Temple of Luxor

Ancient Egypt's pyramids are the oldest and largest stone structure in the world. Along the Nile 35 major pyramids still stand. The three largest pyramids at Giza rank as one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. It was on the list of notable things to see which was made up by the travelers during ancient times. The ancient Egyptians also built temples of limestone. They designed parts of the temples to resemble plants. Moreover, many of ancient Egypt's finest paintings and other works of art were produced for tombs and temples. Ancient Egyptian sculptors decorated temples with carvings showing festivals, military victories, and other important events. Sculptors also carved large stone sphinxes. These statutes were supposed to represent Egyptian Kings or Gods and were used to Guard temples and tombs. The Temples were houses of worship. The word temple most often refers to Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Taoist, and ancient Near Eastern and European places of worship. Most Temples are built to honor god, a God, or many Gods. Many of these buildings are considered the homes of gods. Back then and still today worship at temples often involves traditional ceremonies and may include sacrifices. Certain temples stood on sacred sites. The design of numerous temples was symbolic.

Luxor has often been called the "worlds greatest open air museum", as indeed it is and much more. The number and safeguarding of the monuments in the Luxor area is said to be unparalleled then in any other part of the world. Actually, Luxor is really comprised of three different areas, consisting of the City of Luxor on the East side of the Nile, the town of Karnak just north of Luxor and Thebes, which the ancient Egyptians called Waset, which is on the west side of the Nile across from Luxor. The modern town of Luxor is home to 170,000 people in Egypt today. Luxor is the site of the ancient city of Thebes, which was the capital of Egypt from the 12th dynasty (1991 BC) and achieved its peak during the New Kingdom (1539 BC to around 700 BC). Although the mud brick palaces of Thebes have long disappeared, the stone temples have survived. The temple remained buried beneath the town of Luxor for thousands of years, and was not uncovered until a mosque was built on top of it. Now, the mosque remains an important part of the entire temple. Leading up to the temple is an avenue of sphinxes running about 2 kilometers long. The temple, like the neighboring Karnak temple, is a collection of styles and additions from different pharaohs, each desiring to modify the structure with their signature. The temple of Luxor was the center of a very important festival known as Opet. The thrust of the festivities was to reconcile the human element of the then ruler with the gods.

The temple of Luxor was built largely by the King Amenhotep III (who at that time was the ninth Pharaoh to rule Egypt) and Ramesses II. It appears that the temples main purpose was to establish a suitable setting for conducting rituals of various festivals. During the 18th dynasty the festival usually lasted eleven days, but had grown to twenty-seven days by the reign of Ramesses III in the 20th dynasty. At that time the festival included the distribution of over 11,000 loaves of bread, 85 cakes and 385 jars of beer. Each god or goddess was carried in a separate barge that was towed by smaller boats. Large crowds consisting of soldiers, dancers, musicians and high-ranking officials accompanied the barge by walking along the banks of the river. During the festival the people were allowed to ask favors of the statues of the kings or to the images of the gods that were on the barges. Once at the temple, the king and his priests entered the back chambers. There, the king and his ka (the divine essence of each king,