Study/Adventure Tours
DYLAN BICKERSTAFFE – STUDY/ADVENTURE TOURS
I have been designing and running historical tours since 1993, when I led a small ground around the ancient monuments and scenic attractions of Tunisia. Naturally the emphasis there was on Roman sites, along with some earlier material from the Phoenician period. Since then most of my tours have been to EGYPT, always including rarely-visited sites alongside the more popular attractions. From 2000 I began working with Ancient World Tours, leading both tours of my own design and standard trips from their brochure. At the same time I continued to run some of my own tours independently.
These will be posted on this site.
Some of the places accessed by my tours in Egypt have become more readily visited in recent years, whilst others have become more difficult. Amongst the rarely-visited areas visited have been pyramid sites at Abu Ghurab and El Lisht, and parts of the Faiyum area. After becoming more visited, the Faiyum and the Oases of the Western Desert are now closed owing to security concerns following an incident in the Bahariyah Oasis. Sites in the Eastern Desert, such as Wadi Hammamet, Mons Claudianus, and Mons Porphyrites were already much more difficult. At Luxor it is sadly not currently possible to lead groups (as I frequently did) from the Valley of the Kings to the top of the cliffs, with spectacular views of the temples below; and then descend either to Hatshepsut’s Temple or to the workers’ settlement at Deir el Medina. Neither is it possible to show groups the Royal Cache tomb (where the Royal Mummies were discovered in 1881). However, there are compensations, with the exquisite tomb of Queen Nefertari now open and best visited in small groups; and the damaged (but still fabulous) tomb of Seti I opened in the Valley of the Kings. New tombs of the nobles have opened too, as well as new tombs of the tomb-builders (by ‘new’ I mean 3200 year-old tombs that are newly-opened!)
Apart from Egypt, I have also designed and lead tours to Rome, and to Crete (with a very thorough exploration of the Minoan sites, and other historical and natural attractions).
Check for new tours on this site.
Contact me at: dylan.bickerstaffe@gmail.com