Luxor city
Open-Air Museum
Luxor;modern life and ancient death live in hamony.
on the Niles east bank, two stately temples
anchor thecity, west bank,the des-ert ruins of Pharaonic
temples embrace
a band of green brought to life by the rier
waters.
there is perhaps no better way to truly
grasp how the historic and contem-porary are interwoven
tan from the air.
In a hot-air baloon, far above building
walls and agricultural fields, the entire city becomes
an open-air museum.
It is then you realize the dream of the
Pharaohs to make thebes, as they calledit, the capital
of the greatast in human history.
the mammoth monuments hae impressed they
named the city Al Aqsur - literally"the palaces" - for
the tmples with their grand
courtyards, mas-sie pylons and fore st-like
hypostyle halls.
Thet tribute remains in the modern name
Luxor, as evolved from Arabic.
On the west bank,85 feddans(88 acres) of
land hae been allocated to the site of the Colossi of
Memnon, which have undergone conservation efforts to
minimize damage from sub-terranean water.
to preserve scenic views for those in luxor
proper, a new dock for cruise ships is being planned on
the west bank, allowing the 
"floating hotels" easy acces to the tombs
and temples.
Visitor centers and tourist villages are
also being built to help regulate the traffic at the
actual antiquities sites and protect this beautiful
yet fragile heritage.
In recent decades, the city has seen a push
to rescue the antiquities from the crush of modern life
.
On the east bank, streets have been
arranged to give the visitor a clear view of Luxor
temple, in the heart of the city, from the entrance of
the railway station.
the temple is lit at night, creating a
beautiful beacon on moonlit felucca (sailboat) ride.
Informal shops and housing have been
cleared from the area around Karnak te mple,
exposing the beauty of the facade of the worlds largest
temple complex.
karnaks courtyard now extends to the Nile,
and visitors standing at the river may even by able to
catch aglimpse of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, high
in the cliffs on the west bank.
the 2.72-kilometer avenut of sphinxes,
which in antiquity connected karnak and luxor temples,
is benig exacavated, with hopes of restoring the
cermonial path through the city.
the ram-headed sphinxes that give the
avenue its name were sacred symbols of the god amon, who
with his wife the goddess mut andtheir son the god
khonsu were the divine triad of Thebes.
On the niles west bank, land of the
set-ting sun, the Pharaohs built their temples and
dugtheir 'hous-es of eternity' with brilliant paintings
and reliefs-a tantalizing hint of the physical treasures
that were lost over the centuries.
Archeologists loe say. 'itis impos-sible to
know the hidden secrets and trea-sures under Egypt's
sand,particulay that of Luxor."
Fortunately, it is possible to enjoy the many secrets
Luxor has decided to reveal.
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