Luxor Astrip of green in the middle of the desert, tilled fields and in the background the red rocks of the “Libyan chain”. Here lies Luxor, one of the greatest capitals of the ancient world. Charming and evocative, with the Nile banks lined with modern hotels, the felucas that sail along the quiet waters of the river, the small, silent streets of the Bazaar that come to life in the evening with their colours, sounds and lights.This is the great, ancient city of Thebes, capital of the Egyptian empire for almost one thousand years, which Hover referred to in the IX can to of the Iliad as “Thebes with one hundred gates” and for which “only the grains of sand in the desert surpassed the abundance of wealth contained therein”. The Copts called it Tapé, hence the Greek Thebai, but for Egyptian inhabitants it was Uaset,