Garagos is 25 kilometres north of Luxor and on the east bank of the River Nile. To travel from Luxor by car to the village you will follow the airport road until you come to the Luxor/Qena Road – you could turn right to Aswan or left to Cairo – turn left.

You will stay on this road for just over 20 kilometres. At this point on the right you will see a dome shaped, mud brick mosque, the body once painted white but has now been weather beaten by the desert dust.

On your left you will see a bridge over the canal – this is called Sabaah Ayoun (seven eyes) because of the seven channels filtering the flow of the canal water under the bridge. The low wall of the bridge itself is painted in black and white blocks. Any local driver will know Sabaah Ayoun.

You will drive over the bridge and also the train tracks and continue for approximately .4 kilometers.

Shortly after you will pass over a small canal – here you will turn right. You are now travelling North and towards the town of Qus though there are no road signs. You will be following the canal on your right hand side and the narrow gauge sugar cane train track on your left. Keep straight for just over 4 kilometres. Take time to appreciate the wonderful views of the Egyptian countryside!

You will now come to another bridge spanning the canal on your right but here you will turn left. Drive for about .8 kilometre and then turn left again. You are now driving through Garagos village. The landmark you will see is a tall minaret made of metal – through the grill you can see metal steps spiralling upwards to the top.

Most tourists will come to Garagos to visit the pottery. To reach the pottery you will drive through Garagos for about .6 kilometre at which point you will see a mud road on the right which has buildings on the left and fields on the right. You will notice how much higher up the road is than the fields as it is the soil from the fields that was used to bank up the roads. Depending on the time of year you visit you may see crops such as wheat growing – spring to summer, or you may see large squares of palm dates laid out to dry – autumn.

You may be interested to know that this road many years ago was asphalt but it is only the accumulation of dust and dirt that it now resembles a mud track. Locally this road is known as Montgolfier Road after Father de Montgolfier, a Jesuit priest that came to Garagos to establish a dispensary.

After a couple of hundreds yards on Sheria de Montgolfier you will see the sign for the pottery. You are here!

There is another route into Garagos from Sabaah Ayoun but the road isn't good – apparently after a sewage project funded by Unicef went a bit wrong!