Luxor Temple
the Southern Opet and The Place of the First Occasion
Luxor Temple – Ipt Rsyt, the Southern Opet and the place of the first occasion was largely the product of two kings: Ramesses II (1290-1224 BC) and Amenhotep III (1391-1353 BC). One of the largest and best preserved of all Egypt’s temple monuments, it is distinguished by an elegant simplicity and beauty that set it apart from Amun’s labyrinthine palace at Karnak and make it one of the most popular sites in Egypt.
The temple consists of the main Entrance which is formed by the pylon of Ramesses II, with 6 colossal statues of himself: 2 sitting & 4 standing, but only the 2 sitting and 1 standing are survived in front of the pylon. Also Ramesses II erected 2 granite obelisks on the occasion of his royal jubilee. The left one that is 25 meters long is still on its original place & carved with the king’s names & titles while the right obelisk which is 23m long is in Paris since 1836.
The Luxor Temple was devoted to the Theban Triad of Amun, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu during the New Kingdom. The yearly Opet Festival, during which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-sut) to dwell with his wife Mut for a while, was held to promote Amun-Re and the Pharaoh’s fertility. Other research conducted at the temple by the Epigraphic Survey team, on the other hand, offers an entirely fresh perspective on Luxor and its enormous annual opet festival.
The temple was constructed on the east bank of the Nile River in 1392 BCE
Luxor Tours & Activities
Looking to save some costs on your travel? Why not join a shared group tour to explore Luxor, Egypt? Here are some activities you might be interested in:
Amun’s Theban complex
The original Luxor temple was built at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, when Amun-Re’s cult was established in Ancient Thebes. Luxor temple, Karnak Temple, a small Amun temple at Medinet Habu, and the king’s mortuary temples were all part of Amun’s Theban complex. Hatshepsut and Thutmose III dismantled and rebuilt Luxor temple around 1500 BC, and Amenhotep III rebuilt the enlarged temple proper to its present size around 1375. The eastern sanctuaries and outer wall were dismantled in the late 3rd century AD, when the Roman Emperor Diocletian enclosed Luxor Temple within a gigantic Roman fortress or castrum.
In the sanctuary, a chamber originally associated with the cult of the Pharaoh was blocked off and rededicated to the imperial cult. The Romans took down the eastern wall and sanctuaries and rebuilt them as a Roman style columned north anta survives today intact. The south anta was taken down sometime in the medieval period. The Amenhotep III blocks in this area all come from the south anta, and originally formed the side and back walls of the eastern sanctuaries. Many of the blocks join to form sections of the sanctuary walls.
One of the largest and best preserved of all Egypt’s temple monuments
Great Colonnade Hall
Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC) began construction of the great Colonnade Hall at the end of his reign, but died before it was completed. Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC) finished the structure and was responsible for the decoration of most of the inner walls, but died before the decoration could be finished. King Ay (1327-1223 BC) finished the decoration of the southern end of the hall (in paint, the carving was later finished by Seti I), and carved the facade. His successor Horemheb (1323-1308 BC) erased both kings’ names and replaced them with his own.
In the time of Tutankhamun the Colonnade Hall side walls were as high as the columns, and the whole hall was roofed with great stone slabs. The roof collapsed in the 1st century BC, and the stone blocks of the walls were later quarried and reused as building material around Luxor temple in the medieval period. Many wall fragments were recovered in the late 1950s during excavations which exposed the alleyway of sphinxes in front of the temple. 42 of these fragments will be restored here on the inner face of the wall and will complete part of the Opet water procession, including the divine barge of the god Khonsu and its towboats.
Peristyle Courtyard
Past the pylon gateway one finds himself into Ramesses II’s great entrance court of papyrus bud columns and colossal statuary. The court was brilliantly designed to help support the pylons and forms a single architectural unit with them. Between the columns of the southern half of the court Ramesses II placed colossal granite and granodiorite striding statues of himself beside similar statues of pharaoh Amenhotep III, who was responsible for building the rest of the temple. In this way Ramesses II associated himself with his famous predecessor and shared responsibility for the magnificence of the temple. Just before the celebration of his 1st heb sed or jubilee in his 13th year, Ramesses II erased all of the names on Amenhotep III’s statues and replaced them with his own, absorbing the earlier king’s identity in the process.
The northeast corner of the court is taken up by two larger structures, one built atop the other. Sometime around 6th century AD a Coptic church was constructed in this court, which later was filled in and became the platform for the later Mosque of Abu el-Haggag, which still rises above it. The original tiled entrance to the mosque can be seen adjacent to the pylon entryway high above the ancient ground level. This entrance to the mosque was used until fairly recently; excavations in the court in the 1960s necessitated the shifting of the entrance to the east, to the city side of the mosque. The functioning mosque makes Luxor Temple one of the rare sites in Egypt that has been a place of continuous worship since at least 2000 BC.
