Luxor - The West Bank

After a couple days in Cairo, we flew down to Luxor, site of the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes. The area is full of spectacular temples and tombs. The modern city and two large ancient temples are on the east side of the Nile, while all of the tombs and several more temples are on the west bank. In this post we'll cover our day trip to the west bank.

The east side of the Nile river was home to the ancient city of Thebes, while the west side was home to the tombs and temples of the dead. This was not by coincidence, and is quite poetic, as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The ancient Egyptians thus associated the west with death and the afterlife. To visit the west bank we arranged a tour through our hotel travel agency. We got up bright and early on Saturday and met our guide Adl in the hotel lobby. The travel agency arranged a private tour for just the two of us with an Egyptologist guide and driver for the day. Compared to a similar arrangement in America, this is very affordable. We also could have just rented a taxi for the day, which would have been about 300 Egyptian pounds ($17) but we decided to go with an experienced guide to delve more into the history and specifics of the sites.

Our guide, Adl, is a middle-aged Egyptian man. He's from Luxor and was trained on Egyptian history and Egyptology. Adl had a few fun ticks: first, he rolled his r's... a lot. It sounded like cartoon version of someone yelling underwater. Second, he used the term "my dears" a lot to refer to us. Is it possible that in all his years working no one ever told him that was a weird expression? Finally, Adl has some interesting thoughts. He made it clear he wasn't a fan of how some Egyptians haggle visitors, especially taxi drivers and souvenir sellers. Tourism took a huge hit after both the global economic downturn and the Arab spring, and Luxor's economy is just barely starting to recover. Part of the recovery is due to an increased number of Chinese tour groups. Back in 2002 when Paul lived in Egypt, he didn't see many Chinese tourists at all; now it seems like about half of the tour groups in Luxor are from China. Adl made it clear he wasn't happy with the tour group's habits (touching the walls of tombs, etc) and general lack of spending money or tipping. Some of his comments were a bit much, but he did a great job showing us sites and answering our questions.

The drive was about an hour from our hotel to the first site. There's only one bridge over the Nile near Luxor, and it's 7km south of town. Along the way, we could see people harvesting sugar cane. Adl told us this was the primary crop grown in this part of Egypt, and there were sugar refineries in the region. We arrived at the Colossi of Memnon first. These giant statues were completed in 1350 BCE and were dedicated to Amenhotep III. Despite their Egyptian origin, a Roman-given name persists today. The colossi were named after a Greek hero of the Trojan War, Memnon.

Two of the Colossi of Memnon, there used to be more along a promenade leading to shrines.

Colossus of Memnon

Next we visited the temple dedicated to Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. This temple was built around the mid 1100s BCE. Ramesses III was one of the last great Kings of Egypt. He was considered a mighty warrior and oversaw a period of endless warfare from invading people, always jealous of Egypt's location on the fertile gentile Nile. The constant warfare took its toll, and Egypt began to decline after Ramesses' rule. The period of warfare is reflected in the design of Medinet Habu, which has more fortifications than other temples found in Egypt.

David & Adl entering Medinet Habu.

Gates for days.

Only a few of the statues remain in the complex.

Some good coloration remains on the roof and in some of the more shaded spaces.

Come early in the day for the best lighting.

Colorful columns remain in the main hall.

The hieroglyph carving covers every surface. On the left are cartouches naming Ramesses. 

The columns are impressive, and shaped like lotuses and papyrus reeds.

Central courtyard.

I am Ramesses III! Behold my wonder!

Next we went to the Valley of the Kings. This is the famous site where 63 different tombs were constructed to house the remains of some of Egypt's great kings and their families over the course of 400 years (from around 1500 - 1075 BCE). Historically, photos have not been allowed in the tombs. Now, possibly due to the reduction in tourism since the revolution, you can buy a ticket to take photos without flash (photo tickets will set you back around $17). In retrospect, we probably should have bought a ticket, but Adl thought the price was highway robbery so we just went along with his opinion.

The cost of entry to the valley grants access to three different tombs. There are a variety that you can visit, and it depends on what's open that day or year (there were 11 open when we went). We ended up going to the tombs Adl recommended: Ramesses IV, Ramesses IX and Ramesses III. Adl described to us what we'd see in each tomb and then we took around 10-15 minutes to visit each one at a time. Additional tombs are available to visit for an extra fee. The ticket to visit King Tut's tomb, for example, is very expensive costing around $57/person. Likewise, a tomb in the valley of the queens, which we didn't visit, also has a similar surcharge. These costs are meant to reduce the wear and tear on some of these more fragile or popular tombs.

Since they were sealed for so long (with no damage from sunlight), even though most were robbed at some point, the tombs are all generally brightly colored and full of hieroglyphs. The artifacts that survived the pillaging were taken to museums in Egypt and around the world. These tombs are a highlight of any trip to Egypt and shouldn't be missed. While there were a lot of people there, it wasn't super busy. There were a few large tour groups, but we weren't rushed or crowded. Our guide told us it used to be packed, sometimes with lines up to 30 minutes to get into some of the tombs. There's been a clear decline in tourism, even though it's currently the high season (since it's not too hot yet).

Disneyland style fake trains to take you up to the Valley.

3D map showing the valley and the depth/layout of the tombs.

The view below the model. Some were dug quite deep into the mountainside.

Typical scene sans the throngs of tourists.

