Ancient Thebes

I'm no historian but history is one the things in life that interests me greatly and there are fewer places anywhere that can boast the riches of history that is available in modern day Luxor. There is just so much to see and do that I couldn't manage it all in a 2 week vacation and had to return the following year for another 2 weeks.
At times you can feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things to see.
In the immediate vicinity you have the temples at Luxor and Karnak, with Karnak being particularly impressive due to the sheer scale of it. Across the Nile there is the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut. These are the main tourist attractions for visitors to Luxor but there are countless other sites that are available to visit with the Tomb of Rekhmire being one I would say not to miss due to the impressive wall paintings.
The museum in Luxor is also unmissable, full of ancient Egyptian treasures and artifacts. 
Once the main sites around Luxor have been explored it makes a great base to visit other sites, such as Dendera, El Kab, Aswan, Kom Ombo and many others.
No trip to Luxor would be complete without taking in the sunset on a River Nile felucca.

WHS#61

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Ancient Thebes is one of the most underrated WHS out there. I don't think it gets quite the reputation it deserves, among both tourists and more in-depth travellers, for I dont know, maybe housing not just one, but multiple world-class wonders? For being the peak of Ancient Egyptian history, culture, and art? For being one of the most influential cities in world history? In Egypt alone, Cairo and Giza get almost all the attention, while more in-depth travellers might prefer the more peaceful Aswan and far-away Abu Simbel, but Luxor is in the middle of it all, and I don't think enough people realize that. And it's not only the best of both worlds, it's the best in its own right. For me, the Ancient Egyptian civilization as a whole doesn't get the credit it deserves, either. It's more often remembered for its age, its opulence, or as a great setting for Western media, but really, what astounded me when I visited in May 2018 was how far ahead of its time it was. They made so many developments that we see as normal now, and they left so much more for us to learn by studying their history. And Ancient Thebes was the center of it all. Even though so much is gone and has been replaced by the (not so beautiful) modern city, there's still so much left to experience that other ancient civilizations that had …

It's not every day that you meet the real Indiana Jones, and I'm talking about one of the heads of the archeological team inside King Tut's tomb right when I was visiting the Valley of the Kings. With an extra ticket required and the checker not buying I am VIP Tara Emad I produced mine and descended into one of the quieter tombs. (Seti I currently costs a whopping 1,000 pounds but a Finish lady told me they are closed anyway plus a guide told me it is mainly interesting for hieroglyphics). I was the only one that isn't part of a crew preparing to be filmed inside the tombs, I forgot to ask what for. With hat and no whip but a pouch that should be leather and not say “xxx archaeological team” he was still as close as Harrison Ford portrayed one in Raiders as you can imagine. He was clearly bored waiting and told me about the tomb and Tut more than any guide could ever do (they tend to follow their scripts and don't seem at all excited about doing it over and over again). What was even more striking is that he has been at Dunhuang for 30 years doing research. Actually my story has little to do with Luxor overall so I shall stop with the personal stuff here.

The massive site would take 2 days to fully see everything. One needs to think what they really want to see if they only …

Thebes, what we now call Luxor, is one of the most ancient “tourist” destinations in the world. Already the ancient Greeks came here to marvel at the temples that were built by the Egyptian pharaohs. Later Christian and Muslim generations had much less respect for their forefathers, so it wasn’t until the 19th century that these sites were rediscovered by Europeans. The 21st century has brought Asian tourism to the spectrum: the Chinese are the only nation that dares to come here today en masse. It became especially popular since a visit of president Xi Jingping to president Sisi in 2016, which partly took place in the inner courtyard of Luxor Temple.

The site was already inscribed as a WHS in 1979, with epithets such as “splendid”, “monumental” and “unique and unequaled”. It is also part of our Top 200. Not much has been written about it yet among our reviewers though (sorry guys). Important to know is that it comprises 3 locations: the temple of Karnak and the temple of Luxor on the East bank of the Nile, and the Necropolis on the West Bank. Especially the latter is a collection of many temples and tombs, scattered around a rural area and at the foot of a barren mountain ridge.

