LUXOR

A strip of green in the middle of the desert, tilled fields and in the background the red rocks of the "Libyan chain". Here lies Luxor, one of the greatest capitals of the ancient world. Charming and evocative, with the Nile banks lined with modern hotels, the feluccas that sail along the quiet waters of the river, the small, silent streets of the Bazaar that come to life in the evening with
their colours, sounds and lights.

This is the great, ancient city of Thebes, capital of the Egyptian empire for almost one thousand years, which Homer referred to in the IX canto of the Iliad as "Thebes with one hundred gates" and for which "only the grains of sand in the desert surpassed the abundance of wealth contained therein". The Copts called it Tapé, hence the Greek Thebai, but for Egyptian inhabitants it was Uaset
meaning "the chief town" and Niut. "the City"; it was later on called Diospolis Magna. Its present name of Luxor comes from the Arab El Qousoúr, translation of the Latin "castra" with which the ancient Romans indicated the city where they had installed two encampments In the Memphis era it was a small village where the.

God of War Montu was worshipped and its temples marked the boundaries of the territory. As from the X A felucca, a tourist boat sailing up the Nile and, in the background the rugged mountains of the Valley of the Kings