The town of Luxor, the great tourist center of Upper Egypt, Iies on the right bank of the Nile in an extensive depression bounded on the east by the rock walls of the Eastern Desert Plateau. The modern town occupies part of the area of the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, which extended much farther north beyond the temples of Karnak, with its necropolis on the west bank of the Nile reaching far into the hills of the Western Desert. The present name is derived from the Arabic El-Qusur (the "Palaces": plural form of El-Qasr) referring to the mighty temple which was occupied until the end of the 19th century by the houses of the village.