The Egyptians called it ipet Amun resjet (the southern women’s house of Amun)
Like the much larger Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple is dedicated to the three Theban gods Amun, Mut and Khonsu. Amun is usually depicted as a man wearing ram’s horns or a tall Ostrich-feathered Atef crown. His wife Mut was considered to be the mistress of heaven and Khonsu was their son who was believed to travel through the sky at night assisting the scribe god.
Because it is smaller, quite compact and fewer pharaohs were involved in its construction, Luxor Temple is simpler and more coherent than Karnak Temple. Although the 18th-Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III (1417-1379 BC) began the temple, his son Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten, concentrated instead on building a shrine to Aten adjacent to the site. However, Tutankhamen (1361- 1352 BC) and Horemheb (1348-1320 BC) later resumed the work and decorated the peristyle court and colonnade. Ramses II (1304-1237 BC) completed most of the building by adding a second colonnade and pylon as well as a multitude of colossi. The Temple subsequently became covered with sand and silt which helped preserve it, although salt encrustation has caused some damage. Because the ground level has risen 6 m since its construction the temple now stands at the bottom of a gentle depression. The avenue of sphinxes lining the approach, a 30th-Dynasty (380- 343 BC) addition, once stretched all the way to the Karnak Temple complex. Though at first glance they all appear identical, actually each face (that of Amenhotep III) is subtly different, some a little plump and others very serious, but all with the mysterious secret smile of the sphinx. Excavation and demolition work is underway to uncover this avenue, buried under the modern city for countless centuries, and it’s estimated it will take until 2030 to reconnect the two temples and realign any ruinous sphinxes which lie in fields and backyards.
In front of the gigantic First Pylon are the three remaining colossi of Ramses II and to the left stands a single obelisk towering 25 m high. A 22.8-m-high second obelisk was given to France by Mohammed Ali Pasha in 1819 and re-erected in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, where it still stands. The First Pylon gives a powerful and immediate impression of how awe-inspiring the temple must have looked in its prime. Its reliefs depict Ramses’ supposed victory at the Battle of Kadesh, with later embellishments by Nubian and Ethiopian kings.
Passing through the pylon, the Peristyle Court is set at a slight angle to the rest of the temple to encompass earlier shrines built by Tuthmosis III (1504-1450 BC), on the right, dedicated to the Theban triad. The double row of columns surrounding the court are shaped into the classic representation of papyrus reeds bound together to form a bud at the top. The east end of the court has not been fully excavated because it is the site of the Mosque of Abu El-Haggag, the patron saint of Luxor and, although another mosque with the same name has been built nearby, this one is still preferred by locals. While most of the mosque is 19th-century the northern minaret is very much older. At the south end of the court, the portal flanking the entrance to the colonnade supports two black granite statues bearing the name of Ramses II, but the feathers of Tutankhamen.
The daunting Colonnade of 14 columns with papyrus capitals leads to the older part of the temple. The walls are detailed with the procession of the Opet Festival, following an anticlockwise direction, decorated by Tutankhamen and Horemheb. Beyond it is the Court of Amenhotep III, a second sweeping peristyle court with double rows of columns flanking three of the sides. None of the original roof remains, and the floor and 22 massive columns have had to be relaid because the rising water table was undermining the foundations. It leads to the Hypostyle Hall with 32 papyrus columns that were taken over by Ramses IV and Ramses VII, who took no part in their erection but still added their cartouches. Look out for the chamber that was converted into a Coptic church during the fourth century. The pharaonic reliefs were plastered over and early Christian paintings covered the whitewash, their colour and detail just recently exposed by a restoration project. In other areas the stucco is crumbling away to reveal the original reliefs.
Beyond is a smaller second vestibule, the Offerings Chamber, with its four columns still in place. Further on, in the Sanctuary of the Sacred Barque, the doors were made of acacia and inlaid with gold. Alexander the Great (332-323 BC) rebuilt the shrine in accordance with Amenhotep III’s original plans, and left reliefs of himself on the outer wall. Also look out for the depiction of a virile Amun, whose erect phallus has been weathered over the centuries by the touch of women who want to conceive. The east passage leads to the Birth Room built because of Amenhotep’s claim that he was the son of the god Amun, who is depicted as entering the queen’s chamber disguised as Tuthmosis IV and breathing the child into her nostrils. The furthest hall has 12 poorly maintained papyrus-bud columns and leads on to the small Sanctuary of Amenhotep III where the combined god Amun-Min is represented....
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