Guided Hot Air Balloon Ride over Luxor at Sunrise

A guide comes with this flight, and the commentary is the point of it. Historical and cultural background arrives while the monuments are still in view, so the west bank gets explained as it passes below the basket rather than afterwards. The price sits at the top of the range for balloon flights in Luxor. Safety guidelines are given before boarding. The balloon then rises hundreds of feet with the sun still low, and that light does the work: vast temples and tall statues take on colour they never have in the middle of the day. Karnak and its complex of temples and chapels lie to the east. To the west is the temple of Hatshepsut, at the foot of the cliffs. The Colossi of Memnon rise from the flat ground, apparently standing guard over the royal tombs, and the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens pass below as well. Scale is the other reason to go up. From a few hundred feet the plan of each temple and the distance between them are visible at once, which no visit on foot gives you, and the guide fills in what each site was built for while it is still under the balloon.