LUXOR

LUXOR — RISE OF THE GOLDEN AGE (c. 2050 BCE)

Luxor — from the Arabic al-Uqṣur, meaning The Palaces — rises on the site of ancient Waset, the “City of the Sceptre,” a name that embodied royal power and divine authority. Known as Waset in Pharaonic times and later as Thebes under Greek and Roman rule, the city stood at the center of Egypt’s political and religious life during the Middle and New Kingdoms (c. 2050 to 1070 BCE). Here, pharaohs ruled as living gods, shaping a sacred landscape of temples and tombs whose scale and ambition still define the horizon. This continuity of power, worship, and monumental architecture has transformed Luxor into the world’s greatest open-air museum — a place where kingship, belief, and stone converge across millennia.