All Luxor (Thebes) Day tour

The rulers of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt’s prosperous New Kingdom (c.1550–1069 BC) were buried in a desolate dry river valley across the river from the ancient city of Thebes (modern Luxor), hence its modern name of the Valley of the Kings. This moniker is not entirely accurate, however, since some members of the royal family aside from the king were buried here as well, as were a few non-royal, albeit very high-ranking, individuals. The Valley of the Kings is divided into the East and West Valleys. The eastern is by far the more iconic of the two, as the western valley contains only a handful of tombs. In all, the Valley of the Kings includes over sixty tombs and an additional twenty unfinished ones that are little more than pits.

The site for this royal burial ground was selected carefully. Its location on specifically the west side of the Nile is significant as well. Because the sun god set (died) in the western horizon in order to be reborn, rejuvenated, in the eastern horizon, the west thus came to have funerary associations. Ancient Egyptian cemeteries were generally situated on the west bank of the Nile for this reason.

The powerful kings of the New Kingdom were laid to rest under the shadow of a pyramid-shaped peak rising out of the cliffs surrounding the valley. The selection of even the specific valley in which the royal tombs were excavated was not left to chance. The pyramid was a symbol of rebirth and thus eternal life, and the presence of a natural pyramid was seen as a sign of the divine. This entire area, and the peak itself, was sacred to a funerary aspect of the goddess Hathor: the “Mistress of the West”.

The isolated nature of this valley was yet another reason for its selection as the final resting place of the pharaoh. Tomb robberies occurred even in ancient times. The Egyptians were aware of this, having seen the a fate of the Old and Middle Kingdom pyramids, so they opted for hidden, underground tombs in a secluded desert valley. The first New Kingdom ruler that is confirmed to have been buried in the Valley of the Kings was Thutmose I (c.1504–1492 BC), the third king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to Ineni, the high official who was in charge of the digging of his tomb: “I oversaw the excavation of the cliff-tomb of his Person [the king] in privacy; none seeing, none hearing.”

• The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. They have stood since 1350 BC, and were well known to ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as early modern travelers and Egyptologists.
• The statues contain 107 Roman-era inscriptions in Greek and Latin, dated to between AD 20 and 250; many of these inscriptions on the northernmost statue make reference to the Greek mythological king Memnon, whom the statue was then – erroneously – thought to represent.

Great food is at the heart of every journey, and we believe dining is an experience, rather than just fuel for your body. Get the full flavour of a destination by dining as locals do, whether that’s enjoying a traditional meal in their home or in a restaurant that only residents know about. From thoughtful vegetarian options to seasonal specialities in amazing locations, you’ll sip, savour and sense the local flair at your meal.

“Oh that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult be no more!” This was a prayer said daily in the temple complex of Karnak in ancient Egypt. The priests may have been asking for respite from the ringing of chisels and the shouts of stone masons. Karnak, situated on the east bank of the Nile, was their sacred place of worship. It was also a site with periods of near constant construction.

Egyptian rulers after 2000 BCE made their mark here, as did the Greeks and Romans who followed, turning what began as a modest temple into the ancient world’s largest and most impressive complex of religious buildings which, even today, inspires awe.

