2 Day Private Luxor Tour from Safaga Port with Egyptologist

You arrive in Luxor after the desert drive and step into Karnak, where a forest of 134 sandstone columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall rises above you, some standing 21 meters tall. Your Egyptologist walks you through 2,000 years of pharaohs who each added to the site, from the sacred lake to the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes. The evening is yours at a 5-star hotel with breakfast included.

Nearby you visit Luxor Temple, the elegant riverside temple linked to Karnak by the avenue of sphinxes and beautifully floodlit at dusk.

Morning crosses the Nile to the West Bank, the land of the dead for ancient Thebes. In the Valley of the Kings you step into royal tombs cut deep into the rock, their ceilings still holding original color after 3,000 years. The standard ticket covers three tombs; the Tutankhamun and Seti I tombs need separate tickets (about $5 to $25 USD).

You stand beneath the terraces of Hatshepsut's temple, built for Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh.

Pause at the Colossi of Memnon, two 18-meter guardians of a temple now gone. Lunch is at a local restaurant before the drive back to Safaga in time to board.