Food

While no gourmet’s paradise, Luxor serves up better fare than most temple-hugging towns. Its menus are a little longer, its dishes are a little stranger, and its restaurants have a little more charm. Many of Luxor’s affordable culinarias huddle around the train station and to the north of Luxor Temple on Al-Kamak St. Luxor’s best deal for food is the kushari stand on your left as you walk down Al-Mahatta St. from the station (LEI per plate). There is also an excellent ta ‘amiya (falafel) stand on Al-Karnak St. behind Luxor Temple. And be sure to try kibda (liver) sandwiches. The local souk runs parallel to Al-Karnak, beyond the tourist shops.

New Karnak Student Restaurant, next to the hotel of the same name Orange interior. Specializes in tasty omelettes (cheese, chicken, or Spanish, all LE2.5O) and soups (75pt-LE1.50). Drinks 75pt, ice cream 90pt. Open 7:30am-10:30pm.

Salt and Bread, in front of train station. Shisb tawouk (chicken shishkabab) LE7, ^chicken LE6, Wchicfcen LE3. Omelettes LE2.50, veal steaks LE7. Lots of outdoor seating; indoors not as appetizing.

El Houda, Television St., about 150m beyond bus station; look for disco lights at entrance and pictures of demonic-looking chef. A long menu, including hearty, tilling pizza with a slight Egyptian twist (LE4-4.50), shish tawouk (LE5), J4chicken (LE3.5O), and drinks (LEI). Breakfasts coming soon.

Restaurant Khased Khear, on Al-Mahatta St. about a block up from the train station, on the right side. One of the best places for traditional Egyptian food. Risk your spinal cord on the skinny spiral staircase for some privacy upstairs, a luxury.

Prom the landing at the southern tip of the island, climb the short slope up to the rnnle complex past Philae’s oldest structure, the Portico of Nectanebo. The ed Dortico once formed the vestibule of an ancient temple. The larger edifice h^been washed away, but the eastern side of the colonnade remains unfinished. At the first pylon, towers rise to a height of 18m on either side of the main entrance to the temple. Through this entrance is the central court, on the western edge of hich reclines a Roman mammish, its elegant columns emblazoned with the head of the cow-goddess Hathor. To the north is the slightly off-tenter second pylon,marking the way to the temple’s inner sanctum. The pronaos (vestibule) was converted into a church by early Christians who inscribed Byzantine crosses on the chamber walls and added a small altar. Farther north is the naos, the temple’s innermost sanctuary. For baksheesh you can climb to the roof of the temple, but the paranoid guard will make you hurry and keep your head down so that you may not be able to see anything.