2 Best Sights in Luxor and the Nile Valley, Egypt

One of Egypt's best museums outside of Cairo houses a bounty of statuary, with a particularly great selection from the New Kingdom, over several floors. The displays have thorough descriptions, a rare find in Egypt. Many of the pieces were unearthed around Deir el-Bahri, the area just across the Nile from the museum that includes the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.

The ground floor has several masterpieces from the New Kingdom, including carvings of Thutmose III and crocodile-headed Sobek giving life to Amenhotep III. A newer wing, called Glory of Thebes' Military and Technology Gallery, showcases the royal mummies of Ramses I and Ahmose I in darkened rooms along with New Kingdom chariots and weapons of war on two levels.

On the upper floor, look for carved stones from Amenhotep IV's temple at Karnak before the pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaten, created a new monotheistic religion—the world's first—and moved the capital from Thebes to his new city of Tell el-Amarna. The stone blocks were discovered inside Karnak's Ninth Pylon in the 1960s, reused there by later rulers attempting to erase the "heretic" pharaoh's legacy. Other artifacts include ushabti (small servant statues), a wooden model boat from King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, tombstones from the Christian era, and Islamic-period pottery.

Near the museum entrance is the Cachette Gallery, which shows New Kingdom statues unearthed from Luxor Temple in 1989, hidden to protect them from destruction by later rulers.

The Egyptians began mummifying their dead more than 4,500 years ago, and while they weren't the first ancient civilization to start this practice, they are the best known. This museum walks you through the process of preparing the body both physically and spiritually for the afterlife, using modern drawings before showcasing the actual results. The museum has just one human mummy but several mummified animals, including a cat, an ibis, and a baboon. Displays also show the tools of the trade, canopic jars, heart scarabs, and a vial of "liquid residue" from a stone sarcophagus.

The ticket price is high for this disappointingly small museum (just one room!). Skip it if you've already visited the museums in Cairo.