Holidays With Mummy

If you're looking for a winter holiday with a difference, why not consider the Egyptian city of Luxor? Once known as Thebes, the capital of Ancient Egypt, Luxor is one of the most popular and well-known of all the Egyptian destinations, and with good reason.

The City of Luxor comprises of many museums and temples relating to Egypt's fascinating history; the Mummification Museum takes the morbidly curious through the whole process of mummification from receiving the bodies, retaining the organs in canopic jars to interring them in the often lavish, complex tombs underneath the symbolic pyramids. Welcoming the visitors to this one-room museum is the fittingly placed statue of the jackal-headed god Anubis, who once led the souls of the dead to the Underworld

The Luxor Museum, also within the main city, focuses more on the artwork of Ancient Egypt rather than the burial customs, and features a small but impressive collection of artefacts, statues and sculptures dating from the Predynastic Period (5500 - 3100 BC) right through to the Islamic era (622 AD). Exquisitely carved granite portraits of Ancient Egyptian royal figures such as Amenhotep, Rameses and Tutankhamun are displayed in low-lit, peaceful surroundings - the perfect place to spend an afternoon away from the hot Luxor sun.

Heading north brings you to Karnak, and the spectacular temple complex built over a period of around 1500 years. Karnak was the centre of the Egyptian religion, and was the most important place of worship in the ancient kingdom. The temple complex of Karnak measures 1500 x 800 metres, and is thought to be the largest of its type in the world.

But for a real taste of ancient Egypt, head west to Thebes, also known as the West Bank. Here you can visit and explore actual burial tombs, and see the surroundings in which Pharaohs such as Tutankhamun, Seti II and several generations of Rameses chose to be eternally preserved. There are three areas to the Theban necropolis; the well-known Valley of the Kings housing the Pharaohs, the Valley of the Queens which contains the mummies of Egyptian Queens and their children, and a separate area for tombs of Egyptian noblemen and women.