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Lying 420 miles south of Cairo, Luxor is the most important and dramatic historical site in all Egypt, and has often been called the world’s greatest open-air museum. Luxor is the modern name for Thebes, ancient capital city of the New Kingdom Pharaohs (1550 BC - 1070 BC).
ATTRACTIONS IN LUXOR
West Bank of Luxor: Valley of the Kings
The famous Valley of the Kings, where 62 Pharaohs are buried in rock-cut tombs, where they were adorned with gold and jewels and surrounded with treasures and replicas of all they would need in the afterlife. The famous tomb of the boyking Tutenkhamun was discovered here in 1922, with over 5,000 precious items inside. Although the mummy of the young king and his treasures now lie in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, visitors can still look inside the tomb itself and marvel at the wall-paintings, and the stone sarcophagus in which King Tut’s golden mummy-case was laid.
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Valley of the Queens
The Valley of the Queens is where royal wives and royal princes were buried. There are at least 75 tombs in the Valley of the Queens. They belonged to queens of the 19th and 20th dynasties and other members of the royal families, including princesses and the Ramessid princes. The highlight of the Valley of the Queens is the Tomb of Queen Nefertari.
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Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
Rising out of the desert plain, in a series of terraces, the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut merges with the sheer limestone cliffs of the eastern face of the Theban Mountain as if nature herself had built this extraordinary monument.
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Colossi of Memnon
The massive pair of statues known as the colossi of Memnon are all that remain of the temple of the hedonistic Amenophis III. Rising about 18 meters from the surrounding plain, the enthroned, faceless statues of Amenophis have kept a lonely vigil on the changing landscape around them for centuries, surviving the rising floodwaters of the Nile which gradually destroyed the temple buildings behind them
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Medinet Habu
The magnificent Medinet Habu is a series of temples second only to Karnak in size and complexity, built by the Pharaoh Ramses III. Ramses, who ruled between 1182 and 1151 BC, built the Great Temple first and then settled numerous war prisoners around it.
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East Bank of Luxor: The Temple of Karnak
In the New Kingdom, Amun-Ra was worshipped as the most important state god, and the immense wealth of Thebes was spent embellishing and building temples in his honour. The most famous and magnificent of these is the Temple of Karnak, where 13 centuries of successive Pharaohs have contributed to over 100 acres of majestic pylons, hypostyle halls, and sacred temples.
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The Temple of Luxor:
Built over several centuries by Amenhopis III, Tutankhamun, Ramses II, and Alexander the Great. The temple is preceded by an avenue of sphinxes, and impressive statuary of Ramses II, the Great Court of Ramses II, the colonnade and court of Amenophis III, the hypostyle hall, and the temple of Amun.
Fronting the entrance to the temple is the enormous 1st pylon, about 24 meters high, in front of which are some colossal statues of Ramses II and a pink granite obelisk. There were originally six statues, four seated and two standing, but only two of the seated figures and the westernmost standing one remain.
Early morning & evening tours in Luxor; Ballooning breakfast, Sound & Lights show at Karnak Temple.
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