Luxor is the most highlighted city in Upper (Southern) Egypt and the capital of the Luxor Governorate. Luxor has a population of 127,994 people (2020) and covers an area of around 417 square kilometers. It is one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities.
The present city contains the ancient Egyptian city of Waset, also known as Nut and Thebes or Diospolis to the Greeks. Because the remains of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor exist within the modern city, Luxor has been known as the “world’s greatest open-air museum.” The monuments, temples, and tombs of the west bank Necropolis, that includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, are just across the Nile.
The Luxor Temple is a massive Ancient Egyptian temple complex that was built around 1400 BCE on the east bank of the Nile River in what is now known as Luxor (ancient Thebes). Sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila region in South-Western Egypt was used to construct the Luxor Temple. Nubian sandstone is the name given to this kind of sandstone. It was employed in the construction of monuments in Upper Egypt, as well as restoration work in the past and present.
The Karnak Temple Complex, often known as Karnak, is a sprawling collection of crumbling temples, chapels, pylons, and other monuments in Luxor, Egypt. Although most of the existing structures date from the Middle Kingdom (approximately 2000–1700 BCE), construction on the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom (about 2000–1700 BCE) and continued until the Ptolemaic Kingdom (305–30 BCE). The region around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut (“The Most Selected of Places”) and the center of devotion for the 18th Dynastic Theban Triad, which was ruled by the god Amun.
The Memnon Colossi are two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt during the 18th Dynasty. The statues are built of quartzite sandstone blocks mined at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo) and brought to Luxor overland for 675 kilometres. The stones are too massive to have been brought upstream on the Nile as believed. It’s possible that the blocks used by later Roman engineers to rebuild the northern colossus came from Edfu (north of Aswan). The colossi stand 18 m (60 ft) tall and weigh an estimated 720 tonnes each, including the stone platforms on which they stand.
Pharaoh Hatshepsut of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty erected the Temple of Hatshepsut as a mortuary temple. It is considered a masterwork of ancient architecture and is located across the Nile from Luxor. Its three huge terraces soar above the desert bottom and into Deir el-Bahari’s cliffs. The temple’s axes represent the pharaoh’s life cycle from coronation to rebirth: on its main east-west axis, it served to receive the barque of Amun-Re at the climax of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, while on its north-south axis, it represented the pharaoh’s life cycle from coronation to rebirth.
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Kings’ Gates, is a valley in Egypt where rock-cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs and strong nobles of the New Kingdom for approximately 500 years, from the 16th to 11th centuries BC. The valley currently has 63 tombs and chambers, after the 2005 discovery of a new chamber and the 2008 discovery of two more tomb entrances. It was the primary burial site for the Egyptian New Kingdom’s important royal leaders, as well as a handful of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are adorned with images from Egyptian mythology, which provide insight into the period’s beliefs and funerary practices