The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by Gaddis and Seif of Luxor. The card has a divided back.
Luxor
Luxor (Arabic: الأقصر) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-air museum", as the ruins of the Egyptian temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city.
Immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the west bank Theban Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit Luxor's monuments, contributing greatly to the economy of the modern city.
The population of Luxor is 422,407 (2021), with an area of approximately 417 square kilometres (161 sq mi). It is among the oldest inhabited cities in the world.
Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the glorious city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra. The city was regarded in the ancient Egyptian texts as wAs.t (approximate pronunciation: "Waset"), which meant "City of the Sceptre", and later in Demotic Egyptian as ta jpt meaning "the Shrine/Temple", referring to the the temple now known by its Arabic name Karnak, meaning "Fortified Village"), which the ancient Greeks adapted as Thebai.
Thebes was also known as "the City of the 100 Gates", sometimes being called "Southern Heliopolis" to distinguish it from the city of Iunu or Heliopolis, the main place of worship for the god Ra in the north.
The importance of the city started as early as the 11th. Dynasty, when the town grew into a thriving city. Montuhotep II, who united Egypt after the troubles of the First Intermediate Period, brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature.
The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in their expeditions to Kush, in today's northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rise to prominence, even on a world scale.
As the city of the god Amun-Ra, Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amun, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon.
With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt, the local god Amun rose in importance as well, and became linked to the sun god Ra, thus creating the new 'King of Gods' Amun-Ra. His great temple at Karnak, just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity.
Recent Discoveries
In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the shrine of god Osiris-Ptah Neb, dating back to the 25th. dynasty in the Temple of Karnak. According to archaeologist Essam Nagy, the material remains from the area contained clay pots, the lower part of a sitting statue and part of a stone panel showing an offering table filled with a sheep and a goose which were the symbols of the god Amun.
On the same day in November 2018, two different discoveries were announced. One was by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities that had found a 13th.-century tomb on the West Bank belonging to Thaw-Irkhet-If, the overseer of the mummification shrine at the temple of Mut, and his wife.
Five months of excavation work up to this point had revealed colorful scenes of the family and 1,000 funerary statues or ushabti.
The other discovery was of 1000 ushabti and two sarcophagi each containing a mummy by a joint team from the IFAO (French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, Cairo) and the University of Strasbourg. One of the sarcophagi was opened in private by Egyptian antiquities officials, while the other, of a female 18th. Dynasty woman named Thuya, was opened in front of international media.
In October 2019, Egyptian archaeologists headed by Zahi Hawass revealed an ancient "industrial area" used to manufacture decorative artefacts, furniture and pottery for royal tombs. The site contained a big kiln to fire ceramics and 30 workshops.
According to Zahi Hawass, each atelier had a different aim – some of them were used to make pottery, others used to produce gold artefacts, and others still to produce furniture. About 75 meters below the valley, several items believed to have adorned wooden royal coffins, such as inlaid beads, silver rings and gold foil were unearthed. Some artefacts depicted the wings of the deity Horus.
In October 2019, the Egyptian archaeological mission unearthed thirty well-preserved wooden coffins that were 3,000 years old in front of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.
The coffins contained the mummies of twenty-three adult males, five adult females and two children, who are believed to be from the middle class. The mummies were decorated with mixed carvings and designs, including scenes from Egyptian gods, hieroglyphs, and the Book of the Dead, a series of spells that allowed the soul to navigate in the afterlife. Some of the coffins had the names of the dead engraved on them.
On the 8th. April 2021, Egyptian archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass found Aten, a 3,400 years old "lost golden city" near Luxor. It is the largest known city from Ancient Egypt to be unearthed to date. The site was said to be "the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamen".
The site provides a glimpse into the ordinary lives of ancient Egyptians, whereas past archaeological discoveries were from tombs and other burial sites. Many artefacts were found alongside the buildings such as pottery dated back to the reign of Amenhotep III, rings and everyday working tools. The site had still not been completely unearthed as of April 2021.
Luxor Landmarks
(a) West Bank
-- Valley of the Kings
-- Valley of the Queens
-- Medinet Habu (memorial temple of Ramesses III)
-- The Ramesseum (memorial temple of Ramesses II)
-- Deir el-Medina (workers' village)
-- Tombs of the Nobles
-- Deir el-Bahari (Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut)
-- Malkata (palace of Amenophis III)
-- Colossi of Memnon (memorial temple of Amenophis III)
-- Al-Asasif cemetery.
(b) East Bank
-- Luxor Temple
-- Karnak Temple
-- Luxor Museum
-- Mummification Museum
-- Winter Palace Hotel
-- Luxor International Airport.
Ozymandias
Ozymandias, which is the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II, is Shelley's most famous work. Here it is:
'I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away'.
