Visiting the Valley of the Kings......

Arriving  at the Valley of the Kings we found that we had to take a shuttle up the valley...

......as it was fairly hot even though still very early in the morning this transportation was quite welcome......

The area had lots of tombs.... not all are open to the public....

We got to see the interior of 4 tombs......but unfortunately were not allowed to take photos within!
They are impressive........ and fortunately some interiors are on YouTube!

We left here to move on to see the Temple of Hatshepsut....... this had looked small from the hot air balloon....

These figures were guarding the inner temple.....

Hatshepsut was a very interesting female Pharaoh...... she actually arranged to be buried in the Valley of the Kings..... her mummified body was found some years ago but not DNA'd until fairly recently! 

Continuing along the Nile to Luxor.....

Cruising on the Nile is slow......but our boat had plenty of relaxing areas where one could enjoy the scenery and boat movement on the river banks.....

 We passed larger similar boats going in the opposite direction......

 and also some smaller feluccas.... either moored on the bank...

.....or passing us by.......

We were due to spend the night just south of Luxor.... so that we could take an early morning hot balloon ride! This was something I was initially very wary of doing..... but all others were interested... so I went along....
We had to be on site before 6am so had to leave the boat around 4.30am!!! We had to cross the river by boat as the only bridge across the Nile in this area didn't open until 6am!
We were not alone.......

....the balloons started to be blown up in the dark...

and before dawn we were up and away.......

It was quite hot!!

Dawn came soon after we were in the air.....

... which bathed the  Temple of Hatshepsut complex in an amazing light.....

Seeing the whole Valley of the Kings area from above was superb!

We drifted slowly above the cornfields......

and eventually landed in one.......

...with a little help from the ground!