The key to a successful haggle, is firstly, to know roughly how much you should be paying, and secondly, be prepared to walk if the service provider is not seeing how much of a bargain your offer is. Margaret demonstrated this admirably on our arrival at Luxor airport. Leaving the terminal, the taxi rank proved to be a huddle of Galabiyya garbed Egyptian men awaiting tourist fodder. (A Galabiyya is an Egyptian man’s full-length robe). We had done some research and knew that our hotel, the Sofitel Karnak, was about a 10km run from the airport. The taxi haggler, claimed it was 17km from the off, and that it was a 35 EGP fare per person. Knowing full well, that 35 all in was a fair price, Margaret stepped in as chief negotiator. "No, 10km it is, and we will pay 40 EGP. No more!". The ultimatum delivered so early is probably not in the way of Egyptian haggling etiquette, but it was about 1am, and we just wanted to be on our way. Margaret was cutting to the chase. "No, No, No! Came the reply of the taxi haggler, and he came in with another offer of 60 EGP!". Margaret gave him a look that said, you aren’t fooling me boyo, and replied with a stiff "40 EGP, no more!" Before the taxi haggler could even think about saying no, Margaret had the suit case in one hand, gave me a nod, turned on the heel and exclaimed "Right, we are going to get a bus!". Of course, the beauty of this, is that we knew nothing about any buses running at this hour. At this point, much to the chagrin of the taxi haggler, he caved and committed to a fare of "40 EGP! All in!". This you need to repeat a few times, just to make sure he doesn’t say 40 GBP at the other end. And so it was, moments after arriving in Luxor, Margaret had outwitted a haggler, and our luggage was loaded in the back of a blue and white clapped out car, petrol fumes so strong they threatened to overpower if not for the stiff Nile breeze that relieved as we hurtled north-west to Karnak.

Sofitel Karnak is a fantastic hotel, perched on the east-bank of the Nile, and only a few kilometres North of Luxor itself. Suffice to say, much of the 6 days we had in Luxor, was availing of the swimming pool it’s pool-side service and whiling away the hours reading. However, when in Luxor, there are a few points of interest that are indeed worth seeing. First and foremost is the Valley of the Kings, the ancient necropolis of Thebes. Yes, Thebes was the former name of Luxor, it would appear that the name Luxor came from the Arabic, Al-Uqsur, which means "The Palaces", named after the magnificent Theban temples that are its hallmark. We arranged our visit to the Valley of the Kings, through the front desk of the hotel, and so our tour guide ending up being the concierge’s brother Yusuf. We set off early, at around 6am for our visit to the Valley of the Kings, this due to the stifling heat. We headed south, towards Luxor first, watching the morning balloons rise over the Valley of the Kings from our vantage point on the east bank of the Nile. Our taxi was in town briefly, before veering west and across a recently constructed bridge, which took us to the West Bank and home to the sheer red cliffs that mark the perimeter of the Valley of the Kings.

The first site of ancient Thebes that greets you when visiting the West Bank is the impressive Colossi of Memnon. This was the site of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III and apparently larger than Karnak and Luxor temples. Alas all that remains are these two towering faceless statues, given the temple was geographically challenged and lay on the Nile flood plain. It was all but washed away. Still these two statues act as fine stewards for this temples memory.

The Colossi of Memnon, Luxor West Bank 

Now Amenhotep III, was a New Kingdom Pharaoh. The Pyramids of Giza in Cairo are from the Old Kingdom, so Thebes and it’s ancient sites are more recent than the Pharaonic remnants in Cairo. In fact Thebes was at one point the capital of Egypt, and the Pharaohs ruled all of Egypt from this city. Additionally, they had moved on from building pyramids as funerary complexes and instead had a penchant for building elaborate tombs in the Valley of the Kings instead. Maybe they couldn’t command as much man-power as their Old Kingdom predecessors, but, literature suggests the remoteness of the Valley of the Kings, was meant to act as a good source of protection from grave plunderers. Although, the reality was not the case.

A short ride from the Colossi of Memnon, passing some Alabaster shop come tourist traps, our driver entered the infamous Valley of the Kings. The crowd puller in the valley is certainly Tutankhamun. It was in this valley, that Howard Carter in 1922, unearthed one of the most significant archeological finds ever, excavating the boy Pharaoh’s mummy and golden relics from a near intact tomb. The Tutankhamun trump card is evident when you walk into the tourist centre. A short video takes you through Carter’s efforts in uncovering Tut’s secrets. Shortly thereafter, a tourist train hauls you a few hundred yards up a winding incline to the centre of the valley. Our guide, Yusuf had tickets for 4 tombs. A 3 tomb ticket allowed us to visit Ramses III, Ramses IV and Tuthmosis III, and of course we purchased an extra ticket to visit Tutankhamun’s tomb.

