Following our two nights on the Felucca we visited two more amazing sites, Kom Ombo and Edfu, after which we checked into a hotel and then it was right back into the whole temple sight seeing thing, with Luxor and Karnak temples.

Karnak is much more than just a temple - it is a mind-boggling spectacular complex of buildings, obelisks, sanctuaries and Pylons. It has been added to, used and decorated by different Pharaoh's and cultures and covers a massive area of 1.2sq km.! Photos could not begin to give a feel for the size of Karnak or even Luxor temple.

The next day it was an early start for the well known Valley of the Kings where over 60 tombs have been excavated and work continues. These tombs were only relatively recently re-discovered by the Western world, though they had been robbed previously in times past. 

All except Tutankhamen's that is, which was found fully intact in 1922. All the treasure from his tomb we saw in the Museum in Cairo - which is still a kind of grave robbing? It would have been so good to see the treasures IN the tombs! However the art work and decorations to these tombs were amazing and well worth the climbing up and down to see them. 

Miscommunication between our group and our guide Hany caused us to be lost among the thousands of tourists for an hour or so, but when we were eventually reunited we travelled onto the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which is quite notorious for all the wrong reasons. In 1997 a massacre took place of 58 tourists visiting the site. Terrorists stood on the cliffs above the temple and machine gunned the defenseless tourists. It was a sad day for Egyptian tourism and it is still recovering. The site however is well worth the visit, being quite a different set up to the other temples. The story is also fascinating given that Queen Hatshepsut masqueraded as a man to achieve the status as the only female to be buried in the Valley of the Kings.

Our sight seeing of the Nile and its treasures and monuments came to an end and we boarded a bus for the Red Sea town of Hurghada.  

Footnote: Karnak Temple features in the book Unforgettable Places to See before you die, Ancient Thebes With Its Necropolis (Valley Of The Kings) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.