• The first work, begun around 1950 BCE, was followed by five centuries with no known additions. But endless construction, destruction, and renovation over the next millennium and a half has proved challenging to modern-day researchers. Each change at this vast site can illuminate a political, religious, or social aspect of ancient Egypt, a text in stone chronicling the levels of prosperity, nature of beliefs, and the power of central authority.
• With its collection of temples, stone kiosks, obelisks, a sacred lake, walls, and pylons built over fifteen hundred years and spread over more than six hundred acres—nearly twice the size of the National Mall in Washington—Karnak is mind-bogglingly vast in both space and time. Even in partial ruin, Karnak provides a window into the formidable engineering and artistic abilities of ancient Egypt.
• The pyramids may be more stupendous and the Parthenon more beautiful, wrote British adventurer Amelia Edwards in 1877 after wandering through the famous Hypostyle Hall which alone covers nearly 1.5 acres. “Yet in nobility of conception, in vastness of detail, in mystery of the highest order,” she wrote, the pillared space of Karnak at the heart of the complex surpasses them all. It was, she insisted without reservation, “the noblest architectural work ever designed and executed by human hands.”
• A thousand years after the Great Pyramids were built, Karnak was still a small temple in Upper Egypt dedicated to the local god Amun. But with the rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty, which began in 1550 BCE, the once sleepy area became a focus of Egypt’s power and wealth, and Amun became an important deity. Karnak quickly grew into a national religious center, and pharaoh after pharaoh added courtyards and gates, built new temples and remodeled old ones, and occasionally dismantled older structures to reuse their materials. By the time of the only female pharaoh—Hatshepsut—the tops of obelisks were sheathed in gold and a new set of gates oriented the complex toward Luxor Temple a few miles to the south, rather than toward the Nile, which flowed just to the west. Every year, a grand procession took place on a broad avenue bordered by sphinxes between the two temples, one of the great festivals of ancient Egypt.
• There was only one interruption to the steady growth of Karnak, when the heretic king, Akhenaten, snubbed the god Amun and the priests serving him by building a temple to the sun god Aten just east of Karnak’s walls to catch the life-giving rays before they struck Amun’s temple. But Akhenaten’s successors razed the structure and incorporated the stone into new projects.
• Several pharaohs continued to embellish Karnak in the centuries that followed. Nectanebo I—who deposed and killed his predecessor and seized the throne in 380 BCE—made the last great changes, adding—but not completing—the First Pylon which visitors pass through as they enter the complex today. The Greco-Egyptian rulers who followed made more modest changes to Karnak, adding small temples. And even the Romans contributed, by completing a temple dedicated to Osiris. By the early centuries of the Common Era, the old ways began to dissipate. The incense was extinguished and the chants silenced. The new religion of Christianity moved in, and small churches were built within the massive pagan walls.
• For Egyptologists, Karnak offers a treasure trove of data on Egypt’s evolution into an international power with great wealth, a unique and mysterious religion, and a way of life centered on the ebb and flow of the Nile, which coursed through the country’s heart. One relief, for example, which lists pharaohs stretching back to the Old Kingdom, provides scholars with important information on the ruling class. Even destruction tells a tale: Some pharaohs chiseled away their predecessors’ names in an attempt to wipe out any memory of their existence and accomplishments.

• Luxor Temple, Ipet-resyt “Southern Sanctuary” to the ancient Egyptians, was so called because of its location within ancient Thebes (modern Luxor). It is located around three kilometers to the south of Karnak Temple, to which it was once linked with a processional way bordered with sphinxes. The oldest evidence for this temple dates to the Eighteenth Dynasty (c.1550–1295 BC).
• Ipet-resyt, unlike most other ancient Egyptian temples, is not laid out on an east-west axis, but is oriented towards Karnak. This is because Luxor Temple was the main venue for one the most important of ancient Egyptian religious celebrations, when the cult images of Amun, his wife Mut, and their son, the lunar god Khonsu, were taken from their temples in Karnak, and transported in a grand procession to Luxor Temple so they could visit the god that resides there, Amenemopet. This was the Opet Festival.
• Luxor Temple was not built by one single ruler. The oldest existing structure, a shrine, dates to the reign of Hatshepsut (c.1473–1458 BC). The core of the temple was built by Amenhotep III (c.1390–1352 BC). One of the inner rooms contains a series of scenes that are known as the Divine Birth. They tell the amazing story of how the king’s true father was none other than the god Amun-Ra himself, disguised as Thutmose IV (c.1400–1390 BC). The core of the temple is preceded by a columned hall fronted by a courtyard with columns around its perimeter. Amenhotep III also built the Great Colonnade, which consists of two rows of seven colossal columns. Its decoration, most notably the scenes depicting the Opet Festival, were completed by Tutankhamun (c.1336–1327 BC) and Horemheb (c.1323–1295 BC).
• Ramesses II (c.1279–1213 BC) made many additions to Luxor Temple. In front of the Great Colonnade, he built a peristyle courtyard and a massive pylon, a gate with two towers that formed the entrance into temples. In addition to many colossal statues, the pylon was also fronted by a pair of 25-meter-high obelisks made by this great king, but only one remains in place; the other has been at the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836.
• In the late third century AD, the Romans built a fort around the temple, and the first room beyond the hypostyle hall of Amenhotep III became its sanctuary. The original wall reliefs were covered with plaster, and painted in the Graeco-Roman artistic style, depicting Emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD) and his three coregents. Although these  had largely disappeared, efforts are under way to restore these reliefs to their former glory.