EGYPT LUXOR

EGYPT LUXOR

Medieval Egyptian scholars were fascinated with the traces of Pharaonic antiquity evident in Luxor. But it wasn’t until the 1822 decoding of the Rosetta stone, discovered by Napoleon’s troops north of modern day Cairo in the Nile Delta that the key to hieroglyphics was unlocked and the monuments could be understood in their true historical context.

Luxor has provided a nearly permanent home to international archaeological missions and their discoveries have captivated generations, the most well-known of which was Howard Carter’s dramatic discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. Even now, in a continually unfolding tale, amazing discoveries are being made. Some scholars predict that 70% of the glories of Luxor are ancient past still lie buried beneath the sands.

The hot,drys climate of Luxor and the relative obscurity of these monuments for millennia, has given future generations a priceless gift by helping to preserve these wonders. At a staggering distance of thousands of years, we can still experience Luxor’s grandeur through the most diverse and abundant collection of antiquities on earth. It’s an amazing legacy – some 450 tombs, a constellation of temples and other buildings and rich inscriptions and paintings, some of whose colors are still as fresh as the day they were painted. Preserving this priceless heritage while making it accessible to millions of annual visitors is a complicated and delicate task.

Luxor is an open air museum one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world. The Valley of the Kings, with its 62 fabulous royal tombs, can bring us back to the greatest discovery in the history of archaeological, the tomb of Tutankhamun.

The ancient Greeks called it Thebes,” City of  Hundred Gates” and its present name derives from al –Uqsur, the Arabic word meaning “ Palace”. But to it ancient inhabitants, Luxor was known as Waset “The City”, greatest of all capitals.

Home to one of the earliest flowerings of human civilization, at its height, Luxor’s population reached one million and the wealth, knowledge and technical abilities of its people made it a centre of the ancient world for more than half a millennium. When its glories at long last began to give way to Memphis in the north, over 2000 years. When the Greek historian Herodotus visited in 450 BC, he told tales of a fabled Thebes whose long age of glory already belonged in the past.