A day trip from Aswan to Luxor, covering the tombs and mortuary temples of the west bank and the great state temples of the east bank.
ITINERARY
The West Bank
You start in the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom were buried in tombs cut deep into the hillside. The painted chambers are the draw — scenes from the Book of the Dead, still holding their colour, laying out what the Egyptians expected to happen after death. From there you go on to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, built in terraces against the limestone cliffs and quite unlike any other temple in Egypt, with the story of the country's most powerful female ruler attached to it. A stop at the Colossi of Memnon follows: two enormous seated statues, all that is left of a mortuary temple that has otherwise vanished. Lunch is at a local restaurant in Luxor before you cross the river.
The East Bank
The afternoon belongs to Karnak, the largest religious complex ever built, added to by one pharaoh after another for something close to two thousand years. The Hypostyle Hall is the part everyone remembers: a forest of vast columns packed so closely together that you lose your sense of scale entirely. The day finishes at Luxor Temple in the middle of the modern town, once joined to Karnak by the Avenue of Sphinxes. There is some free time for photographs or shopping before the drive back, arriving in Aswan in the evening.
