Cycling Around Malqata

This article is from Ancient Egypt issue 147

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There are many ways an independent traveller can visit the archaeological sites on the West Bank of Luxor, and I have tried most of them over the past few decades: tour bus, taxi, tuk-tuk, with the locals on an overcrowded microbus, hitching a lift on the back of a small service truck full of bottled water and cans of soft drink, hanging on the back of a friend’s moped, and of course walking until my feet are sore. But having never ridden a bicycle in Egypt, I decided to tick ‘Luxor Bicycle Ride’ off my bucket list.

Setting off

As I am not a confident cyclist, I decided to venture out to some sites away from the more famous temples and tombs. I planned to head south as far as the small temple of Isis at Deir el-Shelwit, which I had not visited for several years. This route would take me away from the busy tarmac roads and allow me to cycle safely over the flat sands of low desert that define the area. I hoped to be able to cycle past the spoil heaps of Birket Habu, a large lake/harbour that the Eighteenth Dynasty ruler Amenhotep III built during the second half of his reign; past the site of his royal palace in an area now known as Malqata; and look for a curious structure associated with him that lies nearby. I had read that this monument is located at a place called Kom el-Samak (Arabic for ‘Mound of the Fish’), but I had never visited it. I asked a local friend whether I would encounter any difficulty with the local police, and he informed me that visits by an independent traveller are allowed anywhere between Medinet Habu and the Hotel Al Moudira.

For the first couple hundred metres, I was on the dreaded tarmac road that I had wished to avoid, but it was too early for large tour buses. Turning left out of the hotel, I took a two-minute detour by the ticket office to see how the excavations of the so-called ‘Golden City’ were proceeding. Since I last saw the settlement, the serpentine mud-brick walls have been cleaned, and the whole site was looking smart and presentable. As I was on a bicycle, it was possible to stop by the roadside and take a photo.

I was now on the road leading to the workers’ village of Set-Ma’at (‘Place of Truth’) at Deir el-Medina, and the Valley of the Queens beyond it. As I passed, I stopped to look back and took a photo of one of my favourite sites in the whole of western Thebes. I have many photos of the remains of the houses in the grid-like streets of Set-Ma’at, and inside the intensely decorated tombs of the village workers themselves, but I had not fully appreciated the beauty of the wider setting, where the village fits neatly into the folds of the Theban hills.

Continuing south, I cycled a further ten minutes behind the walled settlement of Medinet Habu where the tarmac road starts to turn into a dirt track. Although a totally different experience, the going was not uncomfortable, and I soon passed the remains of the Mortuary Temple of Ay, which had been usurped by Horemheb. Ay was responsible for the inner part of the temple, many pieces of which are still lying on the ground. When Horemheb succeeded to the throne, he added three pylons and a small palace building inside one of the courtyards. 

Beyond Medinet Habu, there is a modern concrete wall enclosing a village to your left. This was built in 2010 to protect the archaeological area and unique structures under threat from modern settlement. Several years ago, I stayed in a private villa in this village on the very edge of the modern-day settlement of Habu. It was a peaceful place to lodge, with horse stables, several small family-run farms, and lush fields of greenery all around. However, there is little doubt that some of it was built on top of, or very close to, the ancient sites. Beyond the concrete wall is the barren, low-desert landscape of Malqata. To my right in the near-distance, I could just make out the remains of a terraced mud-brick temple, enhanced with sandstone architectural elements – a ‘House of Amun’ temple first published in 1917 – while Deir Shahid Tadros el-Mohareb (the Coptic monastery of St Tawdros/Theodore) was far more visible a little further south.