Crossing the Nile on A Boat, Luxor | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 49) 05D19

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Boat Ride on The Nile, Egypt | Bus to Red Sea Resort Town Hurghada

After finishing lunch at Africa, we started walking towards the ferry dock. We only walked a couple of blocks to reach our ferry boat. It was a hot day, but it was pleasant to walk on the street of the West Bank of Luxor.

The West Bank side looked more rural than the East Bank, but it had its charm. The ferry boat landing site was nothing fancy; there were lots of motor boats waiting for passengers to cross the Nile. We headed towards our designated boat arranged by our tour company.

The motorized boat “Hercules” had shades, but it was open on all sides. It could accommodate 15-20 people and the boat driver looked too young to be doing the job. There was Arabic rap music playing loudly, but later he turned it off when boat took off.

From where I sat, I could touch the water and put my camera low to where it was almost touching the water for different angles. There were lots of other boats crossing the Nile. A little farther away, we saw lots smoke coming out of one boat. It looked like the boat was on fire, but I didn’t see people panicking on the boat, which made me think it must have been something else besides fire.

The short boat ride was pleasant. Once we reached the East Bank, we had to walk a little bit up to reach the bus. This side looked much more developed than the West Bank. I didn’t see any planned waterfront area with paved roads, coffee shops, and shopping complexes on the West Side, but the East Side waterfront area looked modern and nice.

The East Bank is where it’s more city centric and where the fancy international hotels and restaurants are located. The West Bank is more laid back and relaxing, with smaller local places and Egyptian restaurants.  

We would board our bus shortly.

Africa Restaurant in Luxor, Egypt | Exploring the Most Distinctive Temple in Egypt

Lunch in Africa, Luxor | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 48) 05D19

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Our tour guide brought us to a restaurant called Africa for lunch. It looked like a big restaurant and we had to go two floors up, taking the stairs. I noticed artwork on the walls and on the ceiling near the stairs. I couldn’t figure out what was on the ceiling on the main floor near the entrance door, but it looked like a replica of mashed bread or possibly rough mountains.

The 3rd floor was huge. There were many people eating and waiters running around to serve them. There were long rows of tables and chairs to allow tour groups to sit together. It looked like tourists were the main customers, brought over by tour guides to this hotel no doubt.

The 3rd floor was an open-air situation with a roof made of tin and canvas. The best part was the view of the Nile and the street down below. It didn’t feel hot due to the wind blowing through.

We ordered a mixture of items and shared everything. There was soup in clay bowls, bread, vegetables, kebab, grilled chicken, fried eggplant, regular rice, fried rice, and much more. Whatever I tried tasted too delicious and I wanted to eat more and more. I also tried Egyptian-bottled Coke and that tasted good too.

They refilled items without extra charges. It was possibly one of my best Egyptian food experiences. The service was excellent as well.

One of my tour mates found a hidden menu somehow and we found out that they had two separate menus: one for tourists and one for locals. Yes, the tourist menu had much higher prices than the local. It was understandable that they wanted more money off tourists and they possibly pay our tour company a commission for bringing us here, but some of our tour mates got mad upon finding these overpriced menus for us. Still, I found it cheaper than other Egyptian restaurants we had tried.

From here we would walk to the dock to take a boat across the Nile and head towards Hurghada - a beach resort town along Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

The Temple Of Hatshepsut At Deir El-Bahri| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 47) 05D19

Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt | Exploring the Most Distinctive Temple in Egypt

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

The Temple of Hatshepsut At Deir El-Bahri sits at the foot of the mountains. The first thing I noticed from afar is its structure. It’s a three-storey temple stretching long to the left and right sides, but not too wide.

Unlike other temples that were built of sandstone, The Temple of Hatshepsut was made of limestone. There were three terraces. It was a good walk to reach the site and then the sloping ramp to reach the upper level drained our energy.

Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh, but she was pictorially represented as a male. I saw lots of big statues of Osiris on both sides. There were lots of columns inside the temples along with the usual reliefs, sculptures, art-works, and so on.

