Luxor  Egypt- Valley of the Kings, Queens, Luxor & Karnak Temples

25% of all monuments in the entire world are located in Luxor.

Please scroll down to see the 2nd half of the tour including tons of  Temples Monuments and Amazing Egypt !

 Contact : Mamdoh Mansor, Egypt Tour Guide

Email mamdo32@gmail.com or Phone (+2 ) 012 4535 628

Contact the author, web designer and photographer info@borgatalodge.net

Donkeys and guided trip into the Valley of Kings

Up very early and off to the Valley of the Kings and world famous ancient tombs.

Farming land and view from the bus

Our bus stopped at the base of the hill to the entrance. Mamdoh running to meet the master.

Woo hoo a donkey ride.

This was met with fear and fun. It was super fun and not really scary at all as they are easy to ride.

The GAP group heading up to the Valley of the Kings

The hillside

Me at the end, I loved my donkey he was so gentle and smooth

The group dismounted with Mamdoh getting us organized

V n Me

The Donkey Master, I tipped him 20 LE.  He did a great job and what a good looking gent eh?

Mamdoh our guide and the GAP tour group with the Donkey master

Hatshepsut Mortuary Complex, statues and monuments

Deir Al - Bahri Temples

Monument of Queen Hatshepsut also deemed herself the King

Tombs along the hillside on the way to the Temple

Entrance to Special Tomb

Pfarao ( ?)

What an impressive setting against the huge mountain and rock bluffs

Ramp and Statues

Falcon guarding the entrance

Famous statues of the Queen

What an impressive setting

You really feel like your somewhere very unique!

Art - Workers

Goddess Hathor, a face to remember and appears often :)

Queen Portrayed as the King

Possibly from her trip to Somalia

Amun Ra

Queen portrayed as the King with a beard

The history of how she managed to rule when it had been all Kings before her is a tribute to both Men and Women forever !

Statue / Monument at the end of the row

This spot captures the majestic valley and ruins below.

Rare !

Ruins of the temple next door

A pyramid used to be here

Much was destroyed by the next King who did not want her memory to be preserved

Panorama view looking back at the city of Luxor and Luxor temple

Center right is the home of important folks

Beautiful row of pillars.

Not seen but noted is the avenue of sphinx's which leads to Karnak Temple on the other side of the river.

Just some footprints in the sand by who knows who

Some one famous? A moment of history that has been lost already.

A Colourful scene with king and God

Lighting was not perfect but an incredible carving.

Alabaster & Stone Factory near Valley of the Queens & Colossi at Memnon

We left the temple and were lucky to see a stone factory. This was our first glance, smiling men working on had made stone products

Beautiful scene in stone of the god of mummification and resurrection.

I wish I had bought more. One of a Kind !

The Colossi at Memnon

This was part way back to the hotel, not much is left, they are huge. Nice quick stop with a view

Valley of the Queens

Tombs

Tons going on here and more in the future, where ever there is sand there is history below in Egypt !

Horse Carriage Tour of Luxor City

Just around the corner of our nice hotel we took an optional horse and carriage ride with Mamdoh, he did not charge for this, we paid approx $10 buks for the entire trip, we tipped the driver 30 LE

Zee French gals and Audrey horsing around just before departure.

Melanie is the Queen of Jokes !

My temporary harem of French Ladies

The propane supply company, the driver would tap the tank making a special sound, people would come out and exchange tanks.

It was a nice sound like a bell

V at the wheel, look out !

Off the main road now we are seeing what most live like, note most tops of buildings are not finished, lots of work going on.

A bit blurry but it was getting dark, an average street

Back near the hotel,

The Luxor Temple was just across the street.

V and our driver, what a nice smile eh?

Back near the hotel at dark, we walked the last half mile near the market.

The best food on the trip was at this little place 2 blocks from our hotel, unreal how inexpensive it was.

Chef carving meat, he chopped it all up and sautéed it with onions & spices

This great take out and restaurant was super busy and obviously one of the best in all of Luxor, all the staff smiled and laughed with us.

View of the end of Luxor Temple from our hotel room deck (Emilio Hotel), this had been covered with buildings, its all being moved to restore the avenue of sphinx's which leads to Karnak Temple the big one !

Karnak Temple

The famous ancient & largest columned temple in the world !

Model of the temples and monuments

Close-up of Karnak

Avenue of Sphinx's and tourist entrance

Avenue of Ram Sphinx's

Avenue of Sphinx's leads from Luxor Temple to Karnak

Also the same on the other side of the Nile

First massive Pylon

Stunning columns and engravings

Tops of Columns, note the Colourful artwork is still in place

King Ramses II

Mamdoh always there to tell the story and significance of the history

Huge King Ramses statues

Courtyard showing lots of things and cleaning staff

Mamdoh our tour guide telling us some interesting history.

