Al-Uqsur, in Arabic or Luxor meaning the Palaces was a small Nile village famous only for the annual festival with which it celebrated the renowned 13th-ccntury Sufi Shaykh Ynsuf Abu al-Hajjaj.
In the early 19th century, however, French archaeologists discovered that the village indeed deserved its name. Beneath the mosque that was built around Shaykh Yusuf's tomb, a vast temple lay buried.
As the temple was excavated the mosque was left intact and is still in use today. Therefore, from ancient times, through the Christian period and into the present this patch of earth has been a place of devout worship.