Unique Places in Luxor

Luxor —the city— is the world's greatest open air museum.

Ancient Greek poet Homer described it as "Thebes of the hundred gates". Luxor —the name— was derived from the Arabic word "al-qusoor" i.e. "the palaces".

Take a better taste, and go little bit higher to explore more.

About Cost? It is a bit less than one air ticket!

In Luxor's Bazaar I found a store that was selling CDs with Egyptian music.
Our tour leader recommended me a compilation of the most famous Egyptian singer Hakim.
I paid something like USD 5-6 for the CD.
Now, back home, I must admit that it the perfect way to remember the days spent in Egypt.

Definitely get a bicycle for at least one day! You don't get hassled by all the horse drawn carriages and street-sellers and its all flat so you can travel a long way quickly and cheaply. It also gives you the opportunity to venture into the small villages surrounding Luxor. This is what we did and actually came across a little shop in one of the villages where we didn't have to haggle for our coke and chips etc and paid the real price!! Quite a relief after 2 weeks of arguing over the price of a loaf of bread (usually 3-5 times the correct price is what they'll try to sell it to you in Luxor). We met these young boys while riding around the back of Karnak temple and they gave us sugar cane in return for a pen. They also asked us for money (baksheesh) Please don't give the children money unless you feel you REALLY have to as they begin to see tourists as money for nothing and you just make the situation worse for those to follow after you.

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The valley of the Nile is crossed by numerous channels which take water from the river. Owing to this the width of the valley has several kilometers. Where channels are not present, the desert comes closely up to the river. Unfortunately, banks of channels are dirty enough.

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Dendera Temple is not that far off the beaten track, but many first time visitors to Egypt miss it. It is DEFINITELY worth a visit. It can be done as a very long day trip via the Lotus Boat or combined with the temple of Abydos and done by road.

Will add more info...but in the interim, please enjoy the photos!

When we had Felucca ride we saw how local fishermen are drawing toils.
For me it was really surprising - i know that water of the River Nile is very impure, and think, that there isn't possible to get some fish :-) But i was wrong.... ;-)
The view was really interesting!

But we shouldn't forget our guides! Yes, these two guys were our guides. The one on the right is Vladan, our tourist guide, and the one on the right is Ahmed, a local guy. Very nice and very young

Why did I put this as a tip? Simply because people usualy don't have fun with their guides on travels, unless they are having a friend as a guide. So this is definitly an "Off the beatten path" tip by all means.

Said to be the larger than Karnak, the funerary complex of Amenhotep III had been reduced to two giant statues - officially called Colossi of Memnon - that stand forlorn near the entrance to the Valley of Kings. This is what most tourists first see on their way to visit the intricately-designed funerary complexes of the Theban pharaohs. Inundation of the Nile over hundreds of years had been the primary culprit behind the destruction of Amenhotep III's giant funerary complex.

The monument, housed in white sandstone with gold throughout and floor covered with silver and doors with electrum, would have been a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs. It was during Amenhotep III's reign that Egyptian culture and power reached its zenith. Among other achievements, it was him who built Luxor Temple.

Over the centuries, hundreds of statues and other artifacts were not only destroyed by the flooding of the Nile. Some monuments were vandalized by other pharaohs, and some moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Many others had found their way to the British Museum and in Turin, etc.

Sadly, only the two colossi remain of this once magnificent monument, and the whole place had been reduced to a minor tourist attraction whose only value is to provide tourists with a short photo op session on their way to the Valley of Kings.