The Temple of Mut at the Luxor Hotel

In 1896, Margaret Benson, known to her friends as Maggie, began excavating at the Temple of Mut, in Karnak, near the village of Luxor, Egypt. She was the first woman to be granted official permission to excavate in Egypt, making this a groundbreaking season. She also centered the work of the excavation at the Luxor Hotel, about 2 miles away from the site. The Luxor Hotel was comfortable, well-appointed and heavily British. Benson therefore made it a center of knowledge creation and dissemination for the excavation. Benson was not the first archaeologist to do this, but she was the first woman to do so, and the hotel setting would have a major impact on the excavation and her life going forward. This talk will detail Benson’s three years of excavation and staying at the Luxor Hotel, culminating in the first major publication of the site, The Temple of Mut in Asher (1899) with her partner Janet Gourlay.