Luxor (الأقصر) | East bank
- Maximus Nostramabus
- Jun 14
- 14 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Great temples of the ancient world connecting with the universe - Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis 87
What and Why
When I saw these two temples in front of my eyes the first time, I was so in awe that time literally stopped for a few minuttes. Simply unbelievable to know that these temples were built more than 3,500 years ago, so definitely classified in my list of monuments that you have to see it yourself to genuinely absorb it!
The monumental landscape of the East bank of Luxor (Arabic: الأقصر, Al'Uqsar) is anchored by two of the most ambitious and unparalleled religious complexes ever built: the Karnak (الكرنك, Al-Kurnak) temple and the Luxor (الأقصر) temple. Situated on the eastern bank of the Nile (Latin: Nilus), to contrast those blogged in Luxor (الأقصر) | West Bank which were symbolic of afterlife, these stone structures functioned not merely as places of prayer, but more importantly as the cosmic engines of life of the New Egyptian Kingdom (Egyptian: Tawy) (1570 - 1069 BCE). Also distinct from the West Bank, both temples are not dedicated to any cult deities, pharaoh (Egyptian: pr ꜥꜣ) or royalties in death. Instead they highlight and celebrate the general concept of life, cosmology, religion and kingship. They were centres of political authority, economic activities, royal propaganda, and ceremonial performance. In fact these temples and the region have been representing these facets of life throughout the ages, including today where most of the settlements and hotel facilities are located. I have to really say that the grandeur and size of these temples really got the better of me, and I naturally became hugely respectful to them.
Toponymy
As blogged in Luxor (الأقصر) | West Bank, the city name Luxor derives from its Arabic form as 'الأقصر', meaning 'castles'.
The Luxor temple was called 'Ipet resyt' in Egyptian with a surprisingly bland meaning of 'the southern sanctuary'.
Karnak is named after a nearby village El-Karnak (الكرنك, Al-Kurnak), which means 'fortified village' in Arabic. The original name of the temple was 'Ipet-isut' in ancient Egyptian, meaning 'the most select of places'. Again a name without much hyperbole compared with those pharaoh pyramids and tombs.
See
We followed a walking route from north to south, ending our walk into our cruise ship. Both temples sit along the corniche. However we start this blog in the reverse, simply because of the city namesake temple.
Luxor (الأقصر)
Once I arrive at the entrance we were greeted by the single obelisk and the imposing pylon with six standing or sitting statues of Ramesses II (Egyptian: Rˁ msj sw, né Ramesses Meri Amun (Egyptian: Rˁ msj sw mrj Jmn)). Yes all six of them, remembering that Ramesses II was never a pharaoh who shied away from hyperbolic demagoguery and ego-centrism, reminding me of a certain president of our modern times. To add to this self-absorption, the relief depicts the Battle of Qadesh (معركة قادش, Maerakat Qadish), blogged in Abu Simbel (أبو سمبل). Historically Ramesses almost lost this war, but he depicted it as him charging into battle single-handedly, his chariot horses scattering enemies.
As you can see the temple was supposed to have two obelisks, the other one was gifted to France in 1830 when Ottoman Egypt (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت مصر, Eyālet-i Mıṣr) officially presented both obelisks as a diplomatic gesture to strengthen ties between the two nations. However due to the huge cost of transportations, only one was presented to France, which is now standing at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. I could not help but looked in disbelief by the elegance and authority of the imposing temple pylon.
The temple was originally dedicated to the Theban (Egyptian: Waset) triad of Amun (Egyptian: Jmn), Mut (Egyptian: Mwt) and Khonsu (Egyptian: Ḫnsw), the temple was largely completed by Amenhotep III (Egyptian: Jmn ḥtp) and modified and refurbished during Ramesses II's reign. The temple and the site was abandoned since the 3rd century, and engulfed under a hill of sand, almost covering the entire temple. This whole hill was filled with various shops, barracks, settlements and a whole pile of rubbish. It was only in the 1960s that a full excavation was completed.
Amongst the various buildings, the Abu Al-Haggag Mosque (مسجد أبو الحجا, Masjid 'Abu Al-Hajaaj) was built on the sandhill and foundations of the temple, almost right at its entrance. In fact that part of Luxor Temple was a church during the Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) times and then converted to a bigger mosque around the year 640, and then the Abu Al-Haggag Mosque was built over it, making it fully integrated parasitically into Luxor Temple. Bizarre things do happen more than you believe. The mosque can be seen in a much better intact form from the east of the entire temple.
The temple overall layout is quite simple, as shown above. It is designed to converge like a funnel where each successive pylons and courtyards become tighter and more exclusive.
