Cycling Around Malqata

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. A view from the route to Malqata of the workers’ village of Set-Ma’at, nestling neatly among the Theban hills at Deir el-Medina. Setting off As I am not a