The Valley of the Kings is a gigantic site on a mountain with Pharaoh’s tumbs (the most famous being that of Tutankhamum) carved inside the rocks, some are like chapels and contains many rooms, from 5 to 120! long corridors, magnificient paintings everywhere, unestimable treasure of history, sarcophagus and sometimes mummies, other artifacts are exposed in the museum. You can visit 3 tumbs with a ticket and can purchase more visit.
We propose you to take you on a journey in West Bank with highlights such as the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Temple, Carter’s house and the Ramses III Mortuary Temple.
(Travelling in air conditioned car) tickets excluded
How you spend your day:
We come to pick you up in the morning at your place of residence, and let yourselves be driven to the sites of your choosing, with a lunch pause in the restaurant of your choice or of our own suggestion. We carry on the visits and take your back to your place at the end of the day. You can customise according to your wishes, here is our proposition for a great day visiting Luxor:
The Valley of the Kings
This is the place were the Thebans Pharaoh’s (Luxor Ancient name) are buried. Situated on the West Bank of the Nile, where the Sun sets, it once was the place of the deads, where no living person was allowed on this side, except the tombs architects and workers (whose village is Deir el Medineh) who were forbidden to cross the Nile to the East. There are more than XX tombs and still some discoveries to be made. A ticket allows you to explore 3 tombs but you can visit more by purchasing special tickets.
The most famous tombs is Tutankhamun’s (KV x) and there are some exceptionnal ones with up to 120 chambers (KV x) or well preserved ones (KV x) with extraordinary paintings. A really emotionnal moment in an extraordinary site that can be visited many many times.
Hatshepsut Temple
Hatshepsut was the most important of the rare female Pharaoh and therefore created disapproval in this patriarcal society. Many attempts after her death to eradicate her trace on hieroglyphs but this temple is here to stay and still in good condition. Located in Deir el Bahari, a complex of Mortuary Temples, it is dedicated to the Sun God Amon-Ra . Its most striking feature is a long colonnated terrace filled with many tall sculptures representing the Pharaoh and Deities. The temple’s architecture contains pylons, courts, a hypostyle hall, a sun court, a chapel and a sanctuary. The surviving reliefs on the wall document the birth of the first divine female Pharaoh and an expedition to a mysterious country near the Red Sea (the Land of Punt) from where they brought back copper, asphalt, naptha, carved amulets, myrrh and incense.
Hatshepsut’s temple is considered an incomparable monument of Ancient Egypt.
Ramses III Mortuary Temple
Located in Medinet Habu, Ramses III mortuary temple is gigantic and stunningly well preserved, thanks to a 4 decades long excavation work. The Temple is 150m (500 ft) long and 300m (1000ft wide) and contains an astonishing 7km2 (75,350 sq ft) of very well preserved decorated wall reliefs.The first pylon (pictured) leads into an open courtyard, lined with colossal statues of Ramesses III as Osiris on one side, and uncarved columns on the other. The second pylon leads into a peristyle hall, again featuring columns in the shape of Ramesses. This leads up a ramp that leads (through a columned portico) to the third pylon and then into the large hypostyle hall. Reliefs and actual heads of foreign captives were also found placed within the temple to symbolise Pharaoh’s control over Syria and Nubia.
West Bank, the place to be in Luxor!
Enjoy Luxor's blog! 