Ramses II called his massive memorial ‘the Temple of Millions of Years of User-Matt-Ra’; classical visitors called it the tomb of Ozymandias; and Jean-Francois Champollion, who deciphered hieroglyphics, called it the Ramesseum. Like other memorial temples it was part of Ramses II’s funerary complex. His tomb was built deep in the hills, but his memorial temple was on the edge of the cultivated area on a canal that connected with the Nile and with other memorial temples.

These tombs are some of the best least-visited attractions on the west bank. Nestled in the foothills opposite the Ramesseum are more than 400 tombs belonging to nobles from the 6th dynasty to the Graeco-Roman period. Where royal tombs were decorated with cryptic passages from the Book of the Dead to guide them through the afterlife, the nobles, intent on letting the good life continue after their death, decorated their tombs with wonderfully detailed scenes of their daily lives.

Ramses III’s magnificent memorial temple of Medina Ha-bu, fronted by sleepy Kom Lolah village and backed by the The-ban mountains, is one of the west bank's most underrated sites. This was one of the first places in Thebes closely associated with the local god Amen. At its height, Medinat Ha-bu contained temples, storage rooms, workshops, administrative buildings, a royal palace and accommodation for priests and officials. It was the center of the economic life of Thebes for centuries.

This site takes its name from a Ptolemaic temple, later converted to a Coptic monastery – the Monastery of the Town – but the real attraction is the unique Workmen’s Village. Many of the skilled workers and artists who created tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens lived and were buried here. Archaeologists have uncovered more than 70 houses in this village and many tombs: the most beautiful are now open to the public.