Luxor museum

The excellent Luxor Museum was opened in 1975, and has a beautifully displayed collection of items from the end of the predynastic period right through to the Islamic era. Most of the items were gathered from the Theban temples and necropolis.

A new wing was opened in 2004. The main reason for this wing is so that the royal mummies of Ahmose I and Ramses I could be displayed without their wrappings in dark rooms.

Unlike the Egyptian museum in Cairo, Luxor Museum does not charge extra to see this wing.

Further highlights of the museum are treasures from Tutankhamen and Akhenaton. A major exhibit is a reconstruction of one of the walls of Akhenaten’s temple at Karnak. One of the featured items in the collection is a calcite double statue of the crocodile god Sobek and the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III.

A hall containing 16 statues that were uncovered in Luxor Temple in 1989, can also be viewed.

All are magnificent examples of ancient Egyptian sculpture but pride of place is given to an almost pristine 2.45m tall quartzite statue of a muscular Amenhotep III.
An extension called Thebes Glory focuses on the New Kingdom war machine that was honed against Egypt’s Hyksos invaders (1664-1569  BC) and later unleashed on neighbouring states.

The ferry between the East and the West bank now stops right outside the Luxor museum.