The Luxor Museum is a small, purpose-built museum in the Egyptian city of Luxor (ancient Thebes). Inaugurated in 1975, it stands on the corniche, overlooking the west bank of the River Nile in the city centre.
After the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Luxor Museum holds the largest collection of items from Tutankhamun's tomb, KV62, in the world. These include his hunting chariot, and various votive weapons. Other key pieces include 26 well-preserved New Kingdom statues, found buried in a cache at Luxor Temple in 1989, the royal mummies of Ahmose I and Ramesses I, and a calcite double statue of the crocodile god Sobek and pharaoh Amenhotep III. Another major attractions is a reconstruction of one of the walls of Akhenaten's temple at Karnak.
The Luxor Museum features a far smaller collection than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but this is intentional - the Luxor Museum prides itself on showing a limited number of important pieces in a clear and uncluttered way, with multi-lingual labelling, that does them the best possible justice. The museum is regularly complemented by tourists as presenting a pleasant contrast to the clamour of the over-crowded Egyptian Museum.
Popular interest in history is peaking like perhaps never before in the 21st century. Films such as Spartan gore-fest 300 have proven big hits at the box office in recent years, and many more ancient world movies – including Centurion, Clash of the Titans and Valhalla Rising– are set to arrive in 2010. TV historians such as Simon Schama and David Starkey are household names.
Highlighted Quote:
“I’ve lost count of the number of times young museum visitors have said, when asked what they’d learned, that they were too busy enjoying themselves!”
