Embracing the Valley of the Kings

Your hotel will probably be in Luxor, on the east bank of the Nile, as this is where the hotel trade is concentrated. But there are also a few hotels on the west bank, on the road that leads to the very sites you have come to visit (Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut's funerary temple, Valley of the Nobles, the Colossi of Memnon, Medinat Habu, Valley of the Monkeys). Think about it to optimise your organisation.

If you are parked on the east bank, you have several options for crossing to the other side of the Nile. The most direct, of course, is to cross the river by ferry. It will cost you less than one euro (20 Egyptian pounds) and then you can board a minibus. If you opt for the minibus from your hotel, you won't be back for another 45 minutes, as it will have to make a diversion to cross the bridge, which is 8 kilometres from the city centre.

However, you may be tempted to take the easy way out: hire a minibus from your hotel with a package that includes the return journey and a guide. This will cost you around €11. You'll have to add to that the price of the pass to access the sites and a tip for the guide, but you'll have air conditioning! You'll need to get a Luxor Pass from the Antiquities Inspectorate Ticket Office, which is on the road and opens at 7am every morning. This pass gives you access to all the archaeological sites (with the exception of the tombs of Sethi I and Nefertari, in the Valley of the Queens) and to Luxor's museums.

You can also get there by bike. Most hotels hire them out. You'll have to leave before sunrise if you don't want to suffer from the heat, and you'll of course have to make the diversions to the south to find the bridge over the Nile. Make sure you have a pump. And make sure you have water and a hat.

Don't plan to go on foot.

The Valley of the Kings lies behind the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, around 500 metres to the west. The royal necropolis was founded in the 16th century BC and the monarchs' tombs were placed there for centuries.

Seen from the sky, the distribution of tombs and the road leading to them resembles a tree, with several tombs grouped together on the same branches, while the road leading to them crosses the desert. At the end of each branch is a tomb.

At the entrance, you are at the foot of the tree, and there is still a long way to go to reach the tombs. Shuttle buses in the form of two-car trains are waiting to take you there.

As the authorities have decided to rotate between tombs in an attempt to preserve them, you won't know which tombs can be visited on the day of your visit until you get there. There are around ten to choose from.

Among the most beautiful, enchanting and best preserved are the tombs of the pharaohs Ramses I, III and IX. The tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922, has been completely emptied of its contents, which can be seen at the Cairo Archaeological Museum. But a reconstruction can be seen in Luxor, in the house of Howard Carter, its inventor.

Signs provide information about each tomb, and guides tell their story to the groups they accompany. You can then go down into one of them if it's not too crowded (there are at least 4,000 visitors to the valley every day ). If you are lucky enough to visit one of these sites, take care not to touch any of the remains, bas-reliefs or pigments. Photography is prohibited.

In the tomb of Ramses I, the sumptuous staircase leads down to the burial chamber, which will delight you with the beauty of its bas-reliefs. The paintings depicting the king are very well preserved and the colours are still vivid. It's a moving experience. The pharaoh's pink granite sarcophagus is in the centre of the chamber.

In the tomb of Ramses III, the 125-metre-long staircase leading down into the cliff is also richly decorated.

Interestingly, the Valley of the Kings also contains the tomb (KV60) of Queen Hatshepsut's nurse, Sat-Ra. So it's not just pharaoh-kings and their wives who can be found here. And it was here that the mummy of the famous Queen Hatshepsut was discovered in 2007. - the mummy of the famous Queen Hatshepsut, who had been hidden there...