Avenue of Sphinxes
The Avenue of Sphinxes went in a straight line between the Luxor Temple and the Karnak area was lined with human-headed sphinxes of Nekhtanebo, in ancient times it is probable that these replaced earlier sphinxes which may have had different heads. The avenue of human headed sphinxes of over one and a half miles (3 km) once connected the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Around 1,350 sphinx statues are thought to have lined this road together with barque chapels stocked with offerings.
First Pylon
The entrance, first pylon also known as the Pylon of Ramesses II, was flanked by six massive statues of Ramesses, two seated and four standing, but unfortunately only two seated statues are still relatively intact. One of the of the two granite obelisks of Ramesses, the other now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The pylon was half buried in sand until the 1880s but when cleared it revealed two towers measuring 24 meters high and 65 meters wide. They are carved in sunken relief depicting Ramesses at the battle of Kadesh.
Sun Court of Amenhotep III
Peristyle sun court built by Amenhotep III features double rows of papyrus columns with barque shrines for Mut and Khonsu at the southern end. Decorations depict the coronation of Amenhotep III by the gods. To the right is the 32 columned vestibule which allows access to the inner santum of the temple. The Court of Amonhotep III measures 148 feet long (45 m) by 184 feet wide (56 m), with double rows of papyrus columns on three sides. The northern end was originally the entrance to the temple.
The solar court at West Thebes is nearly identical to the court in front of Amenhotep III’s funeral temple. Both have a front end that is somewhat broader than the back end. An optical illusion would have contributed to the depth of the court’s viewpoint and increased its effect. From the reign of Amenhotep III until Alexander the Great, it was lavishly decorated. Scenes of Amenhotep III, Amun, and others, including Alexander the Great, may be seen.
Serapis Chapel
This structure was probably erected in the 1st Century AD but was reconstructed by Gaius Julius Antoninus, a former soldier and neokoro (temple attendant) of Serapis. This Serapeum was a Peripteros-temple, meaning that it was surrounded by a portico, unlike most Roman sanctuaries of Sarapis and Isis, which are prostyle, with columns in front.
The platform on which the temple is built measures 12 by 8 meters. Several niches for statues were cut in the outer temple walls. The back of the cella is occupied by a brick bench originally almost a meter high, which supported a series of statues.
Roman Sanctuary
The apse of the Roman sanctuary, it was converted in to a church cira 300 CE after the Diocletian’s persecution of Christians in Egypt. It was transformed, and an apse installed during the Era of the Martyrs along with a few other churches around the site. The small entrance in the apse leads to the offering hall of Alexander the Great. t was here in Luxor that in 1989 workers found a deep pit containing a large quantity of statuary, buried probably in the 4th century CE during the installation of a cult of the deified Roman emperor.
Roman Fortress
During the Roman era, the temple and its surroundings were a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in the area. Romans took control of Thebes and the Luxor Temple in about 250 CE, they turned the whole of the Luxor complex into a fortified garrison, and this building is only one of many major building projects they undertook at that time. Over time several structures were converted in to cult shrines and later in to churches.
Abu el-Haggag Mosque
The “Abu-El-Haggag Mosque” in Luxor is a rare mixture of Islamic and Coptic civilization, where you can pray over the ruins of an ancient church and an ancient Pharaonic temple, with its walls surrounding you from every direction. The Mosque of Abu-El-Haggag, Al-Aqsa or the Mosque of Abu-El-Haggag as the public calls it is a mosque in the Egyptian city of Luxor. It belongs to the Sufi, “Yusef bin Abdul Rahim bin Yusef bin Isa Al Zahid,” known as Abu-El-Haggag, Al-Aqsa who is buried inside it. It is located on the top of the ruins of Luxor Temple an Ancient Egyptian dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. An architectural masterpiece in the heart of the Luxor Temple. Its unique design and its mediation of an archaeological mass that tourists visit made it attractive to visitors, as the Abu-El-Haggag Al-Aqsa Mosque was built in the heart of the Luxor Temple, which distinguished it from other mosques.
F.A.Q
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The temple was constructed on the east bank of the Nile River in 1392 BCE and is devoted to the gods Mut, Khonsu, and Amun. Pharaoh Amenhotep III started work on it, and Pharaoh Tutankhamun finished it. The enormous Luxor Temple has eight parts.
This is because Luxor Temple was the site of one of the most important ancient Egyptian religious celebrations, The Luxor Temple was devoted to the Theban Triad of Amun, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu during the New Kingdom. The annual opet festival, during which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-sut) to dwell with his wife Mut for a while, was held to promote Amun-Re and the Pharaoh’s fertility.
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