I am floating peacefully high above the bustle of Luxor’s dusty streets, only the occasional burst from the burner of the hot air balloon breaking the silence.
Our pilot, captain Mahmoud, gently turns us around so we get an unbeatable God’s eye view reaching from the lush green corridor of the Nile to the rocky hills where the world famous Valley of the Kings is tucked away.
I turn around to face the magical spectacle of a dozen balloons silhouetted against the golden orange of the sun, shimmering as it too rises up from the horizon.
As Mahmoud lowers the balloon back to Earth, the support crew scramble into action, holding on to the basket to ensure a gentle touchdown before calling to each other as they grab the fabric as it deflates, making sure it does not get damaged on the rocky desert ground.
The captain tells me: “Look at us Egyptians at work, this is how the pyramids were made.”
My aerial adventure is one of several land-based activities available on a new cruise down Egypt’s main aquatic artery, the Nile.
For the first time, tour operator Tui has expanded its river cruise offerings outside of Europe with its five-star all-inclusive Al Horeya (meaning freedom), which has 72 cabins, a rooftop swimming pool and two hot tubs. A second ship will join the operation in November 2025.
Ahead of our voyage, I have time to explore Luxor.
Having glimpsed the Valley of the Kings from 1,500ft high, I later visit with a sense of bewilderment that these secret wonders hidden deep in the hills were ever uncovered.
I approach a black hole in the rock and my eyes take a moment to adjust from the glaring sun to the muted light of the tunnel that burrows down to the underground tomb of Ramses VI.
The lines of finely crafted images depicting the life of the God-king lead my eye down the corridor, my skin bristling with the sense of excitement the original excavators must have experienced as they discovered these time capsules from ancient history.
As I explore some of the tunnels of the 62 pharaohs buried in the valley, the fantastical images from jackal-headed gods to the ankh symbol of life strike me as out of this world, as alien as if they had been painted on the walls by visitors in flying saucers.
Saving the tomb of Tutankhamen to last, I enter the short tunnel to the burial chamber where the boy king was placed when he died at just 19 years old in 1,323BC having reigned for only 10 years.
His early death led to him being buried in a spare chamber which was discovered by accident by the English Egyptologist Howard Carter in November 1922, as he was excavating the tomb of Ramses VI which lies directly above.
Although the thousands of items found in the tomb, including Tutankhamen’s magnificent golden death mask, are waiting to be rehoused in a newly-opened $1 billion museum, his mummified body remains in the tomb inside a glass case.
Far from feeling I have suffered King Tut’s curse by entering his tomb, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to have a glimpse of his face, frozen in time, as it looks out on his chamber decorated in a warm orange with wall paintings depicting his arrival in the underworld which, amazingly, have barely faded.
Luckily my guide, Sarwat, one of two Egyptologists travelling with us, had advised an early 6am start to avoid the crowds, allowing us to enjoy the tomb and its images almost completely alone.
Sarwat explains to me that the artists used stone powder and vegetable paste mixed with egg white to create a plaster-layer to preserve the drawings.
He adds: “They were telling the story of the kings for the gods to read, so their stories would last for all eternity.”
I return to the Nile and climb on board a felucca sailboat similar to those used by traders for thousands of years for a sedate crossing back to the Al Horeya for a lunch of delicious chicken and hot sauce wraps at the appropriately-named Felucca rooftop restaurant.
The next morning it is the turn of the temples of Karnak and Luxor to confound me with their scale and grandiosity.
Entering the main hall, I am dwarfed by the 134 columns that form the centrepiece of Karnak and are so memorable from The Spy Who Loved Me as Roger Moore’s Bond battles Jaws before making the rather unfair quip: “Egyptian builders” as some scaffolding collapses.
But Karnak is somewhere where the ancient architects have left a clue to their engineering genius as huge mud brick ramps remain next to the unfinished outer walls, showing how the huge stones were originally put in place.
The temple is linked to its Luxor counterpart by the 5,000-year-old Avenue of the Sphinxes, which is lined by hundreds of human and ram-headed sphinxes and was used for a festival procession of the gods carried on their boats by the high priests celebrating the sun god, Amun-Re.
The main entrance at Luxor was created by Ramses II whose domineering statue overlooks the site.
It is a short hop back on the boat moored alongside the temple and time for our departure on our journey up the Nile.
I sit under the shade of the ship’s top deck bar, a gentle breeze from the river acting as natural air conditioning, watching as the city landscape gives way to the green farmlands that the river creates all the way down this desert country.
The relaxed pace of life onboard means that I am fully refreshed in the morning, ready to experience the most complete temple in Egypt.
The final stop is Aswan where we visit the famous dam, which is Egypt’s modern marvel of engineering, as well as a Nubian village to gain an insight into how people have lived in country’s south for generations.
Sitting with a drink in hand, watching a farmer at the green riverside with sandy mountains looming behind, I get a renewed sense of the importance of this life-giving river to all the inhabitants of this country, from the ordinary worker to the iconic gods of ancient myth.
As the ancient Greek historian Herodotus said: “Egypt is the gift of the Nile” and my journey on the Tui Al Horeya has been the perfect way to unwrap it.
How to plan your trip
TUI (tui.co.uk) offers a seven-night Legends of the Nile cruise on Al Horeya from £1,799 per person (two sharing) on an all-inclusive basis, including tips. Transfers and flights from London Gatwick or Manchester to Luxor, Egypt, on April 17, 2025.
