It's not every day that you meet the real Indiana Jones, and I'm talking about one of the heads of the archeological team inside King Tut's tomb right when I was visiting the Valley of the Kings. With an extra ticket required and the checker not buying I am VIP Tara Emad I produced mine and descended into one of the quieter tombs. (Seti I currently costs a whopping 1,000 pounds but a Finish lady told me they are closed anyway plus a guide told me it is mainly interesting for hieroglyphics). I was the only one that isn't part of a crew preparing to be filmed inside the tombs, I forgot to ask what for. With hat and no whip but a pouch that should be leather and not say “xxx archaeological team” he was still as close as Harrison Ford portrayed one in Raiders as you can imagine. He was clearly bored waiting and told me about the tomb and Tut more than any guide could ever do (they tend to follow their scripts and don't seem at all excited about doing it over and over again). What was even more striking is that he has been at Dunhuang for 30 years doing research. Actually my story has little to do with Luxor overall so I shall stop with the personal stuff here.

The massive site would take 2 days to fully see everything. One needs to think what they really want to see if they only plan one day. The temple of Luxor in the city is actually not very good, especially if you went to Kom Ombo and Edfu already. It is also open late so you can see it after dark. Karnak, north of here city, is worth seeing though. At the West Bank there is as mentioned the Valley of the Kings which requires transport to the entrance, a needlessly walk to through the shopping area and then another train ride (4 pounds or you walk 30min in the heat) to reach the tombs. Your ticket allows only 3 regular tombs plus any extra tickets you bought. Online research gave me a good idea but apparently one was closed and a guide gave me another third which was okay. The small tombs aren't even open at all. I could easily spend an hour per tomb if not for the crowds. It is incredible how busy it can get here even during what seems like a non-holiday season. Because this took the rest of the day I did not visit any of the other West Bank sites. I also find this is slowly digging a hole into my pocket of each site wants £180 on average ($10 at the moment). With photos inside costing extra and me not wanting to pay that (probably worth it if I could spend enough time in them without getting frustrated by your groups) my best official picture is just what you see above. I secretly snapped a few inside but they turned out badly, and one of the guards actually encouraged me to walk inside the open sarcophagus of Merneptah and take pictures perhaps expecting a tip which wasn't given. I can think a lot of ppl get that chance but unfortunately the sarcophagus was very uninteresting. I would love to see photograph the walls properly. I also wanted to go to the Valley of the Queens but knowing Nefertari's tomb is closed I didn't go when it got too late. An incredible site not to be missed (who does??).