At E£70 the Luxor Museum is overpriced - the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo is only E£50, as is entrance to Karnak Temple. However it does have some lovely exhibits, particularly statues, murals and mummies, all labelled in English. It is also clean, well laid out, and fully-wheelchair accessible. An added bonus is that it is open until pretty late in the evening, 8 or 9pm, and so is a suitable location to visit if pushed for time.
For me, the highlights of the museum are located just to the right once you enter. Down a ramp is the Cachette Hall. There is a superb collection of statues on display here, found only in 1987 buried in the Cachette Court of
Karnak to protect them from invaders. The pieces are individually spotlit and labelled like art exhibits. Top of the bill for me is at the far end, a plum-coloured statue of
Amenhotep III. The 'bare flesh' is smooth and burnished, but his head dress, kilt, armbands and sandals have been left rough to provide a contrast of textures. It really is the sort of statue that needs to be touched - though obviously you are not allowed! With his bruised lips and almond-shaped eyes, his projecting beard throwing a shadow onto a hairless and not overly-muscled chest, this Amenhotep looks, well, alien. I would say that this is the finest statue I saw in my time in Egypt - and it wasn't even mega-bombastic like your Ramses IIs.
Other works in the Cachette Hall include a giant striking cobra, and alabaster sphinx, and a kneeling Horemheb.
Returning to the main museum there is a selection of other fine pieces, from different locations around Luxor. In particular look out for another statue of Amenophis III, this time in white stone, seated with the crocodile-god Sobek. This leads in to 'Thebes Glory', an explanation of the materiel and tactics that powered the expansionist policy of the New Kingdom pharoahs - notably a war chariot belonging to King Tutankhamun. Just up from here are a couple of royal
mummies (no extra charge to enter, unlike in the Egyptian Museum): Ahmosis I, and what is assumed to be Ramses I (discovered in a rather unlikely location - Niagara Falls!).
Circling round to the upper level, there is a collection of exhibits illustrating aspects of Egyptian life - games, or furniture, or sailing. None of it is as immediately appealing as the stuff downstairs, save perhaps for a resconstructed wall from Akhenaten's heretical Aten temple. A busy diorama, it depicts a festival. Akhenaten and Nefertiti are shown with the disturbing physical characteristsics of the 'Amerna style', all pot bellies and elongated heads.
The Museum is expensive for Egypt - but I suppose it still only equates to £6.50 GBP. And some of the works on display are up there as the finest you will see in Egypt. I enjoyed visiting it, and I felt I used my evening in Luxor productively. Karnak and the West Bank necropolis are obviously the two main things to see in Luxor, but this museum is not a bad way to pass an hour.
From journal Sunrise, Sunset: 24 Hours in Luxor