Luxor
Greatest Open Air Museum
General Information
Other Name: -, District: Luxor, State: Upper Region, Egypt
Area: 416 km²
Languages Spoken: Arabic
Long Distance Code: -
Importance: -
Best Time to Visit: November to April and -
International Access: -
Description
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate.Luxor has often been called the worlds greatest open air museum, as indeed it is and much more, the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor standing within the modern city. Immediately opposite, across the Nile River, lie the monuments, temples and tombs on the West Bank Necropolis, which include the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.Thousands of international tourists arrive each year to visit these monuments, and their presence represents a large part of the economic basis for the modern city.To say that the Luxor area is a major attraction for tourists in Egypt would be an understatement. It has been a tourist destination since the beginning of tourism. Even in ancient times, during the late Dynasties of the Greek and Roman periods, the area drew tourists, and has been doing so ever since.Location
-Climate
Hot and humid
The Avenue of Sphinx connects the feted Temple of Luxor and the world-famous Temples at Karnak. This Avenue of Sphinx is an imposing avenue of about 2 kms or 1.2miles south of the Karnak Temple and bordered on both sides by the majestic sphinxes. It is believed that in the ancient times, the avenue extended over a length of 3km length and the number of Sphinxes present there was about two thousand.At present the sphinxes that line the avenue have the body of a lion with the head of Nectanebo I who ruled from 380-363 B.C.E. Nectanebo I replaced the former ram-headed sphinxes with his own head. The sandstone built majestic structures reflects a golden color during the day and looks stunning during the sunset.
The Colossi of Memnon are a three thousand four hundred old structure comprising of two mammoth stone figures, which are known locally as the el-Colossat or es-Salamat. These huge statues are located on the west bank of Luxor; they did not belong to the Memnon but to the third Amenophis of the 15th century BC. The two statues adorned the entrance to the mortuary temple of Amenophis.The statues started a hooting sound, which made it a popular destination. Legend has it that Achilles killed the Memnon; an Ethiopian king during the famous Trojan War who was started weeping.The sound of his weeping made his mother Eos weep in response. This moaning sound was the key factor that made the statues famous as the moaning statues and it brought about large number of discerning Tourists from all over the place. The musical note produced due to the fissures in the statues, the morning sun lent its warmth to the stone structures, and then the wind made it its wind chime.
It mainly consists of the large Amun Temple, the Temple of Khons as well as a Festival Temple of Tuthmosis III, but also encompasses many other structures. The northern and southern temple precincts as well as the buildings south of the eighth pylon are currently closed to visitors.Luxor Museum is located in the Egyptian city of Luxor (ancient Thebes). It stands on the corniche, overlooking the River Nile, in the central part of the city.The range of artifacts on display is far more restricted than the country''s main collections in the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo; this was, however, deliberate, since the museum prides itself on the quality of the pieces it has, the uncluttered way in which they are displayed, and the clear multilingual labelling used.Among the most striking items on show are grave goods from the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) and a collection of 26 exceptionally well preserved New Kingdom statues that were found buried in a cache in nearby Luxor Temple in 1989. The royal mummies of two pharaohs - Ahmose I and Ramesses I - were also put on display in the Luxor Museum in March 2004, as part of the new extension to the museum, which includes a small visitor centre.
The Ramesseum (Mortuary Temple of Ramses II) in Luxor is a romantic ruin that appears best at the time of the sunset. Though there were initial excavations much was not known about the Ramesseum until the more recent excavations carried out that discovered a whole new world.The famous Ramesseum (Mortuary Temple of Ramses II) in Luxor was built on the site of the Seti I''s ruined temple. The temple has often been described as the ''tomb of the Ozymandia'' from which Shelley drew his poetic inspiration.Ramses II or Ramesses II, the son of the Seti I, was the famous who ruled for 67 long years and built any monuments including the famous Abu Simbel.See the fallen statue of the king that is unique in its own sense or appreciate the architectural genius of the beautiful intricacies that you can see displayed in the Ramesseum of Luxor.
Nebkheperure Tutankhamun or King Tut is a famed Pharaoh and belonged to the Eighteenth dynasty of Egyptian Rulers.The discovery of his tomb in 1923 by Howard Carter as been marked by much hype and has been a path breaking event in the study of ancient Egypt and Egyptology.The press and public were delighted by such an insight into the world of ancient Egyptian royalty and the celebrated tomb was regarded as a spectacular specimen of the mummification and entombment procedures of the Egyptian pharaohs.The Tomb of King Tutankhamun (Tut) is located in the Valley of the Kings to the west of Luxor, erstwhile Thebes. With its discovery, the treasure chamber, the mummification areas, the rich artifacts and treasures, the burial, annex and antechambers which had remained shrouded in a veil of mystery and romance lie revealed to the world.The sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun was probably the most well known artifact found in these tombs.
Thebes, the city of the god Amon, was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms. With the temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, Thebes is a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height.
At the south end of the modern town, close to the Nile, stands the imposing Temple of Luxor, and within to the northeast, the little Mosque of Abu el-Haggag, a much revered Muslim holy man. The temple was built by Amenophis III on the site of an earlier sandstone temple and was known to the Egyptians as Apet Amunresyet, the "Southern Harem of Amun".Like all Egyptian temples, it comprised the chapels of the deities with their vestibules and subsidiary chambers, a large hypostyle hall and an open peristyle court, which was approached from the north by a great colonnade.
The Valley of the Queens lies at the southern end of the necropolis. This is where the queens and their children were interred. Only four tombs are open to the public in the Valley of the Queens and if you had to choose just one, it would have to be Queen Nefertari''s tomb.The nobles holding high quarters under the Pharaohs were buried in tombs in the Valley of the Nobles in Luxor. Most of the nobles whose tombs are built here belong to the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom era. The spectacular carvings, relief work and paintings of these tombs in the valley of nobles depict more scenes from the day to day lives and courtly and family affairs of the noble.
on the upper floor is the museum''s piece de resistance, the so-called Wall of Akhenaten.56ft/17.17m long and some 10ft/3m high, this consists of 283 sandstone blocks covered with painted reliefs out of a total of 6,000 such blocks, originally belonging to Akhenaten''s Temple of the Sun at Karnak, which were found built into Horemheb''s Ninth Pylon during restoration work in 1968-69.On the right-hand half of the wall temple servants are depicted at their everyday tasks; on the left hand half Akhenaten, sometimes accompanied by his wife Nefertiti, is shown worshiping the Aten, the divine solar disc with rays ending in hands.