Right behind the entrance is the courtyard of Ramesses II, as shown below. Many of the walls have been graffitied with Christian paintings during Roman times.
One interesting feature, although not noticeable to me when I was there was that the Ramesses courtyard is skewed against the main axis of the temple. It must be remembered that the temple was originally built with an almost strict north-south axis by Amenhotep III. Ramesses II added the grand courtyard and pylon entrance much later. Ramesses II deliberately skewed the courtyard at an angle to connect to the Avenue of Sphinxes (طريق الكباش, Tariq Al Kibash) in order to link with Karnak.
One of Luxor Temple's most elegant features is the great colonnade built under Amenhotep III. The 74 soaring columns, symbolising the papyrus plant, create a very powerful visual experience and demonstrate the sophistication of New Kingdom architecture. The columns shown reliefs depicting important religious ceremonies and royal events. Along the southern wall famously portrays a well-preserved procession of 17 of Ramesses II's sons, complete with their names and titles. Absolutely stunning.
Leaving the Court of Ramesses II, we entered the Colonnade of Amenhotep III. This processional corridor consists of seven pairs of 16-m open-flower papyrus columns.
The space was designed to be a grand entrance hall that funnels into the inner temple. The interior walls of the colonnade are carved with extensive reliefs serving as a detailed, step-by-step manual of the Opet festival (Egyptian: Ḥb nfr n Jpt), a festival celebrating
the fertility of Amun and the pharaoh. The core theological purpose of the Opet Festival was actually to address a fundamental weakness in the pharaonic state: the mortality of the pharaoh. While the office of the pharaoh was divine and eternal, the human body occupying it was subject to error, decay and eventual death. To prevent cosmic chaos (Egyptian: isft) and preserve the universal balance (Egyptian: ma'at), the king’s spiritual license to rule had to be renewed annually. This renewal took place via the Opet inside the hidden chambers of Luxor Temple, and symbolically coincided with the flooding of the Nile and also the harvest of the season.
The reliefs show the transport of the divine barques, the performance of sacrificial rites, and the processions celebrating the arrival of the deities. This is also the wall that was previously infamously defaced by a Chinese tourist, although this is now partially repaired.
Deep within this inner core sit three highly significant rooms, one after the other. The first one is the Roman Imperial Cult (Latin: cultus imperatorius) chamber. The original pharaonic hall was converted by the Romans into an imperial cult sanctuary during the late 3rd century. The ancient hieroglyphs were covered with thick plaster and painted over with classical Roman frescoes depicting Emperor Diocletian (Latin: Gaius Aurelius Diocletianus) and his co-rulers.
Next to the cult chamber display some reliefs trying to provide the ideological justification for Amenhotep III’s rule. Amenhotep's mother was a foreign princess rather than an Egyptian royal, hence his legitimacy had always been questioned. The carvings were made to legitimise this by showing the god Amun-Ra (Egyptian: Jmn rꜥ) transforming into the likeness of Amenhotep's father, entering the queen's bedchamber, and conceiving the future pharaoh. Another form of self-inflation.
At the absolute centre of the inner temple sits the final resting place for the divine statue. Usually one would be expecting the holiest of holy, really cool treasure artefacts or some sort of ultimate massive statue, perhaps I watched too much Indiana Jones! Turns out to be the massive anti-climax: the original shrine was damaged long time back in history and was completely rebuilt by Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος, Aléxandros) during his occupation of Egypt (مصر, Miṣr) during 332 BCE. The walls show Alexander dressed as a traditional pharaoh, desperate to secure the validation from Egyptian. There were literally nothing of note but a small inner chamber. History are full of demagogues and constantly repeating itself.
Avenue of Sphinxes (طريق الكباش)
Connecting the first pylon of Luxor Temple to the precinct of Amun at Karnak is the Avenue of Sphinxes, as above. This avenue (dromos) spans almost 2.7 km and 70 m wide connects the two great temples together. This monumental stone road served as a shared ceremonial stage for over a thousand years. Incredibly, while almost everyone knew about the avenue, as it was well-documented, this whole major artery was fully covered under multiple layers of sands for more than 2,000 years, even though many parts of the avenue and a few sphinx (Greek: σφίγξ) statues have always been visible, especially near Karnak.
The full evacuation started in the mid-20th century and it was only until the year 2000 that the full avenue was fully restored and unveiled. A major national-wide celebratory re-opening event called 'The Opening Ceremony of the Sphinx Avenue in Luxor (افتتاح طريق الكباش بالاقصر, Tariq Al-Kibash Fath Bialaqasr)' was organised in 2021. The extravagant televised ceremony featured pharaonic chariots, a symphony orchestra, and hundreds of performers in traditional dress, recreating the Opet festival between the Temples of Karnak and Luxor.
