Hi Shirley,

There is one smallish covered bazaar in Luxor which is on your right as you walk along the Corniche past Luxor Temple and towards Luxor museum. For me, however, the best experience in Luxor "bazaar wise" is to get a caleche (horse-drawn carriage) driver to take you along the open street market/bazaar which is situated sort of behind Luxor Temple. The best time to go is when it is dark and whatever you do, don't forget your camera, a video preferably. They will actually drive you through the market with the wheels of the carriage almost touching the stalls on either side. The colours and the atmosphere are quite breathtaking! If you see something you wish to look at more closely, the driver will stop, where convenient, and you can wander on foot.

I dont know how much longer this experience will be available in Luxor as there seem to be a few "redevelopement" plans on the go at present which are causing arguements with The World Heritage people and others.

A lot of tourists claim that Luxor is a dirty town and would like to see it completely sanitized. Personally, I love it the way it is and hope it remains so.

Hi,

Sorry now it's not possible to take a caleche down Old Market Street, the main bazaar, any more. This street has now been paved & revamped & vehicles of any kind are not allowed. There are so many developments going on in Luxor at present, I just hope these changes do not spoil it's quaint, old world charm. It is a nightmare reaching this bazaar at present as there are so many roadworks being undertaken behind Luxor temple.
Hope you have a great time here Shirley V.

Thanks for the info Iberis, what a shame, that's something i've always looked forward to on every visit to Luxor.

I take it the market still operates though, despite the road alterations?

Hi Carrot 2502,

It is a shame but bikes & motorbikes are still trying to zoom up & down there!! But that will change as all the work nears completion in Luxor, whenever that eventually may be??? Also every shop on that stretch now has uniform shop signs, all the same colour, same writing. A pergola type construction has been made along the length of Old Market Street with better lighting. A change for the better??? I'm not really sure.
Unfortunately all this work on the bazaar, which has been going on for a year now but almost complete, has lost a lot of business for the local people down there. At times it has been a nightmare venturing on the bazaar, dust, dirt, big potholes etc. As I said before I do hope all these changes are for the better. I would hate Luxor to become "too modern'' & lose it's charm.

Sounds awful! Maybe they are trying to turn Luxor into a town more like Aswan (a place I have never raved over) which would seem to me to be completely out of character.

Tell me, Iberis, they were going to redevelop all the land just in front of the entrance to Karnak Temple, where there was a car park area and several shops. Has this work been done yet?

Hi again.

I've not been up that way recently but will be visiting next week as I have some friends here, their first visit to Luxor. Think they are in for a culture shock as they are used to holidaying in Spain!!! There is, I know, a great deal of work going on in that area, apparently from what I'm told there will eventually be a new "shopping centre" near the temple!!! They are gradually unearthing the "Avenue of Sphinxes" that originally stretched from Luxor to Karnak temple. Some have been discovered near the Emilio hotel & others you can see as you enter Luxor from the airport road. At least this will be something good. Will try to keep you informed of developments.

Thanks Iberis, it's great to have up to date information from someone on the spot.

There is one smallish covered bazaar in Luxor which is on your right as you walk along the Corniche past Luxor Temple

Hi Carrot,
This is what the bazaar you mentioned along the Corniche looked like in June this year. That pile of timber you can see on the right was all that there was left of it.

[URL=http://img503.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bazaaryf9.gif][/URL
Tez

Blimey Tez, this is awful!

Did you see this newly "sanitized" street behind the temple. Have you got any pics of it?

Hi Carrot,
Unfortunately not, I have looked through my recent pictures and non-of them show that particular area. It was only by luck that I was able to post you the last one, I was editing a video that was taken along the Corniche when I read your post. I realised that it contained a very short clip of the bazaar as I was panning around, so I 'grabbed' a photograph out of the video for you. I do have one taken up at Karnak that shows the pipeline that they are using to lower the water table at the temple. As you can see it is a wonderful example of what can be done with some old bits of scrap pipe, I know that it is a new pipe because I was speaking to the man in charge of the project, an American engineer. As you can see there is a lot of mess around what used to be the parking area on the right. Whether it is for safety reasons or for the work going on I would not like to say but barriers stop vehicles from going any further, you now have to walk from the road all the way down to the temple.

