Itinerary

1. Habu Temples, Deir el-Medina, and Valley of the Queens

   • At 7:00 am, get picked up from your hotel or Nile Cruise in Luxor by a tour guide. Then, you will be transferred by a private A/C vehicle to the West Bank of the Nile, where you will visit Medinat Habu. It is an archaeological locality located near the foot of the Theban Hills on the West Bank of the River Nile, opposite the modern city of Luxor, Egypt. Although other structures are located within the area, the location is today associated almost exclusively with the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. The temple, some 150m long, is of orthodox design and closely resembles the mortuary temple of Ramesses II (the Ramesseum). It is well-preserved and surrounded by a massive mud-brick enclosure, which may have been fortified. The original entrance is through a fortified gatehouse known as a migdol (and resembling an Asiatic fortress). At least its French form, Rhamesséion, was coined by Jean-François Champollion, who visited the site's ruins in 1829 and first identified the hieroglyphs making up Ramesses's names and titles on the walls. It was originally called the House of millions of years of Usermaatra-steepen that unites with Thebes-the-city in the domain of Amon.
   • Also, you can visit some other tents inside Habu Temple, such as the Temple of Amun, dating to the 18th dynasty, built by Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. It has undergone many alterations and modifications, partially in the 20th, 25th, 26th, 29th, and 30th dynasties and the Greco-Roman period.
   • Then, continue your day tour to Deir el-Medina, the Valley of the Worker. Deir el-Medina is an ancient Egyptian village home to the artists who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th dynasties of the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550-1080 BC). The paintings appear so fresh.
   • End your day tour with a visit to the Valley of the Queens. It's a place where the forests of Pharaohs were buried in ancient times. In ancient times, it was known as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning - "the place of the Children of the Pharaoh" because, along with the Queens of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties (1550-1070 BCE), many princes and princesses were also buried with various members of the nobility. The tombs of these individuals were maintained by mortuary practices who performed daily rituals and provided offerings and prayers for the false nobility. The valley is located near the better-known Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile across from Thebes (modern Luxor). This barren area in the western hills was chosen due to its relative isolation and prosperity to the capital. The kings of the 18th dynasty, instead of building pyramids as traditional burial chambers (due to their vulnerability to tomb robbers), now chose to be interred in rock-cut tombs to preserve them, possibly as they could from tomb robbers.