Audioguides Luxor

Luxor is ancient Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom when the pharaohs built on a scale that still defies easy comprehension. The Temple of Karnak -- reached from Luxor town center by a palm-lined avenue of sphinxes -- was under continuous construction and expansion for over 1,300 years, from roughly 2055 BCE to 100 CE, and its hypostyle hall with 134 massive columns covering an area larger than Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the most overwhelming architectural spaces on earth. Luxor Temple sits in the middle of the modern city, lit at night so that the colossal statues of Ramesses II glow golden above the traffic.

The West Bank, across the Nile from the modern city, is a different world: the necropolis of the pharaohs, where the Valley of the Kings holds 63 known tombs cut into the limestone cliffs including the tomb of Tutankhamun, still decorated with the original painted scenes after 3,300 years.

Hot air balloon flights over the West Bank at sunrise are one of the most spectacular travel experiences available anywhere -- drifting in silence above the temples and tombs as the Nile valley fills with light and the desert hills turn amber. The Colossi of Memnon, two massive seated statues flanking the entrance to what was Amenhotep III's mortuary temple, have stood in their field for 3,400 years.