ocated in Upper Egypt Luxor has been described as the world’s
biggest open air museum. Nowadays it has been elevated to the status of
Governorate, though it is still classified as being in the province of
Qena. It has a population of round about 230,000, most of who are
employed in tourism somehow, though there are many who are employed in
agriculture and commerce. It is one of the most popular destinations in
Egypt, being one of those places that you must see. Because of this
almost every tourist company has an office somewhere in the town.
It has been estimated that Luxor contains about a third of the most
valuable monuments and antiquities in the whole world, which makes it
one of this planet’s most important tourism sites. Monuments such as
The Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of
the Queens, Deir El-Bahri (the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut), the
workers village at Deir El-Medina, the list goes on and on and on.
Though most visitors will stay for just a few days, it would take a
substantial amount of time to visit everything in this amazing town.
Once known as Thebes, Luxor’s importance in ancient
Egyptian history cannot be denied. It was the religious capital for
almost all of the Pharaonic period which is why the town is dominated by
the two temples; The Temple of Luxor, and the immense Temple of
Karnak; the world’s largest temple complex.
Dedicated to Amun Ra, the Temple of Karnak was
constantly expanded by successive pharaohs, each adding his, or her,
tribute to the god. The site dates back to the Middle Kingdom under the
reign of Mentuhotep (11th Dynasty), but most of what can be seen today
is from the New Kingdom. Other parts of the complex include sites
dedicated to Mut, the wife of Amun Ra, and their son Khonsu.
Most people know that Luxor was once Thebes, but
“Thebes” was not what the ancient Egyptians called it. Ancient texts
show that it was called t-apt, which means “the shrine”, with the
ancient Greeks calling it tea pie. The Arabs had problems with
pronunciation and so it became Thebes to them. The name vanished then
as the area submitted to the desert and then by the 10th century Arab
travellers thought the ruins were of grand buildings so started to call
it Al-Oksour, or “site of the palaces” which slowly became Luxor.
Though it was never the capital of a united Egypt,
Thebes was capital of Upper Egypt during the times when Egypt resorted
to being split into two. This was especially true during the period of
the Hyksos invasion when Avaris became capital in the North. Thebes was
where the various pharaohs of Upper Egypt were based, and it was from
here that the final campaign, under Ahmose I, to expel the Hyksos
originated.
Today Luxor is split into two, by the River Nile, and these two
areas are known as the East Bank (where the town lies) and the West
Bank. Though this was also true in ancient times, the two parts were
called the city of the living (East Bank) and the city of the dead (West
Bank). Like most of the River Nile, the western side tends to be more
desert, with the eastern side having far more arable land, and so
settlement sites tended to favour this latter side.
Luxor is situated 670Km (416 miles) to the south of
Cairo, 220Km (137 miles) to the north of Aswan, and 280Km (174 miles) to
the west of Hurghada. It is the second most popular place to visit in
Egypt, behind Cairo, and is accessible in a number of ways.
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