Luxor
is a city in Upper (southern) Egypt. It
has often been called the "world's
greatest open air museum", with the
ruins of the temple complex at Karnak,
Luxor Temple, and the monuments, temples
and tombs on the West Bank of the Nile,
including the Valley of the Kings and
Valley of the Queens. Luxor is an excellent
base for touring Upper Egypt, and is a
popular holiday destination, both in its
own right and as a starting or finishing
point for Nile cruises. It is the site
of the ancient city of Thebes, and has
a population of approximately 150,000.
Waset, as it was then known, was for the
ancient Egyptians of the 2nd and the 1st
millennia BCE, "the city" par
excellence. To its visitors, the town
was almost the center of the known world.
The palatial district, Deba — a
name subsequently altered by Greek visitors
into Thebai, whence Thebes — enjoyed
an unprecedented high position of luxury,
imperial authority, knowledge and wisdom,
religious and political supremacy, artistic
work and grandiose plans.
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