Luxor: West Bank and Thebian Necropolis

On my second day in Luxor, I headed over to the ferry station, located near the Luxor Temple. The price to cross is only 1LE (it's even cheaper for Egyptians), and it's quick and convenient. Unfortunately I was followed onto the ferry by a tout who was trying to get me to agree to his taxi service. Once on the other side, I walked as fast as I could away from the parking lot to avoid the harassment of cab drivers and bicycle salesmen.

Crossing the Nile via ferry.



Once past the chaos of the ferry station, I was able to walk in peace for a long time. I preferred walking the distance to the necropolis instead of being lead around by a taxi. The difference between the West Bank and the East Bank is striking. While the East Bank is urban and busy, the West Bank is rural, quiet, and slightly poorer. It is a far more pleasant place to visit. Beyond the ferry station, there were no hagglers anywhere, just a few villagers passing with donkey carts, going about their own business. On both sides of the road to the necropolis are large, lush fields with various crops.

Rural part of the West Bank.




The first sight on the West Bank along the main road is the Colossi of Memnon. These are two simple, giant statues that sit on the side of the road, where a temple used to stand many years ago. They appear to "guard" the entire necropolis. There is no charge to visit them.

Colossi of Memnon.




About three kilometers from the Nile just beyond the Colossi is the main ticket office, where you have to go to purchase tickets to most of the sites.

Just beyond the ticket booth is where the terrain changes drastically. The lush fields were no longer, and instead the only thing to be seen was desert, hills, and a road. A short ways away from the ticket booth is the Ramasseum, a temple built by the Pharaoh Ramses the Great. I recalled reading the poem entitled "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley in high school which describes the crumbled statue that lay in this exact temple. Because of its relatively unpopularity among tourists and its location in the desert, the Ramasseum is quiet and peaceful.

Ramasseum.




"Ozymandias."


Goats by the Ramasseum.


There is a decent restaurant and bar next to the Ramasseum, which only had a couple tourists and a bunch of locals who apparently hang out there frequently.

I next walked to the Valley of the Queens, located northwest of the Ramasseum. The road to the Valley is nothing but sandy, hot desert. The Valley of the Queens consists of dozens of tombs where pharonic queens and other female nobles are buried. Only two of the tombs are open to the public. I don't have any pictures of the interior of the tombs, since it was prohibited and there were many guards watching visitors.

All of the tombs I visited at Valley of the Queens and elsewhere have several Saidi (southern Egyptian) men who are responsible for watching over the tombs. They don't speak much English but they do their best to give brief "presentations" of the tombs where they point to pictures and tell you what they are. The tombs are unbearably hot and humid, much like a sauna.

The tombs at the Valley of the Queens were small, but well-preserved. The roof is only about five and a half feet tall, so you have to duck to walk through. They are lined with colored murals which are still in good condition.

Valley of the Queens.



About 1 km walk from the Valley of the Queens is Deer al-Medina, which has two tombs available for viewing, along with ruins of city shops, and a small temple. The tombs were similar to the ones at Valley of the Queens, though they are built into a hill so they descend down several sets of stairs. Pictures within the tombs were prohibited here, though I was able to some of the temple.

Deer al-Medina.





There was a small group of houses outside Der al-Medina, and a few other ones in the vicinity. The only other buildings in the area are a few hotels, and multiple factories that sell alabaster or papyrus.

One of many alabaster factories.


After Der al-Medina I began the long trek to the Valley of the Kings. I could have taken a taxi or minibus, but I preferred to walk. The walk of course was brutal. The distance from Der al-Medina to Valley of the Kings is only about 5km (3 miles) but the temperatures were well over 100 F and there was no shade to be found. There were places to buy water along the main road, but once you take the turn onto the Valley of the Kings, the road is completely empty.

Along the road to the Valley, two young Sai'di boys saw me and walked and talked with me for awhile. It was the first time I had tried to hold a conversation with someone who spoke Sai'di Arabic. They could understand what I was saying but I had a difficult time understanding more than a small percentage of what they said. They recommended I visit the Temple of Hatshepsut on the way back.

