Egypt Luxor Top Ten

If Egypt is like one huge, open-air museum (and, frankly, it is) then Luxor is the special exhibition. Obviously, the Pyramids are its crowd-pleasing display - but they're more your Mona Lisa than your Raft of the Medusa.Luxor's sights are more complex, rewarding and comprehensive, revealing a more complete story story of this land's civilisation, which stretches back over 5,000 years. It's a gritty, bubbling town where you can never quite tell whether what you're walking past is ancient monument, archaeological excavation or abandoned building plot. It's also a busy mooring point for the fleet of squat-looking Nile Cruise ships, so expect plenty of market-stall traders, horse-drawn carriages and general hubbub at the river-side. Keep your personal belongings safe, too, as pick-pocketing is rife. And if you're offered a taxi, agree the FULL fare before you set off. If a driver says it's only one Egyptian pounds toKarnak, that'll probably mean he'll charge you twenty to return. 

 

 

1.Balloon Trip over the West Bank

Address: Luxor, Egypt
Thanks to new safety laws, the early morning skies over the West Bank don't look like some technicolour dot-to-dot painting, now that fewer balloons are allowed to take off at any one time. Which makes a balloon trip, once again, the most amazing off-the-ground experience you can have around here. Flights start very early - around 5am - so be prepared for an early night the night before. But the dawn brings with it a limpid light, cool breezes and excellent visibility across the Valley of the Kings, the town's temples, and the glinting course of the River Nile snaking into the distance.

2.Walk around Luxor Town

Address: Luxor, Egypt
A modern, thriving city, Luxor's newest developments look like ancient temples. Look at the National bank of Egypt (located near the winter palace), the spa, and the railway station - all looking as time-warn and weather-blown as monuments.  The Winter Palace is a stunningly grand hotel, recalling the Golden Age of Travel. Stop by for afternoon tea in the gracious restaurant, or beneath a parasol in the clipped and manicured grounds. If you feel flush, stay the night!

3.Temple of Luxor

Address: Luxor, Egypt 
On Luxor's east bank you can visit the closest temple to the city, the Temple of Luxor, by Amenophis III. Once connected to the Karnak temple by a processional street of ram-headed Sphinxes (which they're currently in the process of excavating), the temple wonderfully illuminated by night. Thebes, the ancient name forLuxor, was the centre of many festivals.  The Temple here was the nucleus of the most important one - the festival of Opet . The festival itself was to join the human incarnation of ruler with his divine self, and it lasted for a month, with crowds of soldiers, dancers, musicians and high ranking officials sailing by barge along the Nile. The story is told in the temple's impressivehieroglyphs.

4.Karnak

Address: Karnak, Egypt
Actually a different town, Karnak is, to all intents, now a part of Greater Luxor. This vast complex was built, in stages, over 1,300 years and is actually a series of smaller temples built around a sacred (square) lake. The main complex, The Temple ofAmun, is situated in the center of the entire complex. The soaring columns of the Hypostyle Hall are perhaps the single-most impressive feature, found after passing through the Second Pylon, and considered to be one of the world's greatest architectural masterpieces. Take plenty of water, you'll need it as you navigate temple after temple in the searing heat, and admire paintedhieroglyphs - their pigment still vivid after more than three thousand years. Admission is around LE 50 (fifty Egyptian pounds, which is around eight Euros). The nightly sound and light show recreates the temple's history with some panache.

5.Luxor Museum, Corniche, Luxor

Address: Luxor, Egypt 
A handsome, simple building on Luxor's promenade, or Corniche, Luxor Museum (and its new annexe) celebrates the art, weaponry, technology and deities of Egypt's glorious history. While this is a small museum, it is judiciously edited - its displays sensibly chosen to create a straightforward explanation of the wonders outside. Winningly, most of the relics are indeed from the surrounding area - making this bite-sized history lesson essential for visitors to get a deeper insight into the lives of the men who built the surrounding temples.

6.Aswan

Address: Aswan, Egypt
It's not all ancient architecture in Egypt. Aswan's stunning high dam is one of the country's most impressive modern monuments containing, they say, more stone than in the Great Pyramid. Four kilometres long and 111 metres high, it took 3,000 men three years to build. While doing so, the authorities had to move entire villages of local, Nubian people.

7.Nubian Museum, Aswan

Address: Aswan, Egypt
The Nubian Museum gives visitors the chance to experience the 'other Egypt' - and one which is sadly overlooked all too often. The south-lying lands of Egypt were always home to these gentle, darker skinned people. And, while they never erected show-stopping sites such asKarnak, their history is no less fascinating. As this museum proves. The Nubian Folk exhibition, colourful houses and engaging crafts will make you look at Egyptian culture in a whole new light.

8.Luxor Shopping

Address: Luxor, Egypt 
If you're on a Nile Cruise, you'll see the traders beckoning you into their stores practically as soon as you disembark. For here, along theCorniche , lies a never-ending string of Egyptian cotton merchants, t-shirt shops, trinkets and jewellers.  Far better to trek a little out of   town to the Fair Trade Centre, near the Emilio Hotel onKarnack Street. Every product sold is made from a local, usually very poor, family - and the craftsmanship, whether weaving or pottery, is excellent.

9.Abu Simbel

Address: Abu Simbel, Egypt
Some way south of Luxor, Abu Simbel is, in fact, closer to the border with troubled neighbour, Sudan. It's worth the trip, though, to see this huge temple built into a cliff wall. The temples were dismantled and relocated stone by stone in 1968 when waters started to rise after the Aswan Dam began to hold back the Nile. Ramesses II built seven rock-cut temples across the country, but these are far and away the most mighty, with their 70 foot-high statues. The massive facade of the main temple is dominated by the four seated colossal statues ofRamesses, seated on a throne, and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, to symbolise his all-conquering power.

10.Valley of the Kings

Address: Near Luxor, Egypt
The mysterious West Bank of the Nile was always considered to be  a place of death and, as such, even today remains undeveloped , peaceful and - it's true - ever so mysterious. Hidden from sight behind towering limestone cliffs, the Valley is busy with tourists but still packs quite a punch. Tours here take in the Valley of the Kings, with their richly carved tombs the final resting place of all the Pharaohs of Egypt, from Ahmose to Ramses XI (at the last count, there are 62 tombs excavated so far). The entrance ticket allows you to visit three different open tombs, with an extra fee payable for visits to King Tutankhamen's austere  Located near the Valley of the Kings is the Valley of the Queens, again a place of jaw-dropping humanachievement. The tomb of Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II, is wonderfully preserved.

Photographs courtesy of Egyptian Tourist Board