One of the advantages of staying on the West Bank is that you are closer to so many major archaeological sites. It's fantastic. A short taxi ride and you are at the Valley of the Kings or Queens or at the Tombs of the Nobles, not to mention all the temples in the area. Many tours give you only a few days in Luxor but we were privileged to be there for almost a week.

One of the Osirid statues of Hatshepsut which looks out over the valley from the upper terrace. One year my class had done a play about Hatshepsut as part of their unit on Egypt so it was very meaningful to actually stand in her temple and try to imagine what it looked like during her reign. We know that she send expeditions to far places to bring back exotic plants which were then planted at her temple.

Although only broken pieces of the giant statue of Rameses II are to be found, the size of these when compared to ordinary humans is still impressive. Cut in the quarries of Aswan the work of moving this enormous statue must, in itself, have been a colossal feat. The name of the statue was “Rameses, the Sun of Foreign Sovereigns” and, as a representation of the spirit of the god-king, would have been viewed as a source of support and protection. Before the entrance to the Ramesseum’s hypostyle hall rests the head of one of the two colossal black granite statues of the king which once stood here. The upper portion of the second statue is now in the British Museum.