search & explore Luxor
Luxor
Destination Guide
The Ultimate Guide Before You Plan for your Next Trip
Luxor has been a tourist destination since the beginning of tourism. It is often called the world's greatest open-air museum, as indeed it is and much more. The number and preservation of the monuments in the Luxor area are unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Actually, what most people think of as Luxor is really three different areas, consisting of the city of Luxor on the east side of the Nile, the town of Karnak just north of Luxor, and Thebes, which the ancient Egyptians called Waset, which is on the west side of the Nile across from Luxor. Today, Luxor is well equipped to accommodate tourists with many hotels and, in general, a tourist industry ready and willing to serve the people from across the globe that descend on this area of the Nile Valley every year. Within Luxor, there are only three main streets consisting of: • Sharia al-Mahatta • Sharia al-Karnak • The Corniche, next to the Nile. The street in front of the train station is Sharia al-Mahatta and runs away from the Nile where it meets the gardens of Luxor Temple. Sharia al-Karnak, or Maabad al-Karnak, which means Karnak Temple Street, runs along the Nile from Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple. Special statutes that allow it more autonomy than other political areas of Egypt govern Luxor at the Nile. The city has all the amenities tourists might expect, including a variety of hotels, bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
Attractions in Luxor
Mummification Museum
Mummification Museum
Mummification Museum, which has almost anything one would ever want to know about mummification.
Luxor Museum
Luxor Museum
While this is a small museum, most of the relics are from the surrounding area and provide considerable insight to the monuments.
The Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings
This is where the pharaoh's were buried and hoped to
meet their Gods in the afterlife. Tutankhamun's tomb
discovered in the 1920's almost untouched is perhaps
the best known to most of us non-archaeologists. But
he was a minor king in the scheme of things and had
it not been for centuries of looting, the larger
more impressive tombs would have yielded riches
unsurpassed to the impressive haul found in King
Tut's burial ground. For a complete list of tombs
that are open to the public in the Valley of the
Kings see this list from the Egyptian Monuments
site.
The Valley of the Queens
The Valley of the Queens
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.