Touring Luxor's Ramesseum, The Tombs of the Nobles, Hatshepsut and The Temple of Seti I - Egypt.

Ancient Egypt locations toured were The Ramesseum, the excellent Tombs of the Nobles, the imposing Hatshepsut and finally the less visited but extremely interesting Temple of Seti I.

Just for a change we decided to cross The River Nile by one of the small ferrys rather than use the Workers Ferry. As you get to the ferry terminal usually several boat-owners will approach you and ask if you would like to use their ferry - and tell you it's cheaper. This is not the case of course since the Workers Ferry costs 4LE each whilst the small boat owners will quote anywhere between 10 and 30LE. We expected to pay 10LE for the crossing for the two of us which was always accepted after a brief discussion. Remember to ask to be taken to near the Worker's Ferry terminal - not the Tourist Ferry terminal since the latter is quite isolated and when we walked round there we saw no sign of taxis. Once across the river just go to the left where there is a car park with taxis available for hire. A trip up to the Main Ticket Office should cost around 20 to 25LE or so although expect initially to be asked for anything around 40 to 50LE. Tickets to get entry to the Ramesseum 20LE each, the Tombs of the Nobles 20LE each for 2 Tombs - (there were 8 Tombs available/open to visit and you have to say which ones you require) and the Temple of Seti I 20LE each are obtained here whilst Hatshepsut has it's own ticket office - entry 21LE each including a short train ride.

Your taxi driver will agree a price to take you to all the sites and wait whilst you visit each however we prefer to walk between sites so that is how we have described our trip. Also of course these prices above were all relevant to our time in Luxor and will almost certainly have risen with inflation etc. but they may help as guidance on what to expect. From the Ticket Office walk back to the road junction and carry straight on along the road which is marked "Ramesseum", a village is on the hills to the left and you pass several sites containing ruins to the right. A little way along the road there are several tracks/paths leading into the village and often you can see coaches parked - this is the way into the Valley of the Nobles.
The Ramesseum can now be seen on the right - walk on to the next road junction and turn right to walk on down to the entrance gate. You will be approached to see if you wish to have a guide however as usual we preferred to just wander around the site on our own.

Below are a series of photos from the Ramesseum.

Remains of Second Pylon	RamsesII Feet from his statue	Toppled statue of RamsesII	Rameses II	Columns of Osiris	Vestibule Gallery
Hypostyle Hall	Beautifully painted Columns and Roof	Wall Releifs	Vaulted mud brick chambers of the Storerooms	Vaulted mud brick chambers of the Storerooms	Vaulted mud brick chambers of the Storerooms

From the Ramesseum head back to the road then turn left and almost immediately head across the waste ground towards the village. You are soon approached by someone who will offer to show you around and take you to the Tombs - this is in fact a good idea because the way is not that clear through the village from this direction.

We agreed to be shown round by a 15 year old boy - who said we could pay him once we had been shown round whatever we thought appropriate. He was an excellent guide - he suggested we initially skip the tombs because several coach parties were around - instead he took us up into the hills and showed us various things of interest including the BBC set which was built for the series "Egypt" about Carter and Champollion.
 
We looked at several more isolated tombs and we also climbed up to some excellent view points of Hatshepsut and the Ramesseum etc. He also showed us how the colours were produced for the tomb drawings - various small rocks when brocken had some really vivid and different colours inside - just a little crushing and they turned into powder ready for mixing.

The first three photographs are from the Tomb of Menna and the second bottom three are from the Tomb of Sennefer - you enter the Tomb by walking down a fairly long and quite steep set of steps. Finally we walked back to the Noble's tomb area - there is a small cafe here for coffee or soft drinks etc. The area we visited is known as Shaykh Abd Al-Qurna and here we visited TT52 The Tomb of Nakht, TT69 The Tomb of Menna, TT96 The Tomb of Sennefer and TT100 The Tomb of Rekhmire. Every one of these tombs can only be described as totally excellent - the drawings were incredible and really were the best we saw whilst at Luxor.

After visiting the Tombs our next destination was Hatshepsut - so our guide then took us back through the village and over the hills - passing the replica of Carter's house and also some Roman ruins - to the Hatshepsut Ticket Office.
This is where we said goodbye to him - he was really good value and an excellent guide - his name was Schweppe (sounds like that but is almost probably not spelt this way..) and we were happy to give him 100LE with which he was delighted. Hatshepsut in our opinion was more impressive from an external point of view as opposed to what was actually within - it does have really nice steps and columns but the drawings were not in such a good condition compared with other temples like Karnak or Habu. Also when we visited we could not go right into the Upper Terrace since this was closed off as were the ruins of the Temple of Nebhepetra-Mentuhetep which was disappointing.

From Hatshepsut head down the tarmac road however just as the road bends left and immediately after passing a small building and shop on the right, turn right onto a track and cross the open ground to another road - there are alabaster shops to the right. Turn left and almost immediately take a track going off to the right heading towards trees and soon passing a small shop and houses. Follow the track as it bends left in front of the trees and shortly comes out by the rear of Seti Temple. Turn left following the outer wall of the Temple now on your right and carry on round the site to find the entrance to the Temple.

Seti Temple water system	Seti Temple Portico	Well + water pipes - Seti Temple	Seti Temple	Wall Releif - a Ram's Head
Hypostyle Hall	Hypostyle Hall ceiling paintings	Wall Releifs - Rameses II and Amen Ra	Ancient Magazines	Portico with the magazines in front

Having looked round the Temple we crossed the road and caught an arabaya (local bus) back to the Workers Ferry terminal - the bus fare was 5LE for us both. Using the bus was quite an experience in itself - at one time during our ride six fully armed police got in for a short while, and then when they got off we were just down to about 10 of us inside and 4 people hanging off the back - bear in mind these arabayas are about the size of a pick-up truck. Once you are successfully back to the Nile you can then chose to either take the worker's ferry or have a trip back on one of the small boats.

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Further related information: The following travel books may be of great benefit if travelling and touring around Egypt's Ancient Sites - Egypt Rough Guide  Egypt Insight Guide  Egypt Eyewitness Guide  Egypt Lonely Planet

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