Meet your guide at your Hurghada hotel, and enjoy sweeping views of the Sahara Desert during the long drive to Luxor, whose sites sprawl across both banks of the Nile River. Start exploring in the Valley of the Kings, where kings and noblemen created elaborate tombs for 500 years, each striving to outdo the others.
Learn the legends and stories behind the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the rumored “curse of the pharaohs,” then hear about a pair of recent finds. Visit the final resting place of Hatshepsut, Egypt’s first woman pharaoh, and stroll the shady arcades of her stunning temple, which is set at the base of soaring cliffs. Stand at the base of the Colossi of Memnon, then cross the Nile to the Karnak Temple Complex, a sprawling open-air museum and religious site. Follow dramatic stories of ancient life on intricate friezes, visit a sacred, ceremonial lake and walk between aisles of fierce sphinxes that guard the temple entrance. Finish the day by watching the sunset over the desert during the return trip to Hurghada.
