Ruins Fit for Royalty, in Luxor, Egypt

The ancient Egyptian city of Luxor is often characterized as the greatest open-air museum in the world. Within it are the ruins of the temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor; and on the other side of the Nile, the west bank Necropolis is scattered with monuments, temples, and tombs – all sites of some of the world's most legendary antiquity finds.

Regular open-air museums might expand by adding something new. In Luxor, however, archeologists have just expanded the exhibit by digging up something old. That something happens to be a 3,000-year-old city, which, in its own day, was known as The Dazzling Aten.

Since late 2020, when excavation began, it's quickly become clear that Aten was the largest city of its kind in ancient Egypt, and its mysteriously rapid abandonment has left it in such a remarkable degree of preservation, that it has already been dubbed the Egyptian Pompeii.

Since the find was announced last April, Aten has been deemed the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun a century ago. Large numbers of valuable archaeological sites and artifacts continue to be unearthed as the dig continues, and many expect the best is yet to come as the team could uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures.

With Aten added to Luxor's abundance of historic sites, it's hard to know where to start. They make it slightly easier by keeping to a strict schedule of openings at the Theban Necropolis, where only 11 of the 63 tombs are open at any one time.

Among those, Tomb 62 is always open: the legendary final resting place of King Tutankhamun, it's hard to beat – for now at least.

Let us know, and we'll arrange everything.