We arrived in Luxor after visiting Kom Ombo and Edfu, and headed out to visit Luxor Temple that afternoon. This temple is right on the banks of the Nile, and is interesting as it has been used as an Egyptian temple, an early Christian church and a mosque (they built it on top without realising there were ruins below and managed to incorporate it as a working mosque).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we went on our final tour, which took us to the Valley of the Kings, where we were able to go into three different tombs underground and see the incredible coloured pictures and engravings on the wall.  We weren’t able to take pictures here but these were amazing – so detailed and well preserved. After this we went to an alabaster factory…sigh…we don’t mind these stops as part of a “tour” but this one lasted for an hour!

 

 

After that we headed to the temple of Hatshephut, built by a female Pharaoh.   This was interesting – quite a different shape and style to the others.

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was the Valley of the Queens, where we went into two more underground tombs and saw more incredibly detailed drawings.  I wish we had been allowed to take photos as these were again so incredible.  Our final stop was the Colossi of Memnon – notable for the two giant statues and also the crazy ratio of touts to tourists!

 

 

 

 

The last place we visited in Luxor was the Temple of Karnak(pictured above) – a massive and impressive temple that has a huge hall of pillars.   We really enjoyed Luxor – the sights were amazing, and spread out enough that a tour was really helpful as they are a bit far to walk between.