Hot Air Balloon and Best of Luxor Full Day Tour

Nile River Valley

An early pickup starts the day. The transfer runs to the marina, where soft drinks are served before the motorboat crosses to the West Bank, and from the landing you carry on to the take-off area for a balloon ride over the largest open-air museum in Egypt, Luxor. The flight lasts 45 minutes before touching down again. Departures run every day, though confirming in advance is still recommended. The rest of the day covers Luxor's East Bank and West Bank on a private full-day tour, with the pace left to you.

Colossi of Memnon

Once the balloon lands, the guide meets the group at the Colossi of Memnon and the Luxor full day tour begins there. The two figures are the largest ancient statues in Egypt and date from the reign of King Amenhotep III.

Valley of the Kings

The road then leads to the Necropolis of Thebes, the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor. Four royal tombs are included in the visit, among them the tomb of Ramses, the tomb of Horemheb and the tomb of Merenptah.

Costo extra

Tomb of Ramases IX

Ramesses IX was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty, in the New Kingdom. Before he took the crown his name was Amonhirkhopshef. The fifth son of Ramesses III, he was made crown prince by the twenty-second year of his father's reign, after all four of his elder brothers had died. Colour and detail survive right through the tomb, including the ceiling above the sarcophagi, where the goddess Nut stretches across the span. The sarcophagus is one of the largest in the valley, and although some of the painting has deteriorated, this is still one of the most decorated tombs here.

Tomb of Merenptah

In Egyptian mythology Ptah is the demiurge of Memphis, god of craftsmen and architects, and in falcon form the deity began to be placed in tombs to accompany and protect the dead on the journey to the West of Luxor. Tomb 8, in the Valley of the Kings, was the burial place of the Pharaoh Merneptah, son of Ramesses II and Queen Isis-Nofret, and it set the model for royal tombs. Howard Carter found it in 1903. There are markedly fewer side rooms than before, while the corridors and chambers rise far higher. Merneptah dropped the jogged axis used since the time of Horemheb and laid the whole tomb along a single line, and the entrance was cut considerably wider than in earlier tombs.

Tomb of Ramses III

KV 11, the tomb of Ramesses III, is a complex system in the Valley of the Kings and has been known since antiquity. The decoration includes painted sunken reliefs in colour, carrying the usual ritual texts such as the Litany of Ra and the Book of Gates, with Ramses shown before the gods. What is unusual here are the secular scenes in the small side rooms off the entrance corridor: foreign tributes including finely made pottery imported from the Aegean, the royal armoury, boats, and in the last of those chambers the blind harpists who gave the tomb its other name, Tomb of the Harpers.

Tomb of King Tutankhamun (Tut)

Entry requires an extra ticket if you want to visit it.

Costo extra

Temple of Hatshepsut

After the tombs the group is driven to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari. Hatshepsut is the only woman ever to have reigned over Egypt as pharaoh. She was an ancestor of King Tutankhamun and belonged to the same dynasty.

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The Karnak Temple

Karnak, on the East Bank of Luxor, is not one temple but a complex raised over many reigns and widely counted among the great works of world architecture. The route in runs along the Avenue of Sphinxes. Inside stand the Hypostyle Hall with its 134 giant columns, the obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis I, the Temple of Amon with its lotus and papyrus designs, the granite scarab of Amenophis III and the Sacred Lake.

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Temple of Ramesses III, Karnak

Successive pharaohs each added to Karnak, which is why the East Bank complex is regarded as one of the world's architectural masterpieces. Walking it means passing the Avenue of Sphinxes, then 134 columns in the Hypostyle Hall, the obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis I, the lotus and papyrus carving of the Temple of Amon, the granite scarab of Amenophis III, and the Sacred Lake.

Obelisk of Queen Hapshetsut,

The obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis I, alongside the Temple of Amon with its lotus and papyrus designs.

Avenue of Sphinxes

The Avenue of Sphinxes once ran the 3 km from Luxor to Karnak, lined with sphinxes on both sides, and connected the two temples. Only a few hundred metres are visible today, which is still enough to make the point.

Obelisk of Thutmoses I

Obelisk of Thutmoses I. The obelisks of Queen Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis I stand near the Temple of Amon, carved with lotus and papyrus designs.