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This chapter explains the situation in al-Qurna during mid-November 1997, at the start of the anthropological fieldwork: the scenario of local and global forces behind what has become known as the “Luxor Massacre,” the sudden collapse of the tourism industry during what otherwise would have been the year's busiest season, and the physical and emotional trauma that resulted for local villagers. The particular conditions of the Egyptian winters of 1997–98 provided sets of circumstances that allowed ethnographic observation of not only social and economic activity in this archaeological landscape, but also of the strategies people employ to make ends meet during such episodes of adversity. The history and plurality of social and economic practices that were found to operate in the Theban foothills became a leitmotif of resilience that connected and gave meaning to much of the ethnographic material, in the process countering long-held assumptions about life and human activity in the Theban Necropolis.

Separating the Western Desert from the Nile River, the natural landscape of the Libyan Plateau's terminal escarpment reminds one of a breaking wave, the rising crest of its Theban Mountain attempting one final crescendo before rolling ashore. Despite the imagery, the Western Desert's Theban Mountain and its foothills have generally been construed during recorded history more in terms of their cultural qualities than their natural characteristics. This chapter seeks to locate al-Qurna within the intellectual space of academic concerns that has given rise to this ambiguity, to reevaluate al-Qurna toponymically, and to situate al-Qurna both geographically and in real time. Its aim is to clarify and to place on record the spatially dispersed nature of the al-Qurna community. Geographical precision establishes a baseline against which the historical development of larger al-Qurna and the dispersal of smaller community units across the foothills can be charted.

Much of what characterizes the people of al-Qurna today is not only inherent in the physical aspects of the surrounding landscape, but also the historical process of archaeological recognition and interpretation that has resulted in the culturally constructed characterization of the Theban foothills. This perspective immediately directs the attention to the historically situated development of western academic involvement with the Theban west bank, necessitating a global perspective in explanation of the particular cultural constructions that resulted from the contact with foreign interests. This chapter argues that the communities of the Luxor west bank represent a case in which the emergence of the originally western academic practice of Egyptology acted as one of those external formational processes, and that it is in this light that the al-Qurna material, at least in part, must be presented and understood.

Compared to other annual mulid celebrations, the August mulid of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qurna is a relatively small-scale affair but it is nevertheless significant. The celebrations take place in the midst of al-Hurubat and the Noble. They begin with a procession to the saint's shrine high up on the hill to fit the symbolic tomb with a new green cloth cover. When the formalities have been completed, the level plain below Ramose's tomb becomes the location for displays of horsemanship. This chapter views and interprets different beliefs which define the character of the Theban Necropolis and the surrounding fields and villages. It gives a striking account of the spiritual claims and cosmological views that compete for attention, access to, and ownership of the physical landscape of the Theban west bank.