Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple

Entrance of Luxor Temple
File:Egypt adm location map.svg Shown within Egypt
Location	Luxor, Luxor Governorate, Egypt
Region	Upper Egypt
Coordinates
Type	Sanctuary
Part of	Thebes
History
Founded	1400 BCE
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iii, vi
Designated	1979 (3rd session)
Reference no.	87
Region	Arab States

Ramses II in Luxor Temple

Luxor temple at Night

Closeup of temple entrance

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was founded in 1400 BCE. Known in the Egyptian language as ipet resyt, or "the southern sanctuary". In Luxor there are several great temples on the east and west banks. Four of the major mortuary temples visited by early travelers and tourists include the Temple of Seti I at Gurnah, Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri, the Temple of Ramesses II (a.k.a Ramesseum), and the Temple Ramesses III at Medinet Habu; and the two primary cults temples on the east bank are known as the Karnak and Luxor. Unlike the other temples in Thebes, Luxor temple is not dedicated to a cult god or a deified version of the king in death. Instead Luxor temple is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the kings of Egypt were crowned in reality or conceptually (as in the case of Alexander the Great who claimed he was crowned at Luxor but may never have traveled south of Memphis, near modern Cairo.)

To the rear of the temple are chapels built by Amenhotep III, and Alexander. Other parts of the temple were built by Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. During the Roman era, the temple and its surroundings were a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in the area. It is located in Egypt.

Construction

File:LuxorTemple,OriginalObelisks.jpg

The original two obelisks, as seen in 1832. The one on the right is now in Paris, known as the Luxor Obelisk.

The Luxor temple was built with sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila area, which is located in south-western Egypt. This sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila region is referred to as Nubian Sandstone. This sandstone was used for the construction for monuments in Upper Egypt as well as in the course of past and current restoration works.

Like other Egyptian structures a common technique used was symbolism, or illusionism. For example, to the Egyptian, a sanctuary shaped like an Anubis Jackal was really Anubis. At the Luxor temple, the two obelisks (the smaller one closer to the west is now in the Place de la Concorde in Paris) flanking the entrance were not the same height, but they created the illusion that they were. With the layout of the temple they appear to be of equal height, but using illusionism, it enhances the relative distances hence making them look the same size to the wall behind it. Symbolically, it is a visual and spacial effect to emphasize the heights and distance from the wall, enhancing the already existing pathway.

Excavation

From medieval times the Muslim population of Luxor had settled in and around the temple, at the southward end of the mount. Due to the Luxor’s past city population building on top of and around the Luxor temple, centuries of rubble had accumulated, to the point where there was an artificial hill some forty-eight or fifty feet in height. The Luxor Temple had begun to be excavated by Professor Gaston Maspero after 1884 after he had been given the order to commence operations. The excavations were carried out sporadically until 1960. Over time, accumulated rubbish of the ages had buried three quarters of the temple which contained the courts and colonnades which formed the nucleus of the Arab half of the Modern village. Maspero had taken an interest earlier, and he had taken over the post of Mariette Pasha to complete the job in 1881. Not only was there rubbish, but there was also barracks, stores, houses, huts, pigeon towers, which needed to be removed in order to excavate the site. Maspero received from the Egyptian minister of public works the authorization needed to obtain funds in order to negotiate compensation for the pieces of land covered by the houses and dependencies.

Festivals

It has been determined that the Luxor temple holds great significance to the Opet festival. The Luxor Temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of the cult of the Royal Ka, Amun, Mut, and Khonsu and was built during the New Kingdom, the focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-isut) to stay there for a while, with his consort Mut, in a celebration of fertility – whence its name. However, other studies at the temple by the Epigraphic Survey team present a completely new interpretation of Luxor and its great annual festival (the Feast of Opet). They have concluded that Luxor is the temple dedicated to the divine Egyptian ruler or, more precisely, to the cult of the Royal Ka. Examples of the cult, of the Royal Ka can be seen with the colossal seated figures of the deified Ramesses II before the Pylon and at the entrance to the Colonnade are clearly Ka-statues, cult statues of the king as embodiment of the royal Ka.

Shrine stations

Six barque shrines, serving as way stations for the barques of the gods during festival processions, were set up on the avenue between the Karnak and Luxor Temple. The avenue which went in a straight line between the Luxor Temple and the Karnak area was recently lined with human-headed sphinxes of Nekhtanebo I,21, in ancient times it is probable that these replaced earlier sphinxes which may have had different heads. Along the avenue the stations were set up for ceremonies such as the Feast of Opet which held significance to temple. Each station had a purpose, for example the fourth station was the station of Kamare, which cooled the oar of Amun. The Fifth station of Kamare was the station which received the beauty of Amun. Lastly the Sixth Station of Kamare was a shrine for Amun, Holy of Steps.

Defacement

Main article: Ding Jinhao engraving scandal

On May 24, 2013, verified Weibo user Mr.Shen posted a picture of an engraving that read "Ding Jinhao was here" (Chinese: 丁锦昊到此一游) in Chinese on a sculpture. This discovery spurred debate about increased tourism after the media confirmed a Chinese student caused this and other defacements. On May 26, 2013, the engraving was partially cleared.

Gallery

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  Luxor Temple, from the east bank of the Nile

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  Avenue of Sphinxes that once stretched to nearby Karnak

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  A well preserved sphinx

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  The massive First Pylon

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  The red granite obelisk

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  The central corridor of the temple

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  Islamic mosque over pharaonic temple

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  Sitting Ramesses II Colossus inside Luxor Temple

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  Closeup of the same Colossus

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  Amenhotep's colonnade from the peristyle court

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  The east side of the peristyle court of Amenhotep III

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  Roman mural in an inner chamber

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  Central corridor and four colossi by night

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  Closeup of illuminated red granite obelisk

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  Sitting Ramesses II Colossus inside Luxor Temple by night

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  Wall inscription

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  Northwestern part

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  The Abu el-Haggag mosque inside of the temple

A panoramic view of the interior of the Luxor temple, just inside the entrance. The Abu Haggag Mosque, built over the ruins, is on the left.