No organized tour is complete without them forcing you to go to some shop with locally made goods. In total, we were set to visit three throughout the day. We were only actually interested in one of these, the alabaster and stone work shop called Amon Ra. Here we learned how Egyptians used to create pottery before starting a 20 minute haggle fest with the shopkeeper for one small alabaster pot and a couple basalt scarab beetle trinkets. David was horrible at the haggling process and the entire experience made him uneasy. Paul, on the other hand, seemed to know what he was doing (thanks to living in Cairo before). He insulted the size of the pot, only budged slightly on price each go around and used his limited Arabic and Egyptian knowledge to his advantage. The shopkeeper was playfully flustered and walked away multiple times, occasionally ignoring Paul to focus on the obviously less confident David. Eventually, Adl joined in and thought the entire process was hilarious.

In the end, Paul talked the shopkeeper down on the alabaster pot from 750 EGP to 245 EGP. Paul still thinks he overpaid. David wasn't so lucky and ended up getting two handmade beetles for 800 EGP. The initial combined asking price was 3,000 EGP... so overall we paid 1/3 the asking price...I guess it could have been worse. Honestly the bargaining is half the fun (at least Paul thinks so).

Paul showing us how ancient Egyptians used to drill holes to make the center of masonry jars.

After a bit of shopping, we visited the massively reconstructed Temple of Hatshepsut. Of the around 600 Egyptian kings only approximately 7 were women. This tomb was dedicated to her and was flanked by a series of temples. Constructed in a completely different design, over the millennia rock-slides destroyed most of the complex. This site is somewhat controversial today, as Adl pointed out, because it has been almost completely reconstructed. Only about 5% of the complex is original. The Egyptian government invited the Polish Academy of Sciences to reconstruct the site, and while likely a good reconstruction of what it would have looked like, the practice of complete reconstruction is no longer done in Egypt.

Hatshepsut's got nothing on us!

In hindsight, I'm sure she would agree that building a temple by the cliffs was a bad idea.

Heavily recreated monuments. 

The setting is scenic.

The front had a very unique design for a funerary temple.

For our last site on the west bank, we chose between visiting the Tombs of the Nobles or the Temple of Ramesses II. This temple was the motivation for the Shelley poem Ozymandias, which was very tempting. But, considering how much we enjoyed the tombs, and that Paul had already visited the temple back in 2002, we opted to visit the Tombs of the Nobles instead. This collection of hundreds (or more) of tombs housed the remains of wealthy families, artisans, soldiers, priests, etc. Our ticket allowed for the entry of one tomb and Adl selected the tomb of Ramose, a prime minister. While modest compared to the tombs of the kings, it was interesting to see the clash of artistic styles in this incomplete tomb. Part of the tomb displayed traditional pharaonic iconography. The other half, left incomplete, had iconography from the short reign of Akhenaten (the heretic king). Again, no pictures were allowed, so you'll just have to take our word for it. Also visible in the tomb were unfinished carvings, including a grid made from iron oxide that was laid out on the wall. It was really interesting to see how the process worked, so we recommend visiting this tomb in particular.

Like we mentioned, all tours end up in shops where you're supposed to buy mostly lame stuff. The final stop on our tour was meant to be a paper shop as well as a glass/perfume store. After displaying the least amount of interest possible in the perfume store, we opted out of going to the paper store altogether and instead had Adl and our driver drop us off in Luxor city center at a koshary restaurant they recommended called Bondok. We climbed up to the restaurant's roof and had a late lunch of yummy koshary with tomato sauce and spicy vinegar. Afterward, we went to a small shop, called Habiba, to look for more souvenirs before heading back to the hotel. The shop has a variety of crafts made mostly by local women. We'd recommend a visit for some high quality no-haggling souvenirs.

So, to take an organized tour or not? Overall, it's probably a good idea. Since the revolution, tourism in Luxor has dropped dramatically. People have been hard hit in the hospitality trade here, especially. Taxi drivers are aggressive to the point of extreme annoyance and vendors are pushy as you pass their shops. It's possible to arrange a driver for the day for a pretty low rate, maybe even a few hundred pounds... but they would not provide any information or context for your trip. You'd still have to pay for your entry fees for all the sights, which were covered by our tour. Taking a tour allows you to shut off most of your brain and just take in the sights.

Koshary #2 of the trip. Delicious!

Back at the hotel, we watched sunset by the pool. The weather here is amazing! If you go just a couple kilometers away from the Nile it's dry, rainless, lifeless desert. Luxor gets only about 1 mm of rain per year. Blue skies with low humidity dominates. In the winter it's warm and sunny during the day and at night it cools off and is breezy.

Time for some R&R.

David's basic and he knows it.

Sunset shadows for days.

Sun setting over the Valley of the Kings across the Nile.

Dear older adults, please don't use your ipad to take pictures. It's weird.

Going... 

...and going...

...and gone!

Goodnight Egypt!

For dinner, we ate at the Indian/pan-Asian restaurant in our hotel, Silk Road. It's pretty random and very expensive by Egyptian standards... but not really by American. We wouldn't recommend going out of your way for it, but if you're staying at the Hilton, give it a go if you need a break from Egyptian food.

Overall, the day was really great. It was wonderful to see the world famous monuments and tombs, and easy to see how the world fell in love with ancient Egypt as these relics were being rediscovered by the West in the 19th and 20th centuries. A trip to Egypt isn't complete without a trip to Luxor.