We arrived in Luxor thinking we'd understood ancient Egypt from books and documentaries. Our Egyptologist guide dismantled that belief entirely in the first 20 minutes in the Valley of the Kings. He translated the scenes from the Book of the Dead directly off the tomb walls — explaining what the priests believed was happening in the afterlife in real time, in the actual tomb. The hot air balloon at sunrise over the valley the next morning was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen from the air.

We had 2 days in Luxor as part of our Nile cruise — East Bank one day, West Bank the next. Our Egyptologist guide at Karnak spent 45 minutes on the Hypostyle Hall alone and we were completely riveted. The Avenue of Sphinxes at golden hour — the scale and the completeness of it — was extraordinary. The Valley of the Kings the following morning was everything I had hoped for.

I'm an archaeologist and I came to Luxor with high expectations and a lot of background knowledge. Our Egyptologist guide exceeded both. He knew specific Egyptologists by name, discussed contested interpretations of individual scenes, and took us to Deir el-Medina and the Nobles' Tombs — sites most tourists skip. Medinet Habu was the revelation: extraordinary reliefs in extraordinary condition, and we were almost alone there.