This followed from the more spectacular event 'Pharaohs' Golden Parade (موكب المومياوات الملكية, Mawkib Al-Mumyawat Al-Malakia)' held earlier in the same year and are both considered very successful events to revitalise the tourism industry of Egypt post-pandemic. I watched both spectacles a number of times on Youtube, and I would be impressed every single time. Literally every minute of it was a spectacle, I would highly recommend watching both of them, definitely no regret.
The event was designed to be a modern revival of the ancient Opet Festival which celebrated the fertility of the Nile and reaffirmed the spiritual connection between the Pharaoh and the triune deity of Amun-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu. The 2021 ceremony recreated this grand procession with artistic precision, with over 400 young performers, dressed in elaborate gold and black pharaonic attire, marching down the illuminated Avenue of the Sphinx. The highlight of the event was the ancient custom of carrying three giant, gold-painted replicas of the barques to transport the statues of the deities from Karnak to Luxor Temple. One of these barques are kept at the avenue for permanent display.
By the way there are two main types of sphinxes parading along the avenue:
Criosphinx (ram-headed sphinx): These statues, featuring the body of a lion and the head of a ram, represent the ancient god Amun-Ra. The ram symbolises power and fertility. Commissioned primarily during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II and Nectanebo I (Egyptian: Nḫt-nb.f), many of these statues were designed to cradle a small, protective figure of the pharaoh between their front paws. These sphinxes are mostly closer to Karnak.
Androsphinx (human-headed sphinx): Lining a large portion of the route, these statues consist of a lion’s body and a human head, typically representing the reigning pharaoh. They were primarily carved to symbolise supreme royal power and to offer divine protection during Opet or other festivities. They are near Luxor.
We actually walked the entire avenue from Karnak to Luxor, I should not lie: it was not the most comfortable and leisurely walk under the afternoon sun. And we did get tired of the more than a thousand sphinxes. After all they do look fairly similar to me. The corniche on my right was more a pleasing scenery.
Karnak (الكرنك)
Karnak was the absolute centre of the state religion. It was a massive, highly bureaucratic temple city where Amun-Ra ruled as a divine emperor. Here, the god and of course the state received foreign tribute, validated military campaigns, and commanded a sprawling priesthood that managed vast tracts of agricultural land, granaries, and mines. The temple covers more than 0.8 km², and the entire construction is technically the largest religious complex ever constructed by humanity. It is not a single, unified design, but rather an architectural chronicle written over 2,000 years. From the Middle Kingdom (المملكة الوسطى, Al-Mamlakat Al-Wustaa) down to the Ptolemaic (Greek: Πτολεμαϊκὴ βασιλεία, Ptolemaïkḕ basileía) and Roman (Latin: Ægypt) periods, dozens of pharaohs added pylons, courtyards, obelisks, and chapels, creating an intricate stone layout where older monuments were routinely dismantled and repurposed to serve as building material for newer, grander structures.
I had to recall I enjoyed a special affinity with Karnak as I was a big fan of the computer game The Tomb Raider: Last Revelation, where Karnak was heavily featured in a number of its levels. When I first played the game, I had not visited Karnak yet and I had been fascinated by it, even until today. However I had to admit that the game bore only little similarities with the real temple, as the layout and size is heavily rearranged for gameplay, it did cast a huge impression on me and got me very hyped up when I got the chance to visit it.
Comparatively I could also see that Luxor is way better maintained and preserved compared to Karnak, although Karnak is way larger. Perhaps this may be explained by the fact that Karnak had been rebuilt too many times.
The alignment blueprint of Karnak is along two primary axes: the main East-West axis that aligns with the path of the sun while a secondary North-South axis that points toward Luxor Temple along the Avenue of the Sphinx, which acts as a procession route.
It was here at the front pylon that the guide explained to us the purpose of these massive facade. In Egyptian cosmology, a pylon represented the horizon (Egyptian: akhet), the mountain horizon where the sun rose and set. Passing through a pylon meant stepping into the sacred, primordial world of the gods. Hence walking through both Karnak and Luxor is an experience passing through the cosmic gateways controlled by these massive pylons.
The photographic highlight of the temple is undoubtedly the Hypostyle Hall, where almost all promotion materials of Egypt tourism come from. Situated between the second and third pylons, the Hypostyle Hall was constructed primarily under the reigns of Seti I (Egyptian: Stẖj) and his son Ramesses II during the 19th Dynasty. The massive hall contains 134 massive sandstone columns arranged in 16 structured rows. The architectural layout uses a highly technical design technique known as clerestory lighting: The central 12 columns are 21 m tall with a diameter of over 3 m. Their tops are carved into wide, open papyrus capitals that flare outward; while the flanking 122 columns are slightly shorter, standing at 10 m, topped with closed papyrus bud capitals.
