While donkey riding, for me, is far preferable to camel riding, the previous 45 minute stint had been perfectly satisfying. My dear little donkey, now that he faced home and a downhill slope, had a complete personality change and raced along, barging rudely past anyone in the way and ignoring cries of ‘Keep right!’ when tour buses rushed upon us. (They drive on the right hand side of the road here so ‘Keep right’ is the equivalent of ‘Keep left’ for us.) Shouts of ‘Hoosh, hoosh!’ (Donkey for ‘Slow, slow!’) had little impact and before we knew it we were up near the front and back in the Egyptian Marathon. This time we raced several men, boxing them in and outpacing them, then dropping back when they tried to go wide to escape us, all unintentionally. The race appeared to be being called with the speakers on the minaret of the local mosque. Sensible double use of facilities, I thought, until I realised that the tenor, fervour and length of the call were over the top if a description of the progress of a few veteran marathon stragglers was the actual content. Then we realised that it was Friday – the day for sermons to be broadcast by local Imams. By this time even these entertaining distractions were not enough to prevent me realising that I was likely to pay physically for this little jaunt on the donkey for days to come, so it was with great relief that we turned off the road, left our donkeys and started walking to the temple of Hatshepsut.
She was the regent for her stepson, Tuthmosis III, and enjoyed it so much that she usurped him and ruled for 20 years. She did a great job, turning from military endeavours to commercial interaction with neighbours, and her lover showed his appreciation by building an absolutely enormous temple for her. Statues of her show her with a false beard because she had to be ‘King’ if she was to be ruler. The term ‘Queen’ was only used for the consort of a king. When she died, her stepson finally got to be king and he seems to have spent all his time paying her back by desecrating anything that depicted her and gouging out any hieroglyphic cartouches that contained her name. Obsessive rancour led to him even trying to hide an obelisk at Karnak that she had erected, by building a wall in front of it.
We were whisked away to an alabaster workshop in ‘local buses’ which were like built-in utes with seats along each side and handles to hold onto out the back if you were unable to get a seat. 
We saw several craftsmen working by hand on alabaster vases and listened to a short talk about the process.
They showed us factory made alabaster (very heavy) to compare with the fine, hand made pieces they sell at their shop, into which we were then ushered.
At about 3.30 we rode in our ‘local bus’ to a riverside restaurant where we enjoyed the most delicious feast, which was very welcome, especially for the other members of the tour, who had risen very early for their hot air balloon ride.
A visit by ourselves to the Luxor Temple during free time was fascinating, but really brought home how lucky we have been to have Mamdoh explaining things to us everywhere we go. 
Armed police, soldiers or tourist police are in abundance wherever there are tourists in Egypt.
This is a view of the East side of the Nile at Luxor, showing Luxor Temple, some moored luxury liners and several feluccas (sailing boats).
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