flow of Portuguese wine, Norwegian walrus tusk, English wool and other commodities that once connected Europe’s pre-modern powers. With a resident historian bringing each day’s adventures to life by way of lectures and round-table discussions, the seven-nation voyage begins in Bergen in Norway, where timbered wharfs once powered northern European trade in herrings and furs. On day three, passengers sail on to Belgium, northern France and England on a route blazed by Norwegian Vikings trading honey, fish and ivory centuries earlier. Cruising days in the Atlantic Ocean include calls at trading settlements founded by Carthaginians, Romans and Moors, including Grenada in Malaga — home to the Alhambra palace. With 35 acres of honeycombed domes, filigree pavilions and myrtle-fringed pools, this architectural marvel was constructed during the reigns of 13th-century sultan Ibn al-Ahmar and his successors following the Moorish conquest of Spain in the eighth century.: The ancient Roman city of Cartagena, Spain. Its 6,000-seat Roman amphitheatre was only discovered in 1990, some 2,000 years after it was built. \Founded by British archaeologist and documentary filmmaker Peter Sommer, this UK-based operator offers tours of Turkey’s Aegean coastline aboard gulets— traditional Turkish sailing boats. Its Cruising to Ephesus voyage begins and ends in Bodrum, home to the ruins of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the 147ft-high funereal temple was built for Carian ruler Mausolus between 353 and 351 BCE, with Artemisia II, his sister and widow, leading the project. Explorers step aboard their gulet in Bodrum’s historic harbou
ANCIENT HISTORY RIVER CRUISES OCEANIC TRADE GULETS EGYPTIAN CULTURE
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