Luxor, Egypt

About Luxor City , Luxor is the most well-known recognized City in Upper (Southern) Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate, known famously for its oldest and most Ancient Egyptian sites. Originally called ‘Thebes’ in ancient Egypt, Luxor is often known also as the ‘World's greatest open-air Museum’. The ruins of the early Temples of Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city on the East Bank and life goes on unchanged for centuries amongst the local inhabitants. Luxor City lies between the East and West bank of the River Nile and is crossed daily by locals and tourists alike with Felucca boats and Ferries alike. Many monuments, tombs, and temples are located on the West Bank which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens attracting millions of tourists worldwide arriving annually to partake in this famous pilgrimage in Egyptian ancient civilization.

Luxor City History, Luxor (Thebes), was the capital of Egypt during the Dynasty of the New King Kingdom and was considered the ‘Glorious city’ of the god Amon-Ra. From the 11th Dynasty, Luxor grew from a small town into a thriving city, renowned for its high social status, and luxury, and also as a center for wisdom, art, religious and political hierarchy. In a short time, the city became a hub of wealth, rising in prominence, not just in Egypt but worldwide. Luxor (Thebes) played a huge part in disbanding and eliminating the invading forces of the Hyksos in Upper Egypt, creating it as a major center and force regarding political, religious, and military control starting from the 18th Dynasty right through to the 20th Dynasty.

It remained the religious capital of Egypt until the later Greek period. Luxor worshipped the God Amon, worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, known as the God of the Moon. Due to Thebes (Luxor) rising as the foremost central focus and city in Egypt, the God Amon rose in importance and worship and became linked to the sun God Ra, creating the new 'King of Gods' Amon-Ra. His vast temple, at Karnak north of Thebes, stood as the most important temple of Egypt until the end of antiquity.
 

It remained the religious capital of Egypt until the later Greek period. Luxor worshipped the God Amon, worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, known as the God of the Moon

Due to Thebes (Luxor) rising as the foremost central focus and city in Egypt, the God Amon rose in importance and worship and became linked to the sun God Ra, creating the new  'King of Gods' Amon-Ra. His vast temple, at Karnak north of Thebes, stood as the most important temple of Egypt until the end of antiquity.

Avenue of Sphinx, Currently, as of 2014, the continued project to complete the original ‘Avenue of Sphinx’ is ongoing. This when completed, will allow tourists to walk between Karnak and Luxor Temples, the project being to unearth and restore the 2.7 kilometers long Avenue of Sphinxes that once linked the two Temples. The ancient road was constructed by the pharaoh Amenhotep III and was finally formed under Nectanebo I in 400 BCE. Incredibly, over one thousand Sphinx statues lined the road currently being excavated which was covered by churches, silt, homes, and mosques.

Things to do in Luxor 

01- Temple of Luxor 

Luxor Temple, Ipet-resyt “Southern Sanctuary” to the ancient Egyptians, was so called because of its location within ancient Thebes (modern Luxor). It is located around three kilometers to the south of Karnak Temple, to which it was once linked with a processional way bordered with sphinxes. The oldest evidence for this temple dates to the Eighteenth Dynasty (c.1550–1295 BC).

 Ipet-resyt, unlike most other ancient Egyptian temples, is not laid out on an east-west axis, but is oriented towards Karnak. This is because Luxor Temple was the main venue for one the most important of ancient Egyptian religious celebrations, when the cult images of Amun, his wife Mut, and their son, the lunar god Khonsu, were taken from their temples in Karnak, and transported in a grand procession to Luxor Temple so they could visit the god that resides there, Amenemopet. This was the Opet Festival.

Luxor Temple was not built by one single ruler. The oldest existing structure, a shrine, dates to the reign of Hatshepsut (c.1473–1458 BC). The core of the temple was built by Amenhotep III (c.1390–1352 BC). One of the inner rooms contains a series of scenes that are known as the Divine Birth. They tell the amazing story of how the king’s true father was none other than the god Amun-Ra himself, disguised as Thutmose IV (c.1400–1390 BC). The core of the temple is preceded by a columned hall fronted by a courtyard with columns around its perimeter. Amenhotep III also built the Great Colonnade, which consists of two rows of seven colossal columns. Its decoration, most notably the scenes depicting the Opet Festival, were completed by Tutankhamun (c.1336–1327 BC) and Horemheb (c.1323–1295 BC).

Ramesses II (c.1279–1213 BC) made many additions to Luxor Temple. In front of the Great Colonnade, he built a peristyle courtyard and a massive pylon, a gate with two towers that formed the entrance into temples. In addition to many colossal statues, the pylon was also fronted by a pair of 25-meter-high obelisks made by this great king, but only one remains in place; the other has been at the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836.

 In the late third century AD, the Romans built a fort around the temple, and the first room beyond the hypostyle hall of Amenhotep III became its sanctuary. The original wall reliefs were covered with plaster, and painted in the Graeco-Roman artistic style, depicting Emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD) and his three coregents. Although these  had largely disappeared, efforts are under way to restore these reliefs to their former glory.

