Luxor Museum

One of the best displays of antiquities in Egypt is located at the Luxor Museum opened in 1975. Housed within a modern building, the collection is limited in the number of items, but they are beautifully displayed.

The admission price is high, but it is well worth the visit. Visiting hours can be somewhat restricted, so find out upon arrival in Luxor.

Upon entering the museum, there is a small giftshop on the right. Once inside the main museum area, two of the first items that catch one's attention are an enormous red granite head of Amenhotep III and the cow-goddess head from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Spaced out around the ground floor are masterpieces of sculpture including a calcite double statue of the crocodile god Sobek and the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III (below right). It was discovered at the bottom of a water-filled shaft in 1967.

A ramp leads upstairs to more marvellous antiquities, including some items from Tutankhamun's tomb suc as boats, sandles and arrows.

One of the major items of the whole museum is located upstairs - a reassembled wall of 283 painted sandstone blocks from a wall in the dismantled temple built at Karnak for Amenhotep IV (the heretic king Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty).

There are numerous other antiquities of interest including a couple of very nice coffins. The museum also houses items from periods after the demise of pharaonic Egypt.

On returning to the ground floor, there is a gallery on the left (outbound)where there is a wonderful collection stone sculptures found in 1989 under one of the courtyards within Luxor Temple.