Where is luxor temple

Visit early when the temple opens, before the crowds arrive, or later at sunset when the stones glow. Whenever you go, be sure to return at night when the temple is lit up, creating an eerie spectacle as shadow and light play off the reliefs and colonnades. The Romans constructed a military fort around the temple that the Arabs later called Al Uqsur The Fortifications , which was later corrupted to give modern Luxor its name.

In ancient times the temple would have been surrounded by a warren of mud-brick houses, shops and workshops, which now lie under the modern town, but after the decline of the city people moved into the — by then — partly covered temple complex and built their city within it. In the 14th century, a mosque was built in one of the interior courts for the local sheikh holy man Abu Al Haggag. Excavation works, begun in , have cleared away the village and debris of centuries to uncover what can be seen of the temple today, but the mosque remains and has been restored after a fire.

The temple is less complex than Karnak, but here again you walk back in time the deeper you go into it. In front of the temple is the beginning of the A venue of Sphinxes that ran all the way to the temples at Karnak 3km to the north, and is now almost entirely excavated.

The philosopher, mathematician, and Egyptologist R. His study concluded that the temple is an expression and summary — an architectural encyclopedia — of what the ancient Egyptians knew of humanity and the universe. Schwaller de Lubicz, R. Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT, New Kingdom Monuments.

Its decoration, most notably the scenes depicting the Opet Festival, were completed by Tutankhamun c. Ramesses II c. In front of the Great Colonnade, he built a peristyle courtyard and a massive pylon, a gate with two towers that formed the entrance into temples.

In the late third century AD, the Romans built a fort around the temple, and the first room beyond the hypostyle hall of Amenhotep III became its sanctuary. Although these had largely disappeared, efforts are under way to restore these to their former glory.