[img=http://img433.imageshack.us/img433/2985/karnakly5.th.gif]

As for your comment about not spoiling the old Luxor, I agree with you, what is the point of going to some sanitised 'Disney' town, when that happens I for one will stop visiting Egypt. On our last Nile cruise in late 2005 I was saddened to see how all of the temple sites were being turned into 'Attractions' rather than sites to be visited. Most of the temple sites are now contained within some kind of fenced area with access through a turnstile, I know that security has to play its part but to me the visual impact has gone. The 'wow' factor of getting off the coach or whatever and walking up to an ancient temple site along a dusty path and giving your ticket to an old guy sitting in the shade, does not compare with a turnstile, concrete paths and wrought iron fences on walls with strategically placed fake modern mud brick walls to block the view. Visiting the unfinished obelisk at Aswan used to mean parking up in an old quarry and clambering over the ancient granite to see the obelisk, it still looked the same as when Queen Hatshepsuts workers abandoned it millennia ago. Now it is an 'experience' walls with fences, turnstiles, lots of steps, rope handrails and a circuitous route around the quarry. They have even removed the stone that let you cross onto the obelisk. Also the prohibiting of photographs at many places (not referring to tombs) is also very annoying especially when its seems to be a very arbitrary thing. Well that's my moan for today, must get back to looking what to book for next years Egypt holiday.
Tez

If you look at the 'Luxor4u' website they have quite a lot of photographs of the work and how it is changing.

Thanks very much Carol. Not having been to Luxor for two years now, it's quite an eye-opener to see how things are changing. Having been used to the old "topsy turvy" luxor for so long, I don't quite know yet, how I feel about what they are doing to it now!

seems like they are spoiling old luxor.it must now be looking like any other tourist location.
i bet the hassle and rip offs are just the same.

Please be aware! In my opinion! You will be targeted by most of the local traders and people for you cash, they will do anything for it. When we were there in March we were conned out of money and had some stolen. Three times the same con was played on us, we paid a bill in a cafe or at a stall with the right money only to be chased down the street later on by someone claiming that one of the notes I had paid with was a much smaller ammount than it should have been. This is always done in front of a large crowd and once even in front of a policeman. We had no choice but to replace the lower note with a larger one.
Watch out for a begging woman sitting in the pavement with an empty baby bottle. We gave her money each evening untill we noticed that as soon as she saw us approaching she would start pinching the baby to make it scream and appear starving.

i so agree with the last poster.
luxor/egypt must be the most corrupt country in the world.
you will be ripped off every step of the way.
we were stolen from big time.
even though you may be well traveled and know all the pitfalls.in egypt you certainly dont.
it has wonderful things to see but the people are a disgrace.the stories i could tell are truly heartbreaking.

Gosh I am begining to be glad I spent most of my time in the hotel this year. Its a bit upsetting to be seen as a walking wallet. At the end of the day we all work hard for our money and shouldn't be stolen from. I would have been so upset to have seen the incident with a baby.

Being poor is no excuse for cruelty to children.

Whilst I too have experienced the awful circumstances of being "ripped off" in Luxor, Cairo and Sharm el Sheikh over many visits to Egypt, I cannot agree with the comment

luxor/egypt must be the most corrupt country in the world

.

You can find the same situations arising in many, many places in the world. Bankok, Mombasa, Nairobi, Sri Lanka, India are just a few of the places that spring to mind where you must be aware that as "unsuspecting tourists" you will be considered as fair game by what is hopefully a small minority of the local populace.

Of course, all the places mentioned generate lots of tourism for various reasons, but also experience the situation where much of the vast amount of revenue generated from tourism never ever finds its way down to the people who really need it. One can never use this as a "valid" excuse, but it is a fact of life, so it seems.

Whilst Egypt must bear responsibility for those who attempt to rip off tourists, it is by no means the most corrupt country in the world and I would personally rate the vast majority of its people, some of the most happy, kind and friendly that I have ever met.

oh yes the woman with the baby.? she has been begging for years
and she takes the babies out on loan.

its also the dreadful cruelty to animals which is so appalling.as someone who was a frequent visitor to egypt i can no longer stomach the animal beatings and the rippoffs.
as a lifelong lover of our animal friends to see such extreme cruelty has filled me with just anger and distress.
i have had many stand up rows with caleche and donkey owners. do they not realise that these beasts of burden are their livelihood.

it will take middle eastern countries 100,s of years to give animals the respect they deserve.

when we was there, the calche drivers were horrid to their horses, and the buses were knocking the noses of the horses when they turned corners, the poor animals...
even when they are being fed, the nose bag, just hangs off their nose how on earth do they get to eat it all... they are so skinny too..
wouldnt even get on one..

they tried to rip us off all the time... even in the jewellery shop in the hotel..

But the happy memories of seeing the tombs and other statues, was by far the best holiday memories ever.