1997 — The Luxor Massacre

On November 17, 1997, gunmen of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya attacked visitors at the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor, Egypt, killing 62 people — 58 foreign tourists and 4 Egyptians. The attack fell on people who had come to see one of the great monuments of the ancient world, and it turned a place of pilgrimage and wonder into a scene of murder within a single morning's visiting hours, in full view of history's stones.

The massacre devastated Egypt's tourism industry and drew worldwide condemnation, and the backlash helped push the militant movement toward a ceasefire. In time, the world came back to Luxor, to remember the dead and honor the living heritage they had come to see.