the luxor temple
The southernmost of the monuments of the Theban east bank, was located in the heart of ancient Thebes (nowadays Luxor) and, like Karnak, was dedicated to the god Amun or Amun-Re. A special manifestation of the god was worshipped here, however. Like the Amun of Karnak he is depicted in two principal forms—as the blue-painted sky god and the blackpainted ithyphallic fertility god—but maintained a kind of separate identity.
Luxor Temple provides a fascinating case study in the growth and expansion of Egyptian temples. While it may have been built on the site of even earlier temple structures, the history of the present structure embraces over 3000 years of growth.
The temple’s artwork includes some of the finest relief carving in Egypt and is often very well preserved because much of the temple was buried for many centuries.
It is known that Hatshepsut built extensively in Luxor Temple, but much of her work was eventually replaced. The core area of Luxor Temple as it stands today was constructed by Amenophis III, the 18th-dynasty’s great ‘sun king’. He constructed and decorated a multi-roomed complex on a raised platform that today is the southernmost part of the temple and later in his reign an open peristyle sun court with a large colonnade.
Work was interrupted, however, during the reign of Amenophis’ son Akhenaten who strove to diminish or destroy the power of Amun’s temples. The colonnade was thus not completed and decorated until the time of Akhenaten’s eventual successor Tutankhamun, who officially restored the worship of Amun in Thebes. Ramesses II and III added a pillared court and the shrines of Amun, Mut and Khonsu.
The continuing importance of Luxor is also seen in the complete renewal of the central barque shrine in the name of Alexander the Great shortly after the Macedonian’s conquest of Egypt. Likewise, the cult of emperor worship was established in the temple, with certain architectural features being added or modified, when Egypt became an imperial province of Rome in the 1st century BCE. (Text adapted from Richard H. Wilkinson. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt)