On my first day, after having visited the excellent Luxor museum as an appetizer, I started with Karnak Temple. Heavy security measures are in place at this and Luxor Temple: cars are searched, and trunks have to …

The temples and monuments of Ancient Thebes, including the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, are a must-see for anyone interested in Egyptian history. I visited this area found in the modern-day city of Luxor at the end of a three-day Nile cruise by dahabiya in 2012. After viewing many beautiful, smaller temples along the river, I was a bit overwhelmed at the size of both the Karnak and Luxor Temples in Luxor. The columns in Karnak Temple's Great Hypostyle Hall were massive and covered with hierogylphs, and the walls seemed to stretch in all directions. Statues of pharoahs were found throughout both temples, and one of a former pair of obelisks remained in front of the Luxor Temple; the other obelisk was given to France in the 19th century, and can now be seen in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Across the Nile River were a number of tombs, including the famous Tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, and the fascinating mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which were well worth visiting. I enjoyed my time in Luxor, and recommend at least two days to spend viewing the sites (and even that may be too short). I also recommend drinking plenty of water, since I saw at least one tourist faint from dehydration.

Logistics: The great temples in Luxor are on the east side of the Nile in Luxor, while the tombs are on the west side of …

I visited the WHS in April 2010. It is the cradle of ancient egyptian civilization and includes the temples of Karnak and Luxor and the Valley of the Kings with Tutankhamen's tomb. I dreamt of visiting this WHS since I was child and would visit again in a heartbeat! Incredible!

The temples of Luxor and Karnak on the west bank and the Temple of Hatshepsut on the east bank of the Nile are simply amazing for the amount of work and effort that was expended creating them. Today, even with cranes and other machinery it would be difficult, but 5000 years ago it was all done by human power. And then followed all the work of painstakingly carving the designs and hyroglyphs. The effort surely dwarfs any construction project of the modern era.

A visit to the Valley of the Kings and Queens is remarkable. The tombs were mesmerizing spectacles. The chambers might have once be filled with artifacts like the one of Tutankhamon fame. The hieroglyphics were stunning . some filled entire chambers. Some told stories on the ceilings or pillars. It was unlike anything anywhere. This is not a place that one can describe in words. It was very complex and otherworldly. I was much more impressed with the tombs than the great architectural achievements. Many of the artifacts found in the tombs is on display at the incomparable Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Once the religious center of ancient Egypt, the Temple of Karnak was as impressive as they come. And while repeated exposure to ancient sites tends to leave one jaded to a place's importance, Luxor and its surrounds still made for a wonderful place to wander about and image the glory of the days of the Pharoahs

You can cruise up and down the Nile in many ways. As a matter of fact it is quite an industry these days and I heard that over 600 vessels have a permit to operate on the river. Have I known better in advance, I would rather have embarked on a felucca for a couple of days even though I must admit that the luxury of the Mövenpick Nile Cruiser was quite enjoyable after all...

Working our way up the river, passing and visiting the temples of Edfu and Kom Obo my cruiser finally reached Luxor where I had decided to stay for a couple of days. I started with a visit to the valley of the Queens, which is less visited than the Kings and a better place to study the hieroglyphs and carvings in the ancient tombs. The graves of the valley of the Kings are of slightly larger proportions and despite the hordes of tourists it is quite exciting to enter the tomb of Ramses II and the other, since long gone, royalties of Egypt. I recommend you to skip Tutankhamen’s grave. It is very small and really nothing to see. The exhibition in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on the other hand, is the place to go in this case.

The temple of Luxor and Karnak is an absolute must. If Luxor is impressing, Karnak is enormous and top of the pops when it comes to Egyptian temples and I read somewhere that over 80.000 people …

It´s hard to believe that this is the first review for Thebes, since it´s not only one of the Egypt´s, but also one of the world´s greatest archaeological sites and definitely worth a journey. Most people will combine visiting Thebes with a cruise on the Nile, and this is highly recommended - easily beats any Mediterranean or Caribbean cruise! Thebes (as the Greeks called it - it was Weset in ancient Egyptian) is the capital of Upper Egypt and was the country´s centre throughout the Middle and New Kingdoms. It was much larger in Antiquity than it is today, but seeing everything in the area still takes up a lot of time (worth it). On the east bank of the Nile, the Luxor Temple is great, but can´t be beaten by the Temple of Karnak connected to it by an avenue of sphinges, truly a wonder of the world with its huge columns and the impressive hieroglyphs. They are both in the city of Luxor, which offers many conveniences for visitors, but you have to cross the Nile to the west bank to see even more stunning attractions: the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Memnon Colossi, and the Temple of Hatshepsut, all located in a beautiful desert landscape. The tombs of the pharaohs can be visited (at least some of them), and this is something nobody should miss - truly a fascinating experience.