LUXOR MUSEUM
Why visit a museum in Luxor, you may ask, when the entire
town can be thought of as an open air museum with antiquities and treasures lying
almost everywhere you look? The answer is that every item in this small,
permanent exhibit is a priceless masterpiece, lit and displayed to perfection.
Here you will find key discoveries from decades of excavations, the space and
quiet to enjoy them and the description to understand them.
Located on the
cornice about half way between the Karnak and Luxor Temples, the museum can be
an ideal break on a journey between the two.
One of the recurrent themes in temple art is the Pharaoh in
his chariot, with arms extended, his bow and arrow drawn. In the Luxor museum
you will see the bows and arrows and a perfectly intact charit, its leather
bound wheels and wooden yoke looking as ready as ever for a pair of feisty
streets. On a softly illuminated platform in a darkened room lies the mummy of
an unknown Pharaoh, who strange fate was to travel to Canada in the luggage of
a 19th century tourist as a souvenir and is now reunited with his
ancestral home.
MUMMIFICATION MUSEUM
Across from the Luxor Museum, take the stairs from the
cornice down towards the Nile and spend a lively half-hour contemplating the
immortal dead. Aside from humans, some animals sacred to the gods enjoyed the
status of mummification, including crocodiles, fully grown and infant, rams and
baboons. The art and science of mummification was an Egyptian specialty and
this tastefully organized little museum shows how, and with what ingredients,
it was done.
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