Valley of the Kings, Luxor

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Look out for balloon ride offers in June 2008, we paid £30 each for a sunrise trip, I know that sounds hard to believe but that was offered to us by our local tour rep.......we didn,t even have to barter at that price...........wow....sod the euro get to Egypt.
(PLEASE NOTE: Since this review I do not think you will see this value again, 2009 onwards,since a small accident required a review of all balloon operators and their training, you might say that prices have ballooned!!), apologies pardon the pun.

This is where I got arrested by the tourist police!

The third and final tomb that Anne and I visited was the tomb of Thutmoses III. We were told to visit this tomb last as it is the most impressive tomb in all of the Valley of the Kings!

Well, let me tell you, this tomb is the most amazing place that I have seen! The tunnel is very steep, and the walk out is very arduous, but it is well worth every bit of effort.

The hieroglyphics were truly spectacular and the variety was magnificent. The biggest surprise was right at the very end of the tunnel, a very large and impressive granite sarcophagus was located in the burial chamber. The burial chamber was adorned with murals showing the boat that would take the Pharaoh across the night sky and slaves tending to the Pharaoh.

As there was only a few people around I decided to take a photo. As I did, a guard appeared out of the shadows and grabbed my camera! He radioed for the tourist police and I was arrested for taking photos in the tomb.

After I was escorted from the tomb I was taken to the “Police Office” where other tourists were in a state of panic or distress as they had been arrested for the same thing…in the same tomb! The trick is, they allow you to bribe the guards and then they take your camera. They then attempt to get a bribe of 50 Egyptian Pound per photo or they will take your camera and send you to court! Most people pay, I argued for over an hour and it cost me 75 Egyptian Pound to get off…a huge saving as I had 35 photos inside the tombs!

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The second tomb that Anne and I decided to visit was the tomb of Ramses VI.

The tunnel was short but the air was nice and cool. It seemed as though every square inch of wall was covered in some form of relief, carving or hieroglyphics but it was the 4 headless slaves that had their arms bound behind their backs that caught my attention.

I asked the guard what it meant and he told me that the heads were not shown so that the slaves would not have any afterlife.

Once again, I asked the guide if I could take some photos and he said, “10 Pound per photo!” I gave him 10 Egyptian pounds and took the photo.

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Anne and I purchased a 3 tomb pass at the Valley of the Kings. This allowed us access to any three tombs, excluding the tomb of Tutankhamun (Tomb number 62.)

We chose the tomb of Ramses I as our first choice.

One thing you learn very quickly in Egypt is that “most” of the guards, guides and tourist police are open to bribery. In fact, it seems to part of their every day life. You can offer a bribe for most “access” or “photographic” issues and the worst that can happen is that you are met with a polite “no.”.....How do you think I got these photographs!!!!

These two photographs were taken because I bribed the guard with 5 egyptian pounds!

The Valley of the Kings is located on the West Bank of the Nile River in Luxor. From your hotel you can book a tour which will include a boat ride across the Nile and transport to and from the Valley of the Kings. You can choose from cars, busses, donkeys, camels or a combination of two.

The entry fee into the Valley of the Kings, for a three tomb pass, is 80 Egyptian pounds. This fee does not include the tomb of Tutankhamun (Tomb number 62.) If you wish to visit the tomb you must pay for an additional ticket of 120 Egyptian Pounds.

I went to the tourist office and asked for balloon companies. I called them and asked each direct for the price (hotel price is higher as they add commission.) Eventually we went with Viking (after hearing from my hotel that it is a prestige company and price normally at LE300 per person). We were a group of 7 (just met in Luxor) so we were able to get the price down to LE225 per person.
As MikeySoft mentions, the price includes transpportation, snacks, a certificate and a t-shirt.
The flight will be on top of the west bank but as I saw that day, no balloons flew over the VOTK.

The real treasures here are the tombs themselves! This is the Valley of the Kings, but note that there is also a Valley of the Queens (I actually saw the Valley of the Queens first before the Kings).

Some are tombs are still under excavation, but looting has desecrated a lot of the tombs. Of course, the most memorable for me is the tomb of King Tut as I have seen movies and documentaries about this tomb several times before. It's like you can still feel the presence of Howard Carter who discovered it. I should have worn khakis to really get into the mood....hehehe

There is an eerie feeling with every tomb you enter as they were built to resemble the Underworld. The name of the Pharaoh for whom the tomb was built is marked well, but you need a really good memory to remember them all!

Be sure to go to the spectacular tomb of Ramses VI --- the wall and ceiling paintings are spectacular! As for the others, I can't remember whose tomb it was, but just be aware that each tomb looks so different and sizes also differ. Actually, Tut's Tomb was very small compared to others and there was a small fee to enter it because of the number of people who want to go in.

If you prefer travelling independently to the Valley of the Kings rather than as one of a tour party then you can try the approach we adopted.

I reckoned it would be easy to find a taxi driver to take us and sure enough within minutes of appearing on the Corniche we were approached by a man who could help us.
He took us across the Nile on a small boat where we were shown an air conditioned car but which would have been too small for all five of us. We were next offered an older, larger but more 'seasoned' car whose driver spoke reasonable English. We negotiated a price after explaining where we wanted to go and which seemed reasonable to us. ( I think we paid LE£300 for the day - almost certainly over the odds but that price seemed OK for five of us for the day).

The driver, Mohammed, had a good sense of humour ( most of the Egyptians seemed to enjoy a joke) and he showed us the car's air conditioning - the window handle - which he kept on the dashboard!

The car was fine and it didn't take long to drive up to the entrance of the Valley of the Kings. Mohammed explained he had to drop us off a short distance from the front gate which again was fine so we made our way through the reception area which had a display of the Valley. I had to buy our entrance tickets from a row of booths. There was no negotiation over the prices but I wished we'd obtained student cards for all of our children. The fee was LE£50 for adults but my 14 year old daughter was half price; our two older boys were considered as adults.

Waving our tickets we did have to be 'assertive' to find our way onto the small land train which takes the visitors the 200 yards up into the valley, dropping off beneath the rest area.

See my other tips for what to do and see in the Valley. Remember to take a hat and some water as it gets really hot up there.

Having been amazed and astonished at the work of the ancients we made our way back to the taxi. We had told him we would be at least 2 hours but were longer. He didn't mind.

Part II follows under the heading The Temple of Hatshepsut.