From 1880 to 1900, Luxor, nested in the heart of its temple, was shaped from a “miserable village” to a modern city which offered the best services, and attracted the cosmopolitan society from all over the world. This process was initiated by two men, French Gaston Maspero, head of the antiquity department in Egypt, and British John Mason Cook, son of Thomas Cook, who invented modern tourism, and whose company diligently served the British Empire interests in the region. This “entente cordiale” beforehand, reflected a shared vision from both men: putting Egypt on the global map, in line with the broader colonial project at stake, and manufacturing the newly-born city of Luxor for the Other, i.e. the scholar and the European tourist. This paper seeks to analyze and document the modern history of a territory in Upper Egypt that has been very little studied. Tourism and Egyptology worked together to manufacture Luxor, meanwhile serving European and colonial interests. They both determined its “raison d’être” in the national landscape and for the central authorities (colonial, then Egyptian). Based on official reports, memoires, archaeological photographs, press archives and travelers accounts, this paper recounts the becoming of the Luxor as it is now known, shedding light on the role of tourism industry and Egyptology in shaping modern urban spaces outside of the capital city, and dedicated to a non-Egyptian audience. With its more complete understanding of Luxor’s modern history, the paper then addresses the exploitation Luxor’s heritage sites as a economic resource (for tourism) and in serving the national narrative and struggle for independence.