My expectation of a tomb, was perhaps a dank cubby hole, which had long since been relieved of it’s mummy contents and treasure. Wasn’t I blown away! First up we entered the tomb of Ramses III. The intricacy of the hieroglyphics etched from wall to wall, and the colours of the reliefs were astounding. (A Relief is the name given to an ancient painting or etching on the tomb walls, Although, our guide, bizarrely referred to them as Skins. Took a while for us to figure this one out.)  Ramses III reign as Pharaoh was from 1184-1153 BC. It was awesome and unfathomable; standing inside a 3000 year old tomb, looking at such artwork from a vanished, almost alien civilisation. After Ramses III, we visited the tomb we had really come to see, that of Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun reigned from 1336-1327 BC. So he was a good hundred years before Ramses III and IV. As with all tombs, no photographs were allowed, but in this case, cameras were confiscated at the entrance, so we left ours with Yusuf. Reading much of the literature about Tutankhamun’s tomb in advance, many a pundit writes that the tomb is not as spectacular as many others in the valley. They are probably right from an artwork perspective but, nothing can match the atmosphere of this tomb, especially given that the mummy of Tut himself lies insitu wrapped in cloth behind a glass petition, and then at the opposite end, the original red-granite sarcophagus holds the magnificent outer gold coffin. The reliefs around the tomb are extremely vivid, and virtually untouched. The other tombs we visited in the valley were vandalised by the early Coptic Christian’s who scraped many of the faces away of the Egyptian gods from the relief work. Not Tutankhamun’s tomb, it didn’t suffer this. For this reason, this tomb  leaves you with an indelible impression. Definitely the highlight. Imagine how Howard Carter felt when he discovered the tomb in 1922?

Outside Tutankhamun’s tomb, the Valley of the Kings 

Shortly, after we visited the tomb of Ramses IV. His reign was from 1153-1147 BC. Another fabulous tomb with amazing relief work. The final tomb in the valley we visited was that of Tuthmosis III. This Pharaoh reigned from 1479-1425 BC so was the oldest of the tombs we actually visited. Like Tutankhamun’s tomb it was also one of the most memorable. To get to this tomb, you need to ascend a narrow staircase, between two imposing buttresses of limestone. You then descend into this tomb via a series of levels, and the humidity is quite a shock from the dry heat outside. If I was Tuthmosis III, I would certainly be grateful for the better air-conditioning in the Egyptian museum in Cairo, where his mummy now resides, as it was quite stifling in this tomb. That said, the reliefs and artwork in this tomb are overwhelming in their intricacy. Definitely a must see in the valley.

A lone tomb entrance, the Valley of the Kings

At only 8am, the sun was searing, and so we left the Valley of the Kings to take in a few more sights of ancient Thebes. Next on the list was Deir al-Bahri, the site of the infamous Queen Hatshepshut’s temple. Notorious not just from ancient times, but more recently as 1997, when 58 tourists were gunned down by Islamic Militants in a disgusting massacre. The site is literally almost on the other side of the mountain from the Valley of the Kings. Despite it’s recent macabre history, this temple is spectacular. It’s literally built into the side of the red lime-stone cliffs. Hatshepsut ruled as Pharaoh from 1473 to 1458 BC. By accounts, it seemed she ruled by default, as the true successor (Tuthmosis III) of her husband Tuthmosis II, was too young to rule at the time. I was a little confused as to the history. Whatever the case there seemed to be some incestuous activity going on. The temple is built over 3 terraces, and for setting alone is worth a visit, let alone the amazing history that surrounds it.

Temple of Hatshepsut 

The heat at this point was exceptionally tough to bear. It must have been around 10:00am when we left the temple, and we gratefully took a drink in a cafe at the site entrance. Shortly thereafter, we informed our guide Yusuf, that we did not want to go to a mind numbing Alabaster shop, but instead we wanted to make a bee-line for the Valley of the Queens. Here we visited 3 tombs. Well, in actual fact there are 4 tombs that you could possibly visit at this site, but the most spectacular, that of Nefertari, is closed to the public. Nonetheless, the Tomb of Amunherkhepshef fails to disappoint. Amunherkhepsef was one of the sons of Ramses III and died very young, 10 years old in fact. The reliefs in this tomb were simply stunning. It was one of the few tombs we had seen that had suffered little from religious vandalism. Of note, also was the mummified foetus in one corner of the tomb, which apparently came from another archeological dig. We also visited the tombs of Khaemwaset and Titi. We would have loved to visit Nefertari’s tomb, but it was closed to a private tour of American delegates. The artwork is so exquisite in this tomb, they actually do limit the number of visitors there. We took a look out to see if we recognised anyone famous in the American delegation, but saw no one of note, as they hurriedly left the site in their police escorted convoy.

The Valley of the Queens 

That concluded our visit to the West Bank and ancient Thebes. We gratefully returned to our hotel, to take respite from the scorching 38 degrees Celsius temperature and spent the afternoon between sleep, good read, and swimming.

The following day, we took a felucca ride along the Nile about an hour just before sunset, say around 5pm. This was a relaxing jaunt, and revealed much of the way of life of the locals, who very much rely on the Nile for their agriculture and transport. The felucca is an Egyptian sail-boat, and we had two accomplished hands in Amon and Captain Cook (I didn’t catch his Arabic name). What was particularly fascinating was to observe how devout Muslims they were. At one point during the sail, the affable Captain Cook climbed onto the bow of the boat, sat on his knees and then began praying, bowing his head assiduously towards Mecca. Devout Muslims pray up to 5 times a day, answering the call of the Muezzin from as early as 4:30am. Below are a few people photos I took from the sail.

Captain Cook, Felucca Navigator 

Amon, Felucca First Mate 

Agricultural Life on the Banks of the Nile