Deep cut art.

Deep cut Cartouche on Pillar

Huge Pillars and Cartouches

A majestic row of huge columns, breath taking to say the least !

The tree of life

Colourful art, huge stone blocks

A very clear scene with hieroglyphs

Amazing Colourful Cartouche art on the ceilings

A huge scene super well preserved with king and gods

Us hard to take it all in !

Tops of pillars with a flower closed

Famous beetle, if you walk around it 7 times counterclockwise it will bring your wish come true, I made a wish, guess ?  its a secret !

Broken Obelisk

Close up of queens face

Obelisk's and area at the very end of the temple

Obelisk and stone blocks

Obelisk and engravings

Huge Pillars & stone window still enact

Amazing Cartouche's on the ceiling, check out the beautiful colours and detail

A group of beautiful statues still in super condition after thousands of years !

Close ups of the smaller ones.

Nan and Shan at Karnak

Shan and a policeman

He stepped a bit over the line

Us at the end of a very amazing day, hot and ready for a beverage !

View from the top of the hotel of Luxor City and a nearby  Mosque

Rooftop pool, this got lots of use and offered stunning views of the monument across the Nile and Luxor Temple

Demolition of the Mosque in the Luxor Temple. The city is restoring the Avenue of Sphinx's.  All buildings will be moved or new ones built for whoever was displaced.

The people of Egypt just always seem to do what is impossible !

Possibly the last sunset for this famous Mosque.

Making way for a new age.

 We were here ! 

Hurghada Egypt - Red Sea Lakefront Resort at Sunrise Hotel

Scuba Diving / Snorkeling Trip

A very refreshing resort after polluted air in Luxor. Finally we see the Red Sea from our penthouse room

Swimming pool and Red Seas from our deck

Scuba Diving trip

Our boat and view of beachfront resorts

Part of our scuba diving group, mostly Russians and a nice couple from Poland

Getting ready for departure and meeting others.

Almost ready to go, problem we could not speak to them or vice versa as they did not know English.

Hurghada from the Red Sea

Our scuba location and coral reefs. Tons of boats come here. The water is about 25'-30' deep maximum. Lots to see and tons of fish

A swimmer near the boat, someone tossed over a small piece of bread and tons of small fish surfaced

Back at the hotel

Nice view

A huge yacht nearby

Our ferry was cancelled, we were lucky our guide organized a plane trip last minute, a story to tell as well

Flying from Hurghada to Sharm El Sheikh & then driving to Dahab

Dahab Egypt

 Happy Life Hotel / Waterfront Resort  Red Sea

http://www.happylifehotel.com/

This resort was 9 out of 10 !!

View from our deck at 6am when I got up

Simply beautiful and very clean. I walked around at 6 am and had the entire place to myself.

View of mountain behind the resort.

View of mountains towards Dahab

Walkway to the beach, dock and Red Sea

Dock, where scuba and snorkeling folks enter. The snorkeling was beyond belief.

No words can describe how beautiful and colorful it was.

At a guess I saw over 300 species of fish in 1 hour !!

Our GAP tour group hanging out at the beach

good service and nice to have a beer in a beautiful location

Food was just great here too and they served good wine !

Coral reefs viewed from the dock

Water is only 12' deep here on average and goes for miles

Camels on the Beach

The first ocean view in the morning at 6 am

Saint Catherine's Monastery - Burning Bush

This was an awesome day, we are at 3000' and its a perfect 20 degrees!

Looking back at the valley and towards Sinai Village

Ashley and The Camels

Notice no one seems hot

Stunning painting over the entrance to the church

Have a look !

First glances of the famous Burning Bush

The well that has supplied water for thousands of years !

Touching the bush

What a treat!

Looking up at the Burning Bush, this tree will not grow anywhere in the world, than here, they have tried.

Last glances at the Burning Bush

Buildings and nice stairs

Beautiful tower and terrace

The tower, I think made of blocks and Alibaster

Our tour guide Mamdoh assisting with the merchant and some of our group. We bought an amazing set if port glasses from Marble for $10 for 6 !!

Entrance to the Monastery, note all the camels waiting, they are waiting for people to hire them to the top of Moses Mountain or Mt Sinai

The Monastery from the other side, I hiked up about 500' to get this photo

Back at the Hotel, similar Mountains surround the area

Photos taken from the bus on the way there, get a view of what the desert looks like and also the mountains of Sinai

Desert is changing

Bedouin Village

See the tents and notice the long hill.