The Hatshepsut At Deir El-Bahri temple is astronomically aligned in such a way that around the 21st or 22nd of December each year the sunlight first illuminates the god Amun-Ra and then shines on the kneeling figure of Thutmose III, and finally illuminating the Nile god Hapi. There were many other amazing aspects of this event the guide explained; this is just a very brief summary.

Another striking thing I noticed was that the mountain cliffs were so steep behind the temple that it felt like the mountains would fall on it any moment. I had a feeling it was made this way, so people in the ancient times felt like the Gods would stop the mountains from falling on this place.

From the top terrace of the temple, you get to see elevated views of the surroundings, with mountains stretching as far as you can see.

From here, we would go to a restaurant for lunch.

The Valley of The Kings: The Royal Burial Site That Was the Gateway to the Afterlife | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 47) 05D19

The Valley of The Kings in Luxor, Egypt | Exploring the World’s Most Famous Tombs

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

The three tombs suggested by our tour guide and most of our tour mates decided to visit together were:

KV11 – Ramses III

KV2 – Ramses IV

KV8 – Merenptah

I will briefly describe these 3 tombs here.

KV11 – Ramses III

The tomb of Ramses III is the largest tombs. To get inside, you have to go through many long passageways. They are not too steep but involve a lot of walking.

Everywhere, including the ceiling, you would see detailed artwork. There is also a burial chamber. This tomb has a lot to see and would take some time if you go through each section.

KV2 – Ramses IV

The tomb of Ramses IV is not a huge tomb, but a pretty one. The downward entrance consists of three slowly descending corridors. The construction here was simpler compared to other tombs and was cut short at 89 m, upon the early death of the pharaoh.

Still, there is a lot to see here and it is totally awe-inspiring. The preservation was spectacular and makes it hard to believe these artworks were made thousands of years ago.

KV8 – Merenptah

This tomb involves a downhill walk through steep, declining passageways of stairs. Some of the walls were barren and had no artwork. There was a large burial chamber, but the mummy was not there. The mummy of Marenptah is in an Egyptian museum in Cairo.

I found KV8 – Merenptah not too colorful and kind of black and white. Everyone has a hard time exiting this tomb due to the sharp ascending stairs back to the ground level.

Each tomb is unique and different, but they all have some things in common. All of them painstakingly designed and meticulously crafted with carvings, reliefs, and paintings. The colorful and hard-to-believe artworks fill the walls, corridors, side rooms, antechambers, final burial chambers, sarcophaguses, ceilings, and basically everywhere.

I couldn’t fathom how they built things like these so many years ago when there was no electricity or motors. No prefab colors, no technological advancement; it was almost like they had nothing.

Our next stop would be Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari.

The Valley of The Kings: The Royal Burial Site Was the Gateway to the Afterlife | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 46) 05D19

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

The Valley of The Kings in Luxor, Egypt | Exploring the World’s Most Famous Tombs

Once we arrived at the Valley of the Kings, we had to go through checking and X-ray scanners. Every day, at most of the sites we visited, we had to pass scanners.

It was quite a walk from the main entrance to the Valley of the Kings, so we opted for a short, 5-minute trolley ride. For those adventurous types that wanted to walk, the option was there, but it would be an enormous pain to walk that far in the desert sun and sweltering heat.

We were warned before by our guide not to give any money if our trolley drivers asked for it. By then, we were used to this norm, so we dealt with it without giving any money to anyone.

After getting close to the Valley of the Kings, there were shelters where we all gathered to start our journey into the underground tombs. We heard a police officer was going to each group and asking if someone lost money. What happened was while passing through the scanners, someone set aside a stack of cash and forgot to take it, so the police were looking for the owner to return the money.

There were many tombs in the Valley of the Kings. I heard there were 63 and more were getting discovered. Our tour included visits to 3 of the 8 tombs. If we wanted to visit more tombs, we had to pay more.

Our whole team decided to visit the 3 tombs below and our guide would accompany us to each of them. If someone wanted to see anything else besides these 3, they were free to go on their own. I decided to stay with my team and see only these 3 suggested by our guide.

KV11 – Ramses III

KV2 – Ramses IV

KV8 – Merenptah