01- Temple of Karnak 

Temple of Hatshepsut  (Deir al-Bahari)

Hatshepsut (c.1473–1458 BC), the queen who became pharaoh, built a magnificent temple at Deir al-Bahari, on the west back of Luxor. It lies directly across the Nile from Karnak Temple, the main sanctuary of the god Amun. Hatshepsut’s temple, Djeser-djeseru “the Holy of Holies” was designed by the chief steward of Amun, Senenmut.

The temple consists of three levels each of which has a colonnade at its far end. On the uppermost level, an open courtyard lies just beyond the portico. Mummiform statues of Hatshepsut as Osiris, the god of the dead, lean against its pillars.

This is because Djeser-djeseru is Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, where her cult was practiced after her death, when she attained the blessed state of Osiris. Far from being devoted solely to her, the temple also includes sections for the cults of her revered father Thutmose I, the goddess Hathor, and the funerary god Anubis. An altar, open to the sky and the sun, was dedicated to the cult of the solar Ra-Horakhty. Pride of place was given to Amun. At the far end of the upper courtyard, on the temple’s central axis, a passage cut directly into the living rock culminates in his sanctuary.

The temple’s walls are covered with beautiful painted reliefs depicting temple rituals, religious festivals, and even the transportation of obelisks from the quarry to their destination in Karnak Temple. Perhaps most interesting are the reliefs in the portico on the so-called Middle Platform. The decorative programme on the left side depicts Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt, believed to be located near modern Eritrea. The inhabitants of this land, their dwellings, and surrounding environment are vividly recorded, as are the riches and exotic animals that the Egyptians brought back with them. On the other side of the portico, Hatshepsut relates how she is the rightful king of Egypt. She does this not only by claiming that her father Thutmose I had designated her as his heir, but by stating that her true father was none other than the god Amun himself.

Valley of the Kings

The rulers of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt’s prosperous New Kingdom (c.1550–1069 BC) were buried in a desolate dry river valley across the river from the ancient city of Thebes (modern Luxor), hence its modern name of the Valley of the Kings. This moniker is not entirely accurate, however, since some members of the royal family aside from the king were buried here as well, as were a few non-royal, albeit very high-ranking, individuals. The Valley of the Kings is divided into the East and West Valleys. The eastern is by far the more iconic of the two, as the western valley contains only a handful of tombs. In all, the Valley of the Kings includes over sixty tombs and an additional twenty unfinished ones that are little more than pits.

The site for this royal burial ground was selected carefully. Its location on specifically the west side of the Nile is significant as well. Because the sun god set (died) in the western horizon in order to be reborn, rejuvenated, in the eastern horizon, the west thus came to have funerary associations. Ancient Egyptian cemeteries were generally situated on the west bank of the Nile for this reason.

The powerful kings of the New Kingdom were laid to rest under the shadow of a pyramid-shaped peak rising out of the cliffs surrounding the valley. The selection of even the specific valley in which the royal tombs were excavated was not left to chance. The pyramid was a symbol of rebirth and thus eternal life, and the presence of a natural pyramid was seen as a sign of the divine. This entire area, and the peak itself, was sacred to a funerary aspect of the goddess Hathor: the “Mistress of the West”.

The isolated nature of this valley was yet another reason for its selection as the final resting place of the pharaoh. Tomb robberies occurred even in ancient times. The Egyptians were aware of this, having seen the a fate of the Old and Middle Kingdom pyramids, so they opted for hidden, underground tombs in a secluded desert valley. The first New Kingdom ruler that is confirmed to have been buried in the Valley of the Kings was Thutmose I (c.1504–1492 BC), the third king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to Ineni, the high official who was in charge of the digging of his tomb: “I oversaw the excavation of the cliff-tomb of his Person [the king] in privacy; none seeing, none hearing.”

Colossi of Memnon

The Colossi of Memnon (also known as el-Colossat or el-Salamat) are two monumental statues representing Amenhotep III (1386-1353 BCE) of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. They are located west of the modern city of Luxor and face east looking toward the Nile River. The statues depict the seated king on a throne ornamented with imagery of his mother, his wife, the god Hapy, and other symbolic engravings. The figures rise 60 ft (18 meters) high and weigh 720 tons each; both carved from single blocks of sandstone.

They were constructed as guardians for Amenhotep III's mortuary complex which once stood behind them. Earthquakes, floods, and the ancient practice of using older monuments and buildings as resource material for new structures all contributed to the disappearance of the enormous complex. Little of it remains today except for the two colossal statues which once stood at its gates.

Their name comes from the Greek hero Memnon who fell at Troy. Memnon was an Ethiopian king who joined the battle on the side of the Trojans against the Greeks and was killed by the Greek champion Achilles. Memnon's courage and skill in battle, however, elevated him to the status of a hero among the Greeks. Greek tourists, seeing the impressive statues, associated them with the legend of Memnon instead of Amenhotep III and this link was also suggested by the 3rd century BCE Egyptian historian Manetho who claimed Memnon and Amenhotep III were the same person.

