The largest open-air museum in the world

Although modern Luxor is a somewhat sleepy, laid-back town whose entire existence is based on tourism, ancient Thebes (Luxor) would become the capital of New Kingdom Egypt (1580-roughly 700 BCE). This era would become known as the time when Egypt "ruled the East". Her influence, power and authority would extend almost all the way to Kadesh in modern Syria. The long arm of Egypt's New Kingdom would also extend south during the reign of the "Queen who would be King", Hatshepsut, as she send expeditions south to the Land of Punt- believed to be modern-day Somalia. (minus the pirates, they were in Pittsburgh then!)

The quiet community would change forever during the mid-19th Century and the fascination that the western world had for Egypt's antiquities. Such explorers and adventurers as Belzoni, Drovetti and Mariette would reveal a mysterious and glamorous past that would tease pilgrims and travelers. Their discoveries would find people flocking to their exhibits and lectures in Europe.

And then the wealthy who could afford it would cruise down the Nile on Dahabiyyas to this backwater ville in order to see firsthand the "excavations" being carried out in order to "save" these precious antiquities from the Egyptians who were deemed unable to either realize the importance of their artistic past or preserve and protect it. In essence, grave robbing and pothunting burst onto the scene under the guise of scholarship.

All of this would come to a frenzied peak with the work of the British under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt. One of the incredible discoveries in the field of archaeology would occur just following World War One. An Egyptologist named Howard Carter would turn the world upside down in November of 1922.