Luxor

Luxor الأقصر ⲡⲁⲡⲉ ⲡϣⲟⲙⲧ ⲛ̀ⲕⲁⲥⲧⲣⲟⲛ
City
From top, left to right: Buildings on the Nile banks, statue of Ramses II, Luxor Maritim Jolie Ville, Luxor Temple, Luxor Museum, Aerial view of Luxor, Luxor Corniche
Flag
Nickname:  City of Palaces
Luxor Location of Luxor within Egypt Show map of Egypt Luxor Luxor (Africa) Show map of Africa
Coordinates: 25°41′48″N 32°38′40″E / 25.69667°N 32.64444°E / 25.69667; 32.64444
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Luxor
Area [1]
• Total	417 km2 (161 sq mi)
Elevation	89 m (292 ft)
Population  (2020)[2]
• Total	1,333,309
• Density	3,200/km2 (8,300/sq mi)
• Demonym	Luxorian
GDP [3]
• Total	EGP 47 billion (US$ 3 billion)
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
Area code	(+20) 95
Website	www.luxor.gov.eg

Luxor^[a] is a city in Upper Egypt, which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Luxor had a population of 1,333,309 in 2020,^[2] with an area of approximately 417 km² (161 sq mi)^[1] and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the oldest inhabited cities in the world.

Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-air museum", as the ruins of the Egyptian temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city. Immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the west bank Theban Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit Luxor's monuments, contributing greatly to the economy of the modern city. Yusuf Abu al-Haggag is the patron saint of Luxor.

The name Luxor^[b] derives from the Arabic qasr (قصر), meaning "castle" or "palace", in the plural form al-quṣūr (“the palaces").^[5][6][c] It may be equivalent to the Greek and Coptic toponym τὰ Τρία Κάστρα ta tria kastra and ⲡϣⲟⲙⲧ ⲛ̀ⲕⲁⲥⲧⲣⲟⲛ pshomt enkastron respectively, which both mean "three castles".^[8]

The Sahidic Coptic name Pape^[d][8] comes from Demotic Ỉp.t "the adyton", which, in turn, is derived from the Egyptian. The Greek forms Ἀπις and Ὠφιεῖον come from the same source.^[8] The Egyptian village Aba al-Waqf^[e] shares the same etymology.^[9]

The Greek name is Thebes (Ancient Greek: Θῆβαι) or Diospolis. The Egyptian name of the city is Waset, also known as Nut (Coptic: ⲛⲏ),^[10] written as

and

.

Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra. The city was regarded in the ancient Egyptian texts as wAs.t (approximate pronunciation: "Waset"), which meant "city of the sceptre", and later in Demotic Egyptian as ta jpt (conventionally pronounced as "tA ipt" and meaning "the shrine/temple", referring to the jpt-swt, the temple now known by its Arabic name Karnak, meaning "fortified village"), which the ancient Greeks adapted as Thebai and the Romans after them as Thebae. Thebes was also known as "the city of the 100 gates", sometimes being called "southern Heliopolis" ('Iunu-shemaa' in Ancient Egyptian), to distinguish it from the city of Iunu or Heliopolis, the main place of worship for the god Ra in the north. It was also often referred to as niw.t, which simply means "city", and was one of only three cities in Egypt for which this noun was used (the other two were Memphis and Heliopolis); it was also called niw.t rst, "southern city", as the southernmost of them.

The importance of the city started as early as the 11th Dynasty, when the town grew into a thriving city.^[11] Montuhotep II, who united Egypt after the troubles of the First Intermediate Period, brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in their expeditions to Kush, in today's northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rose to prominence, even on a world scale.^[11] Thebes played a major role in expelling the invading forces of the Hyksos from Upper Egypt, and from the time of the 18th Dynasty to the 20th Dynasty, the city had risen as the political, religious and military capital of Ancient Egypt.

The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, and the Minoans from the island of Crete.^[11] A Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun.^[11] The political and military importance of the city, however, faded during the Late Period, with Thebes being replaced as political capital by several cities in Northern Egypt, such as Bubastis, Sais and finally Alexandria.

However, as the city of the god Amun-Ra, Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt until the Greek period.^[11] The main god of the city was Amun, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt, the local god Amun rose in importance as well and became linked to the sun god Ra, thus creating the new 'king of gods' Amun-Ra. His great temple at Karnak, just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity.

Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Ashurbanipal who installed a new prince on the throne, Psamtik I.^[11] The city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, the great religious feast.^[11] Thebes remained a site of spirituality up to the Christian era, and attracted numerous Christian monks of the Roman Empire who established monasteries amidst several ancient monuments including the temple of Hatshepsut, now called Deir el-Bahri ("the northern monastery").^[11]

Following the Muslim conquest of Egypt, part of the Luxor Temple was converted from a church to a mosque. This mosque is currently known as the Abu Haggag Mosque today.

The 18th century saw an increase of Europeans visiting Luxor, with some publishing their travels and documenting its surroundings, such as Claude Sicard, Granger, Frederick Louis Norden, Richard Pococke, Vivant Denon and others. By the 20th century, Luxor had become a major tourist destination.

In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the shrine of god Osiris- Ptah Neb, dating back to the 25th dynasty in the Temple of Karnak. According to archaeologist Essam Nagy, the material remains from the area contained clay pots, the lower part of a sitting statue and part of a stone panel showing an offering table filled with a sheep and a goose which were the symbols of the god Amun.^[12][13][14]

On the same day in November 2018, two different discoveries were announced. One was by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities that had found a 13th-century