The temple of Ramses III in Medinet Habu

The temple of Ramses III in Medinet Habu was the last of the great funerary structures to be built in Western Thebes. It is currently the best-preserved monument on the west bank.

When erecting the building, the pharaoh modelled it on his predecessor - Ramses II the Great and his Ramesseum. The Temple of Ramesses III was built on the southern border of the necropolis, near the holy place of the Theban hill. It was there, according to tradition, that Amon appeared and the so-called Hermopolitan Ogdoad, a group of eight deities participating in the act of creating the world, rested.

Three gates lead to the temple area, two West and one East, which is the best-preserved gate. Richly decorated, it is a type of architecture unique to Egypt. It was modelled on the Middle Eastern gatehouse entrance, which was known as a migdol or migdal. These took the form of decorative towers. The Theban Gate, however, had a residential character and, together with the side wings, was part of a representative palace. The ruler resided in it during the holidays taking place in Western Thebes.

Medinet Habu is distinguished by the best-preserved temple palace in Thebes and the magnificent decorations of its first pylon and the courtyard. The reliefs show the victory of Ramses III. Inside the palace, on the northern wall, your attention is drawn to the Window of Appearances, in which the king sat during religious ceremonies. After the ruler's death, thanks to the false door (also known as “Ka doors”, as they allowed the Ka - an element of the soul, to pass through them) placed in the back wall of the throne room, the pharaoh's spiritual form was able to penetrate from the tomb to the palace and participate in sacrificial activities.

The decoration of the second courtyard is dedicated to the celebration of feasts in honor of Min (god of harvest) and Sokaris (ruler of the state of the dead), as well as the Beautiful Festival of the Valley. Unfortunately, as in many other places in the area of Thebes, here also the Copts, or Egyptian Christians, wreaked havoc. To make room for the construction of the church, they destroyed statues and forged crosses on the walls of the temple.

The complex in Medinet Habu also includes residential buildings for priests, administrative buildings, barracks, stables, ponds and gardens.

Valley of the Artisans (Deir el-Medina)

Deir El-Medina is the modern Arabic name for the worker’s village which was home to the artisans and craftsmen of Thebes who built and decorated the royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.

The ancient inhabitants called the village Pa Demi (“the village”) but it was referred to in official correspondence as Set-Ma’at (“The Place of Truth”) because the workers there were thought to be inspired by the gods in creating the eternal homes of the deceased kings and their families. Early in the Christian era the village, then deserted, was occupied by monks who took over the Temple of Hathor for use as a cloister. The temple was referred to as Deir el-Medina (“Monastery of the Town”) and this name finally came to be applied to the entire site.

Unlike most villages in ancient Egypt, which grew up organically from small settlements, Deir el-Medina was a planned community. It was founded by Amenhotep I (c.1541-1520 BCE) specifically to house workers on royal tombs because tomb desecration and robbery had become a serious concern by his time. It was decided that the royalty of Egypt would no longer advertise their final resting places with large monuments but, instead, would be buried in a less accessible area in tombs cut into the cliff walls. These areas would become the necropolises now known as the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and those who lived in the village were known as “Servants in the Place of Truth” for their important role in creating eternal homes and also remaining discreet regarding tomb contents and location.

Ramesseum (Mortuary Temple of Ramses II) 

Ramesseum, funerary temple of Ramses II (1279–13 BC), erected on the west bank of the Nile River at Thebes in Upper Egypt. The temple, famous for its 57-foot (17-metre) seated statue of Ramses II (of which only fragments are left), was dedicated to the god Amon and the deceased king. The walls of the Ramesseum, which is only about half preserved, are decorated with reliefs, including scenes depicting the Battle of Kadesh, the Syrian wars, and the Festival of Min. This temple is identified with the “Tomb of Osymandias” (a corruption of Ramses II’s prenomen) described by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC, and the shattered colossus of Ramses was the subject of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.”

How to Get to Luxor

Most visitors will arrive in Luxor by plane or by Nile cruise, but you can also get here by train and by car.

The Luxor International Airport is located 7 km east of the city of Luxor. To get to your hotel, you can hire a taxi at the airport or arrange for a driver (we hired a driver through our hotel).

If you are cruising the Nile River, your tours of the East and West Banks should be included with your cruise.

You can travel by train from Luxor to Cairo and Aswan. Express trains from Cairo to Luxor typically take 10 hours. The best way to do this is to take an overnight, sleeper train between Cairo and Luxor.

If you plan to travel between Luxor and Aswan by train, this typically takes 2.5 to 3.5 hours.

From Cairo, it is also possible to take a bus to Luxor. This 2-day tour includes a seat on a first-class overnight bus followed by a guided tour of the East and West Banks. It’s a great way to combine your transportation with a guided tour of Luxor.

You can also drive from Luxor to Aswan (or vice versa). 

If you are staying in Hurghada, Luxor is a popular day trip destination. This very highly rated tour includes your transportation to and from Hurghada as well as a guided tour of the East and West Banks.