Coptic farmer at Anba Bakhom Church, near Al Uqsur, Egypt

Coptic refers to the national Christian church of predominantly Muslim Egypt. Egyptians before the Arab conquest of the 7th century identified themselves and their language as Aigyptios in Greek (Westernized as Copt) and later when Egyptian Muslims stopped calling themselves Aigyptioi, the term became the distinctive name of the Christian minority. With the village of Karnak, Luxor (Al Uqsur) is on the site of ancient Thebes. It is noted for having ruins of many temples and burial grounds. When Thebes declined, Luxor remained the more heavily populated part of the ancient city and grew into a modern market town. [The J. P. Getty Fund: Thesaurus of Geographical Names]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was working on "The Nile" project and traveled to Africa from March 14, 1961 to March 31, 1961, visiting Egypt.