Nobles Art Gallery — Attraction in Luxor

Hands down, the best stone work you'll find in Egypt.

Unfortunately, Luxor was our first stop in Egypt so we were hesitant to buy any art and haul it around for our entire trip. But after reading reviews and searching online, we came to the conclusion: this place IS "the one". You will not find better pieces in Cairo and most definitely not in Aswan.

There's a few guys who run the store, but the main owner speaks english very, very well, and is a tall'ish guy -- HE is the one you wanna negotiate with, he has more power. Like all of Egypt, they will negotiate on prices but I would not expect to get them to drop prices by 75+% like w/ lamer vendors/hustlers/souks. I would prob start asking for 50% off, but you'll probably be lucky to get 25% off, and most likely, you'll get something more like a 10% discount when it's all said and done -- but don't be bashful as that will not get you ANYWHERE in Egypt.

For reference, the piece we bought (pictured) was $700 USD. Yes, if your jaw is hitting the floor so did mine. But I'm still confident that these are extremely special pieces unlike the $10 versions you'll find elsewhere in the country.

The piece is 13x6x5 inches tall and weights, I dunno, a lot - 25lbs maybe? It's heavy. When we went through security at the airport, it was an ORDEAL. They flagged it, called over an expert, called over a better expert, and finally had to snap pics of it and send them to Cairo to have somebody REALLY qualified sign off that it WAS a replica. Security was like "at least you know you got a good piece!!". They just want to make sure you're not taking an authentic piece out of the country (which is highly illegal, but replicas are OK).

Most pieces in the stores are 1900-1960's replicas. Of course, I'm basing this off of the owners statements but he seemed like a straightshooter. I SCOURED Cairo for similar spots and couldn't find anything even close, I wish we had bought MORE stuff at this store. The scarabs and smaller pieces are also significantly higher quality than anywhere else.

My advice, load up while you're here -- even if you gotta lug a 25lb piece of granite around w/ you on the rest of the vaca. And as always, USD talks in Egypt. If they won't budge on prices ask to pay in USD cash money and you might get...

As you can guess, there’s loads of places in Luxor (and in Aswan, and in Cairo) to buy stone works. We’ve visited a few because we were looking some nicer pieces to take home and, ironically, outside of our hotel was where we found the best selection with the nicest quality pieces.

If you do any tours you’re probably going to be duped into going into some alabaster workshop or some stone sculpting “like the ancient Egyptians did it”-store. You aren’t going to find anything special there. Every store tells you that their stuff is the real thing, will show you some samples “from other stores” that break or burn more easily. When everyone does it, it’s a bit meaningless.

I suggest you go here instead. It’s better priced, there’s a much much wider variety, and it’s much more likely you’ll leave with something...

Simply, the most stunning and gorgeous art gallery, and antique store in all of Egypt. We were mesmerized by the absolute mind, blowing assortment of Egyptian art, statues, sculptures, jewelry, and so much more. My wife and I could’ve spent hours marveling at all the wonderful treasures that aligned the walls. The owner of the shop, Mohammad, was also very friendly and knowledgeable. This museum is located just outside the Sophie town Winter Palace, and it’s a great way to pick up some souvenirs that are much higher quality, and more traditional, than anything you would find in the streets. Just be careful when you bring your children here, because everything was stocked so closely together, it would be easy to knock something over. I can’t wait to come back again and pick up some gifts to ship home to my family...