The massive temple at Luxor, on the ancient site of Thebes, was a highly important religious site that was the center of annual ceremonial festivities coinciding with the flooding of the Nile. In these ceremonies, statues of the Thebean Triad (the gods Mut, Amun and Khonsu) were paraded down the Nile and brought to rest at this temple. At various times this site was a stronghold of the priest caste, an Alexandrian chapel and the seat of the local Roman governor and legionary fortress.
The Giza Necropolis -- City of the Dead -- is better known as the Pyramids at Giza. Almost all of the existing structures in the Giza complex have some funerary significance. The three huge pyramids are all elaborate mortuary monuments for pharaohs, and subsequent discoveries have unearthed many smaller tombs that honor the engineers and laborers that constructed the pyramids. The Pyramids of Giza are the only one of the Seven World Wonders that remains intact.
Utilized as the principal burying place of the New Kingdom pharaohs and assorted nobility from the 18th to the 20th Dynasty, The Valley of the Kings is the site of Tutankhamun's tomb, perhaps the most well known, well preserved and well studied Pharaonic funeral site. Like many of the ancient Egyptian funerary sites, the Valley of the Kings has been thoroughly looted, but the grandeur of the stone structures still stands.
Fittingly, the enormous statue of the Sphinx at the entrance of the Giza Necropolis is shrouded in mystery befitting its namesake. It's not clear when it was actually constructed or why, but it is generally accepted that it it predates the pyramids of the necropolis -- and indeed, the dynastic era of ancient Egypt -- by at least hundreds of years. It is thought that the site for the Pyramids was chosen due to the presence of this enigmatic monument.
