Luxor Museum is an archaeological museum in Luxor (ancient Thebes), Egypt. It was one of Egypt’s best antiquities exhibitions in 1975. However, it enjoys a modern building; the collection is narrow in items but beautifully displayed.
Location of Luxor Museum
Luxor Museum stands on the corniche, overlooking the east bank of the Nile River, Luxor 85, Egypt.
Establishment
The Luxor Museum was inaugurated in 1975. It is a two-story building. The range of artefacts on display is far more restricted than the country’s leading collections in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. It was, however, deliberate. The sense is that the museum prides itself on the quality of the pieces, the orderly way they are displayed, and the clear multilingual labelling used.
The Egyptian Ministry conceived the Museum of Culture. Therefore, the Ministry hired Dr Mahmud El Hakim, a top Egyptian architect, to create the plans in 1962. The installation of the museum artworks came later. The Ministry of antiquities could finally finish it between 1972 and 1975.
Collections of Luxor Museum
A central exhibit is a reconstruction of one of the walls of Akhenaten’s temple at Karnak. Among the items on display are tomb pieces from the 18th dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun (KV62). In addition, it includes a collection of 26 New Kingdom statues buried in the Luxor statue cache in the nearby Luxor Temple in 1989. One of the featured items in the group is a double calcite statue of the crocodile god Sobek and the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III. The royal mummies of two pharaohs – Ahmose I and Ramesses I – also appeared in the Luxor Museum in March 2004. it was a part of the new extension to the museum, which includes a small visitor centre.
Guidance
Upon entering the museum, a small gift shop is 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 around the ground floor are masterpieces of sculpture, including a double calcite 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 items from Tutankhamun‘s tomb such as boats, sandals and arrows.
One of the valuable items of the whole museum exists 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 lovely coffins. The museum also houses items from periods after the demise of pharaonic Egypt.
On returning to the ground floor, an outbound gallery on the left. In this gallery, there is a beautiful collection of stone sculptures found in 1989 under one of the courtyards within Luxor Temple.
Admission Price
The admission price to Luxor Museum is high, but it is well worth the visit. Visiting hours can be somewhat restricted, so find out upon arrival in Luxor.