Road to Valley of the Kings.




The Valley of the Kings is of course a popular tourist spot, but since it was late in the day (and therefore very hot), it wasn't too crowded. There are about twenty tombs open to the public, and a ticket gets you access to three of them. There is an extra charge to visit the tomb of Tutankhamen. I chose to visit the tombs of Thutmosis III, Ramses IV, and Tawosret/Setnakhte. Again photography was prohibited inside the tombs, but the guard inside the Tawosret/Setnakhte tomb wasn't enforcing the rule so I was able to take two pictures.

Each of the tombs consist of a slow descent into a cave carved into the mountainside. They are all approximately 100m long, though some are bigger than others. The tomb of Thutmosis III was the biggest one I visited, which included a large moat intended to stop tomb thieves. There is a narrow bridge across the moat which plummets around 20 meters or so on either side.

Here too, the tombs are unbearably hot and humid inside, and they have bad stenches as well. The tombs of Ramses IV and Tawosret/Setnakhte have been opened since antiquity, though the tomb of Thutmosis III was discovered in 1898. It's been suggested that there may be more tombs near the Valley of the Kings which have not yet been discovered.

Valley of the Kings.





Hasty shots from the tomb of Tawosret/Setnakhte.


After visiting the Valley of the Kings, a taxi driver offered to take me back to the ferry, to which I accepted. Along the way he stopped for me at the Deer al-Bahri, which is the location of the Temple of Hatshepsut. It is located to the south of the Valley of the Kings, along the main road. From the the temple, one can see the Nile and the East Bank of Luxor.

The temple was the location of a massacre of dozens of tourists in 1997 by al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, though there haven't been any serious terrorist attacks in the area since then. All of the monuments had multiple police officers stationed at various points. At the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Luxor Museum, there were guards dressed in street clothes with small submachine guns, perhaps to avoid looking like police officers. I saw at least one checkpoint in the necropolis, outside the Valley of the Queens. Overall it felt fairly safe, although the influence of radical Islam in Upper Egypt perhaps makes it one of the more dangerous places in Egypt to visit.

Deer al-Bahri and Temple of Hatshepsut.





My taxi driver agreed on 30 LE for a ride from Valley of the Kings to the ferry. When we got to the ferry, I handed him a 50 LE bill and expected change. Instead he demanded 100 LE because of the extra stop to the Temple of Hatshepsut (it was only about 400m out of the way, and I was only there a few minutes). Normally when people try to hassle you for extra money, they stop when you walk away since they know they're being unfair. After arguing with this guy, I gave him the 50 LE bill and ran away, yet he stilled shouted as loud as he could as if he was getting ripped off.

The haggling situation in Luxor is downright awful, and makes it difficult to enjoy the city. Taxi drivers, caliche (carriage) drivers, shop owners, felucca captains, and tour guides all will pounce at anyone who has white skin and ask for business. In Cairo, foreigners are involved with universities, government, non-profits, and other work, so it's not assumed that anyone who looks non-Arab is a tourist. In Luxor, it is assumed. By the end of the second day I got so tired of the haggling that instead of responding "laa shukran" (no thank you) or "mish 'aiz" (I don't want), I just began to say "ana mish fahim inglezee" (I don't understand English), which seemed to work to some extent.

I returned to my hotel and went to sleep for a few hours since I had an early flight back to Cairo. I was also badly sunburned from doing so much walking in the sun. I got up around 2:30am and went to a coffee place near downtown (many of them are always open). One of the locals asked me where I was going, and offered to take me to the airport on his motorcycle for a reasonable price. Early in the morning there is no traffic in Luxor, so the ride was smooth and fast and made for a great final view of Luxor before leaving. I boarded my flight to Cairo at 3:50am and was back in Cairo an hour later, ready to take my final exam the next day.

Overall, it was a good trip to Luxor, though I wouldn't want to spend more than two days in the city. The haggling detracts from the visit, and the prices are surprisingly quite expensive compared to other parts of Egypt. However, the monuments and museums are impressive and well worth their time.

Luxor Temple at night.