EXPLORE THE TOURIST HIGHLIGHTS
The “Nile House”-Team offers a lot of holiday activities and other services:
- We arrange visits of all the tourist highlights in and around Luxor and of all the other places of pharaonic origin.
- You also can book trips to the interesting places outside of Luxor: Edfu, Kom Ombo, El Kab, Abydos, Aswan, Abu Simbel etc.
- We organize all kind of transfers by bus or car: within Luxor and the Westbank, to and from the Airport, to or from Aswan, Edfu, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, El Quseir etc.
- We offer also a lot of other unique activities such as very interesting walking-, biking- or donkey-trips through the landscape, the mountains and the villages, ballooning, visits of local markets, or romantic sailing tours on the Nile. All these trips will take you very close to the “normal” Egyptian life. And we also can bring you in touch with the work of some social and humanitarian charities, working for the sake of poor people and the education of the youth and the women.
Please read about these special activities and get inspired… And then just ask us!
Your “Nile House”-Team!
El Kab and the rock paintings-Tour
This tour, by car, leads you along the Nile to the south. After one and a half hour ride you will reach EL Kab, the former Hierankopolis, one of the most important cities in pharaonic times.
There you will visit some very interesting tombs, and after this you’ll walk to two small but nevertheless impressive temples, one of them built by Amenophis III far out in the desert. The way from the tombs to the last temple is about 4 kilometers long, but it is an easy walk through impressive landscape.
On the way to the last temple you will find something absolutely unique: a huge rock overfilled with prehistoric paintings, plus a lot of other graffiti from later pharaonic periods. It indicates that settlers came to the area of El Kab many thousands of years ago and that the area was very important in the past. The whole place is not much visited so you will hardly find other visitors.
After the end of the visit, the car will bring you back to Luxor. This tour lasts all day.
Deir el Medina – Ramesseum Walk
You will start this tour from the ticket office. After 10 minutes you reach Deir el Medina – the village of the workmen. There you visit two wonderful small tombs with a lot of scenes depicting life thousands of years ago, the ancient village itself and the small Ptolemaic temple.
Then you walk through a very impressive valley with a breathtaking panorama. This valley is called the “valley of the colors” because most of the natural colors used for the pharaonic tomb paintings were found here.
You walk further to the Tombs of the Nobles. If you wish, you can visit two of the very impressive tombs on your way. After this you continue your way to see the wonderful Ramesseum, the fabulous temple of Ramses II with the huge broken statue of the famous pharaoh and the wonderful wall decoration.
Tired from all the new impressions, you can have a relaxing break in the Ramesseum Coffee Shop and after this return to “Nile House” or continue other activities. The complete tour lasts around 4 hours and everybody can do the walk easily. The transportation will bring you to the Ticket office and back from the Ramesseum. The tour will be guided.
Medinet Habu and the Coptic Monastery
You’ll begin the trip with a visit of the Medinet Habu-temple, built by famous Ramses III. Medinet Habu is one of the most impressive and biggest temples in all Luxor with an enormous richness of wall decoration and huge pillars.
After the visit, you’ll walk to the Coptic Monastery in the desert, some 20 minutes’ walk away. This monastery was founded in the third Century AC. Visit the very old mud brick church and see also the tomb of the most famous Egyptian Egyptologist Labib Habachi who is buried at this place. You also can buy some of the famous monastery-honey or some candles, handmade by the nuns who live and work in this monastery today.
From the monastery you’ll walk back to the Medinet Habu area and can take a relaxing break in one of the nice coffee shops and restaurants there. From there you will get picked up by the taxi again. On the way back to “Nile House” you can stop at the “Caravanserai”, which is a very nice shop, offering a lot of unique handicraft work from all over Egypt. The tour will last around 4 hours and will be guided.
As an alternative to taxi-transportation you can also do the complete tour by bicycle, starting from “Nile House”.
The Western valley walk and Carter House
This tour starts at the Visitor’s Center in the Valley of the Kings. You will be brought by taxi and then walk – away from the crowded Valley of the Kings- into the very silent and impressive Western Valley or “The valley of the Monkeys” as it is also named. Normally you will be all alone in wonderful natural surroundings because not many tourists come here.
After some half hour relaxing walk to the end of this beautiful valley, you will find the nice Tomb of the Pharaoh Ai, the king who followed Tut Ankh Amun, and you will understand why the valley also has the name “Valley of the Monkeys”…The tomb has a lot of secrets; one of them says, that it was first built for famous Tut Ankh Amun himself, but…
After visiting the tomb you’ll walk back and you can take your time to search for a nice stone as a souvenir or just enjoy the breathtaking view of the mountains. Back at the Visitor’s center the taxi will pick you up and take you to the famous “Carter House”. You can visit the house where the famous Howard Carter lived and worked while excavating the tomb of Tut Ankh Amun and afterwards take a relaxing break in the very nice Carter”s Café. From there the taxi takes you back to “Nile House” or you can continue your day with other visits. The tour will be guided and will last 3 to 4 hours.
Along the Nile and through the villages
This nice, relaxing walk starts at “Nile House” and leads you along the river Nile through a quiet and peaceful area. You see a lot of different birds, typical to the area and encounter local people working in the fields. You will discover what is farmed here and how the thousands of years old watering system works.
The walk then leads you through the village of El Ezba. While walking through this small village, you will see the “normal” life and work of the Egyptian people in the villages. For example watch the women baking the famous and superb tasting “sun bread” in old mud brick-ovens. And maybe you will get one of the oven fresh breads as a gift… In El Ezba you can get a coffee or tea or cold drink in one of the coffee shops and watch everyday life going on around you.
From the village of El Ezba you will go back to El Gezira and to your “Nile House” by one of the normal public collective cars when you will feel the friendliness of the Egyptian people joining you in the same car. The whole walk takes around 3 to 4 hours and can easily be done by everyone. The tour will be guided.
GALLERY