By raising the roof of the central nave higher than the side aisles, architects inserted perforated stone window grilles, the clerestories, into the vertical stone walls. This allowed sunlight to penetrate and illuminate the hall.
The hall was built as a physical symbolic model of the beginning of the Egyptian big-bang, known as the First Time (Egyptian: zp tpj). The stone floor represented the primaeval mud, the columns mimicked the dense forest of papyrus reeds emerging from the marsh, and the dark ceiling, painted with golden stars and soaring vultures, represented the sky vault of the goddess Nut (Egyptian: Nwt), the goddess of the sky and cosmos. To mere mortals like us however, this is simply every influencer's dream photospot, especially during dusk when the sunbeam appears golden, shining through the clerestory across shadows of the columns. Clearly my family could not escape the mortal's temptation and took as many photographs as we could, like the one below.
After spending the bulk of time in the central hypostyle hall lies Karnak's Sacred Lake.
The lake was primarily dug to serve as home for the sacred geese of Amun-Ra. Later it also became where the temple priests performed their mandatory ritual purifications four times a day. Because the area is not windy at good times of the day, not when we were there unfortunately, the lake becomes a mirror of the surrounding landscape and of course crowded with photographers.
At the northwest edge of the lake stands a colossal stone granite scarab, dedicated by Amenhotep III to Khepri (Egyptian: Ḫprj), the god of the rising sun.
Nearby behind the festive halls of the temple core, are stone reliefs carved onto the walls of this sunlit room document the military campaigns of the great Thutmose III (Egyptian: Ḏḥwtj-ms). However, against most contemporaries who lived on hyperbole, I must salute the pharaoh as instead of traditional battle scenes showing off a battle which he actually won, the carvings depict the exotic flora and fauna Thutmose III brought back to Egypt from his expeditions in the region of Levant, featuring detailed images of foreign birds, gazelles, irises, and seed pods.
From the sacred lake we moved in back into the central core of Karnak, which unfortunately were really ruinous, as the picture above shows. We were greeted by two towering monoliths of solid pink granite: the obelisks. Carved from the stone quarries of Aswan (أسوان), transported down the Nile on specialised transport barques, these monuments were solar symbols designed to catch the first rays of morning light. The shorter obelisk is named after Thutmose I; while the taller one, named after Hatshepsut (Egyptian: Ḥ3.t-šps.wt), is the tallest surviving monolithic obelisk in Egypt, rising to almost 30 m. Hatshepsut ordered its upper half to be sheathed in a bright alloy of gold and silver, so that it flashed across the sky, visible from miles away down the Nile valley.
Recalling her story in Luxor (الأقصر) | West bank, the Hatshepsut Temple in the west bank and the Temple of Karnak are constructed to align to each other, specifically with the temple's axis positioned to align with the eighth pylon at Karnak, which was added by Hatshepsut herself. However this pylon is now ruinous.
With respect to the obelisk, also recalling that her successor and nephew, Thutmose III, wanted to erase her from public memory, he did not destroy the obelisk; instead he built a stone wall around it, hiding it from view but preserving it for modern archaeology. A rare hats-off for a fine noble act.
The other areas of Karnak are still very much in excavation and lift up to the name of the largest open-air museum on the planet. Almost every day something new is dug up or uncovered by archaeologists. Clearly my trip to the two great temples was a whirlwind layman tour and did not do any justice to the level of contribution they made to human history.
Eat and Drink
Fresh sugarcane and its juices are very popular in the area. It is good to have some under the heat. However do make sure you do haggle or you will get cheated easily, even for a few Egyptian pound (الجنيه المصرى, al-junayh al-musraa).
Travel Suggestions and Logistics
The two great temples, as mentioned are incredibly close to each other and are connected by the Avenue of Sphinxes. So naturally they could combine and form a full-day tour, as long as you can endure the scorching sun. The entry fee for either temple is EGP £500, which is truly worth every penny. Usually the cruise ships berth exactly outside the Luxor temple. I would suggest to spend at least a day in each temple. You will not regret any minutes spent.
UNESCO Inscriptions
Thebes, the city of the god Amon, was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms. With the temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, Thebes is a striking testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height.
References
Egypt Monuments
Comments
Please share your thoughts and comments about the blog. If you need suggestions to build a travel itinerary, please let me know. More than willing to help. I would also like to build a bespoke-in-depth travel community around UNESCO WHS and ICH.
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