Tombs, temples and a bustling market

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment/travel/s_399514.html

A rather nice travel article on Luxor, describing both its many archaeological attractions and reviewing its hotels: "Ancient Thebes, a ghost of the centuries, lives on in colorfully painted tombs deep beneath the dry desert and towering columns of ruined temples. This city, built on and around Thebes' treasures along Upper Egypt's life-giving Nile, holds the grandeur of the finest Egyptian monuments dating to 2000 B.C. The vast site has lured travelers for centuries. Greek historian Herodotus described the 'hundred gates of Thebes' after his visit around 450-440 B.C. During Thebes' twilight in 19 B.C., Roman emperor Germanicus found one of the last Theban priests to explain the mysteries of hieroglyphics gracing temple columns, obelisks and walls. More recently, French writer Gustave Flaubert, sailing down the Nile in 1850, described the sensations of a visit in a letter to his mother - 'We finally left Thebes yesterday morning. It is a place where one could stay a very long time and in a perpetual state of astonishment -- by far the finest thing we have seen in Egypt.' Some fellow 19th-century travelers could not resist leaving their names for posterity; temple columns still bear their graffiti, dating to 1804.
The small village of Thebes emerged as a seat of power around 2000 B.C., uniting the cities of Upper and Lower Egypt. During its heyday, the pharaohs of the 'New Kingdom' all lived here, and the accompanying architectural frenzy (80,000 workers toiled on the Temple of Karnak during the reign of Ramses III) still astounds visitors."

See the above web page on the Pittsburgh Live website for the full article.

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