Luxor West Bank Full Day: Valley of the Kings & Hatshepsut

The West Bank is where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom chose to be buried, and a full day lets you see it without rushing. We collect you from your hotel, cross the Nile and stop first at the Colossi of Memnon: two seated statues of Amenhotep III, nearly 18 metres high, that once guarded his long-vanished mortuary temple.

In the Valley of the Kings, your Egyptologist guide helps you choose three tombs from those open that day, corridors cut deep into the hillside and painted with gods, stars and spells to guide the king through the underworld. With more time than a half-day tour allows, you can add an optional ticket for Tutankhamun's tomb or another special tomb without feeling hurried.

Then on to Deir el-Bahari, where the temple of Queen Hatshepsut rises in three broad terraces against a wall of golden cliffs. Your guide reads the reliefs with you, from the trading expedition to the land of Punt to the images her successor tried to erase. After about eight hours you're back at your hotel on the East Bank.