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Luxor and Karnak Temples

The temples of ancient Egypt were considered the homes of the many the Gods and Goddesses worshipped by the ancient Egyptians. Egyptians believed the temples should be kept well or that the god or goddess would leave and great unrest would result for the country.

There were two types of temples built in Ancient Egypt, those dedicated to the worship of a specific god of Egypt, for example the Temple of Horus at Edfu or the Temple of Isis at Aswan. The second type were built to honour a dead pharaoh. These were called mortuary temples such as the Temple of Rameses II at Thebes.

The Egyptians placed a very high value on the temples and each city had its own temple built for the local god. The people believed that they could connect with their god in a temple and would take offerings and questions to the temple.

There were daily ceremonies of giving offerings and providing for the needs of the gods. The offering was usually performed by the priest in the sanctuary of the temple. Ordinary people were not allowed into the sanctuary of the temple and would have to stay outside. There were also special festivals which would take place at different times through the year. On the festival days the god, in the form of a statue, was carried on his special "barque"  in procession through the city. The processional route would have been lined with worshippers and residents who came to get a glimpse of the statue, even though it was usually hidden with hangings and shaded with great ostrich feathers.

The highest priest for any and all gods was the Pharaoh, who appointed high priests and other priests to perform his duties to the gods. And it was only the Pharaoh or the priest on duty who was ever allowed into the innermost chamber of the temple, where the naos was kept (the shrine built of wood), in which the statue of the god was situated. This they did only at the morning, midday and evening ceremonies. At all other times no-one entered that part of the temple.

The worshippers (the Shemsu) were never allowed further than the outer court, where they could leave their offerings to priests who brought them into the temple.

The most important task of the priests was to ensure that the god was well cared for and got everything that he needed.

Luxor Temple The Pharaohs, Greeks, Romans, Christians and Moslems left their traces in this ancient temple. There is a mosque built on top of the original temple, on what was, before it was excavated, ground level. Evidence was left by  Christians in the form of Coptic cross symbol carved in the walls, and the de-facing of the Egyptian Gods is typical of Christian use of these buildings.
		The Avenue of Sphinx link the 4 kilometres between Luxor and Karnak temples. The best ones are at Luxor temple but between the two temples, on a traffic islands there is a continuation of them. The section of the avenue on the traffic island is badly damaged
Ramases		Pylons at Luxor Temple. You can see how tiny people look by the side of them. At the front of the temple is an obelisk. It was once part of a pair but the other was given as a gift to the people of France and taken in 1865 to be put in La Place de la Concord.
Karnak Temple Karnak temple is the largest and most impressive temple complex in Egypt. There are remains of about 40 temples on this site. The site covers 100 acres of land.
			In the bottom right of the picture you can see a god etched out by the Christians. The coloured god is Amun, he was the chief god in Luxor.
The temple was buried in sand. Prior to it being excavated the mosque, visible at the top of this temple was built at ground level.			This is the Shrine of Seti, a half way point for Amun, Mut ( his wife) and Khonsu, their son a place to rest their sacred barques during the festival when Amun would travel along the avenue of Sphinx to Luxor temple.
The sacred lake, where the priests of the temple bathed		The opposite end of the avenue of Sphinx, this time at Karnak. There was a lined walkway between the two temples so that the gods from each temple could visit the other.
The rose granite obelisk of Hatshepsut, created to celebrate sixteen years of her reign. It is so well preserved because it had a wall built round it to hide it for many years.	The obelisk which came form Aswan is 27 metres high and weights about 320 tons. One of the two original obelisks is fallen and badly damaged, smaller sections of it can still be seen.	The statue of Amenophis ll.
The Great Hypostyle hall, huge columns covering 6000 square metres. It used to have a sandstone roof.
	A marble sphinx placed in the courtyard of Karnak Temple by King Tutankhamen. This was the only thing that Tutankhamen managed to put in there so short was his reign.		To build the pylons (the huge fronts of the temples see pictures 2 and 8) slaves built a ramp from mud bricks, there is evidence in picture 48 where it still exists.