Desert

The Sinai Mountains are starting to show their magnitude and crevaces.

Entering the valley and entrance area of Saint Catherines Monastery. This was the tomb of someone of significance

Mamdoh, our guide with the "Official Sinai Bedouin Guide" 

He took us to the top of Mount Sinai and on top of that had to deal with a special situation.......

The initial pathway, this is as good as it gets and it gets smaller, more steep and irregular the higher you get.

Photo taken by Amir of the group hiking.  Camels for support in case you need one and we did.

Very good service we got !

2 of us took camels right from the start, it was great as you could see it all and did not have to look at the path 90% of the time, I am glad I took the Camel, it was 90 LE or $18 buks, priceless. Great camels too.

Photo by Amir and Tamkeen

Looking back, see Saint Catherine's Monastery. Its a nice day about 20 degrees.

Elevation roughly 3000 ft

Half way up, photo taken from camel, moving, blurry,  looking back where we came from. Some of the drop offs on side of the path are scary !

3/4 of the way up.

You can see our group hiking on the path below. Lucky me on the camel

  Approx 6000 ft

Approx a bit more than 3/4 of the way up, see the paths and change of stone colours to more red.. Approx 7000 ft

When having the Camel you get to see all the scenery, when hiking your looking at your feet, sowwy, Camel was worth it ! Huge :)

The camel landing, small store there, approx 8500 ft. This is the spot where you get off the camel if you have taken one.

700 steps are left.

I say way more than 700! 

A good photo of my camel's face, he barely even broke a sweat till near the end.

I tipped the camel master 50 LE ( Egypt pounds) approx $10, the fee was $85 LE for the trip.  Great Service and felt safe. Loved the camel.

The only trees or vegetation we saw on the hike and this is a famous spot.

Bedouin tribe live here, roughly 9000 ft

Too dark to get a good pic.

Bedouin Home approx 9500 ft

I am working on the camera to get some lighter pics before sunset, its getting dark quick, typical !

The last steps and they are super steep, some are over 2' each.  Its a challenge and the lungs are letting you know your almost 10,000 ft

The photo is blurry but all I got.

Top of Mount Sinai, one view point, the others are better.

View point, top of Mt Sinai

The sun is setting and its getting cold quick, about 4pm and 10 degrees.

It does not really sink in at first when you finally reach the top as the last part is challenging.

Top of Sinai, a burst of the last of light allowed for a photo with a bit more light.

This spot was breathtaking.

The Bedouins are very nice people and offer beverages and food if you need some.

We made it !! V got altitude sickness about 2/3 of the way up and then took a camel.

The last part we toughed it out to the summit !

What a great feeling, quite out of breath, we are over 10,000 ft ! Woo hoo !

Shan and Nan at Sunset, time to head down.  It gets dark so fast.

Yikes one our group Amanda twisted an ankle, our guide sent for a special camel and eventually took her down in the dark with Ashley leading with a small flashlight. Amazing emergency service !

Highest Point at the Church, hard to imagine building this. you can see endless mountains in all directions.

Sunset, this was the last photo I could take and what a good time to have the camera full, top of the world famous Moses Mountain !

Our group at the Hotel at Departure from Sinai on our way back to Cairo

Suez Canal Military Entrance

We are in a huge line up

A model of the canal. Stats are in the photo.

The Canal is amazing and another accomplishment that compliments the Egyptians

A photo in a building right on the African side of the canal showing images of various ages of the canal going back to the 1800's

1869 till now.

A great wall of images and facts. Have a look its well done.

Cairo Egypt

Entrance to the Citadel and Mohammad Ali Mosque

A huge complex and amazing history.

Domes of Mohammad Ali Mosque.

A very impressive structure upon arrival.

Courtyard

with fountain, note gold artwork.  It was not working on our visit but beautiful !

Tower and Fortress impressive walls.

A powerful ancient Military Head Quarters Site

Inside the Mosque there are tons of lights just over your head with the huge colorful domes above. Its Huge!

The domes were very beautiful with colourful artwork & stained glass windows. Each unique.

Huge Alibaster Colomn

Amazing !

The room of the Tomb with sarcophagus

Wood, Stone & Gold with geometric patterns

The coffin / sarcophagus

of Mohammed Ali

Near the exit, the view went for miles, shows Cairo pollution, it was about 30 degrees.

Mosque of Sultan Hasan left

Al-Rafaii Mosque right

Photo taken from Citadel