Opened in 1975, this small museum on the Nile Corniche holds one of the finest collections of Egyptian sculpture in the world, in a building whose layout and lighting show the objects to their best advantage. Open in the morning from 9 to 1 o’clock and again in the evening from 4 to 9 (in winter) and 5 to 10 (in summer) it is a perfect place to spend a relaxing and rewarding hour or two. About three hundred objects are on display, many from the Theban nome, illustrating every period from predynastic to medieval Islam. Among my personal favorites are the following objects, listed in order of their current position in the museum.

Luxor catalogue entry 5:

 This head of the cow goddess Mehit-Weret, a form of Hathor, was found in the tomb of Tutankhamen. Made of wood, copper, lapis lazuli, and gilt, it captures perfectly the grace and dignity of the animal and the divine nature of the goddess who welcomed the dead into the netherworld.

Luxor catalogue entry 34:

A red granite head of Senusret III wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt is a stunning example of the realism that characterized royal sculpture in Dynasty 12. This is a man of regal bearing whose heavy eyelids, wrinkled upper lip are meant to emphasize the thoughtfulness and authority with which the king bore the heavy duties of his office.

Luxor catalogue entry 3:

This granite block statue belonged to Yamu-nedkeh, royal herald of Thutmes III. It is easy to see the inspiration for statues of this type: look today in any Upper Egyptian village at men seated on the ground with their jallabiyas pulled tightly over legs drawn up under their chin, hands crossed over their knees. The face is that of a serene and self-confident man.

Luxor catalogue entry 43:

 This 2.3 meter (5 feet) tall limestone stela from Karnak’s Amen Temple recounts the Dynasty 17 king Kames’s raid against the Hyksos. The Hyksos attempted the conquest of Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. Kames described one of his army’s attacks on thet enemy: “As lions are with their prey, so were my army with their servants, their cattle, their milk, fat, and honey.” When he returned to Thebes, Kames claimed that “every face was bright, the land was in affluence, the river bank was excited and Thebes was in festival.” The small figure shown in the lower left corner is Neshy, whom Kames commanded to carve the stela and to erect it in the temple.

Luxor catalogue entry 140:

 A limestone relief showing Thutmes III wearing the atef-crown. It is a superbly painted and well-preserved example of the magnificent reliefs that once filled the king’s memorial temple at Dayr al-Bahari. One hopes that some day the thousands of other pieces of this stunning work, now kept in a storeroom on the site, will be put on display.

Luxor catalogue entry 139:

A limestone relief of a god from the memorial temple of Thutmes III at Dayr al-Bahari and another example of the stunning relief from this temple. This piece, showing the god Amen-Min, was defaced in the reign of Akhenaten and then very successfully restored during the reign of Horemheb.

Luxor catalogue entry 2:

Arguably one of the finest examples of Egyptian artisans’ mastery of difficult material, this superbly modeled greywacke statue shows the king Thutmes III striding forth to magically participate in temple ceremonies at Karnak. This is one of the most important pieces of sculpture in the museum.

Luxor catalogue entry 155:

This calcite statue of Amenhetep III and the crocodile god Sobek stands over 2.5 meters (8 feet) tall. This monolithic statue is one of the most awe-inspiring ever found in Egypt: Sobek, wearing the atef-crown, sits protectively beside the king, offering him an ankh-sign. The statue was usurped by Rameses II, whose names appear in texts on its back.

Luxor catalogue entry 149:

 A limestone stela of the High Priest, Pia, shows him worshipping Sobek and the goddess Mistress of the Breeze before an ima-tree. The stela was commissioned by Pia’s son, who is seen in the upper register and who, in the text below, prays that the god will favor him.

On the upper level of the museum, the following pieces deserve special mention:

Luxor catalogue entry 183:

 An Old Kingdom relief of Unas-ankh taken from his tomb on the West Bank (TT 413) and one of the few examples of Old Kingdom art from the Theban Necropolis. It is worth comparing the proportions of the human figures on this piece with reliefs from the later New Kingdom. Unas-ankh was the Governor of Upper Egypt in Dynasty 6.

Luxor catalogue entries 159–164:

These examples of Neolithic pottery (dating to a period called Naqada II) are good examples of predynastic pottery decorated with red-brown paint on a buff background and of the often earlier black-topped red ware.

Luxor catalogue entry 4:

A fine example of a scribal statue, this granite piece shows one of the most important officials in the reign of Amenhetep III, the king’s Director of Royal Works, Amenhetep son of Hapu, responsible for carving and erecting the Colossi of Memnon. Amenhetep sits, reading a papyrus scroll that is unrolled in his lap. The folds on his abdomen mark him as a successful man of late middle age.

Luxor catalogue entry 223:

This sandstone wall comes from a temple at Karnak built by Amenhetep IV/ Akhenaten. It consists of 283 blocks, called talatat.

These were found re-used as fill in the Ninth Pylon of the Temple of Amen. The blocks show scenes of temple workmen in storehouses, craft shops, and a brewery. It is worth spending time admiring the details: geese eating grain from a jar, men hungrily gnawing loaves of bread, cattle force fed before slaughter.

The scenes and figures are characteristic of the early Amarna style.

In 1989, cleaning in the northwest corner of the great court in Luxor Temple revealed a cache of twenty-six statues, and several are now on display in the lower level of the museum. They are well-preserved. Note the diorite statue of Horemheb kneeling before Atum. Note also the diorite statue of Horemheb standing before a seated figure of Amen.