-Luxor Temple :
Luxor Temple, Ipet-resyt “Southern Sanctuary” to the ancient Egyptians, was so called
because of its location within ancient Thebes (modern Luxor). It is located around three
kilometers to the south of Karnak Temple, to which it was once linked with a processional
way bordered with sphinxes. The oldest evidence for this temple dates to the Eighteenth
Dynasty (c.1550–1295 BC).
Ipet-resyt, unlike most other ancient Egyptian temples, is not laid out on an east-west axis,
but is oriented towards Karnak. This is because Luxor Temple was the main venue for one
the most important of ancient Egyptian religious celebrations, when the cult images of
Amun, his wife Mut, and their son, the lunar god Khonsu, were taken from their temples in
Karnak, and transported in a grand procession to Luxor Temple so they could visit the god
that resides there, Amenemopet. This was the Opet Festival.
Luxor Temple was not built by one single ruler. The oldest existing structure, a shrine,
dates to the reign of Hatshepsut (c.1473–1458 BC). The core of the temple was built by
Amenhotep III (c.1390–1352 BC). One of the inner rooms contains a series of scenes that
are known as the Divine Birth. They tell the amazing story of how the king’s true father was
none other than the god Amun-Ra himself, disguised as Thutmose IV (c.1400–1390 BC).
The core of the temple is preceded by a columned hall fronted by a courtyard with columns
around its perimeter. Amenhotep III also built the Great Colonnade, which consists of two
rows of seven colossal columns. Its decoration, most notably the scenes depicting the Opet
Festival, were completed by Tutankhamun (c.1336–1327 BC) and Horemheb (c.1323–1295
BC).
Ramesses II (c.1279–1213 BC) made many additions to Luxor Temple. 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 addition to many colossal statues, the pylon was also
fronted by a pair of 25-meter-high obelisks made by this great king, but only one remains
in place; the other has been at the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836.
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. The original wall reliefs
were covered with plaster, and painted in the Graeco-Roman artistic style, depicting
Emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD) and his three coregents. Although these had largely
disappeared, efforts are under way to restore these reliefs to their former glory.

-KARNAK TEMPLE :
The Great Temple of Amon at Karnak, This great national monument of Egypt has no
equal. It is not a single temple, but temple within temple, shrine within shrine, where
almost all the pharaohs, particularly of the New Kingdom, wished to record their names
and deeds for posterity. Though most of the structures were built in honour of Amon-Ra,
his consort Mut and son Khonsu, there were numerous shrines within the complex
dedicated to what might be called “guest deities’, like Ptah of
Memphis and Osiris of Abydos.
As successive pharaohs replanned entrance pylons, erected colonnades and
constructed temples, they often reused valuable blocks from earlier periods. In the core
of the Third Pylon built by Amenhotep III, for example, there were blocks of no less than
ten temples and shrines from earlier periods. In cases where it was found necessary to
remove a construction completely (either for purposes of design, for political reasons, or
in times of threat of war), the temple or shrine was carefully dismantled and buried.
The Sun Temples of Akhenaten suffered this fate. Thousands of distinctly uniform,
decorated sandstone blocks, known as talataat, were buried beneath the Hypostyle
Hall and the Second Pylon, as well as within the core of the Ninth and Tenth Pylons.
One of the most challenging problems facing Egyptologists today is to trace the history
of the temple of Amon at Karnak through such reused or buried evidence.

-Medinet Habu :
Medinet Habu is the name which has been given to the ancient Mortuary Temple of Ramesses
III which is located on the West Bank in Luxor. The area where it stands is also called Medinet
Habu, and for this reason, many people refer to the temple as “Medinat” Habu. The temple
dates back to the New Kingdom period, and its most famous for its vast amount of well
preserved reliefs and massive statues of Ramesses III. Visit this amazing monument and many
others with one of a totally flawless
Medinet Habu is the second largest ancient temple ever discovered in Egypt, covering a total
area of more than 66,000 square meters. The temple, which is one of the top Luxor tourist
a2racons, was built specifically as a mortuary temple by Ramesses III who was the second
pharaoh of the 20th dynasty, and also the last great pharaoh of the New Kingdom. While the
temple was built for Ramesses III to pracce mortuary rituals, it was also used as a place for
worshiping the god Amun.
Given its vast size and grandeur, some historians and Experts have speculated that Ramesses III
had actually a2empted to rival the temple built by the great Ramesses II which coincidentally is
also located nearby on the West Bank.

-The Ramesseum Temple :
Ramesseum Temple is located on the West Bank of Luxor. It originally served as the
mortuary temple of Ramses II, whose 67 years rule saw the creation of many fabulous
public buildings and architectural wonders. While this site is typically not featured in our
epic Egypt tour packages or our range of Nile River cruises, we can add it to any one of
our tour itineraries if requested, Arguably the most famous Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty,
Ramses II is perhaps the greatest monument builder in the history of Dynastic Egypt.

-Abydos :

is one of the oldest cies of ancient Egypt, and also of the eighth nome in Upper Egypt. It is
located about 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) west of the Nile at latude 26° 10′ N, near the modern
Egypan towns of El Araba El Madfuna and El Balyana. a name borrowed by Greek geographers
from the unrelated city of Abydos on the Hellespont. Abydos name in hieroglyphs
Abydos_(Ancient_Egypt).
Considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt, the sacred city of Abydos
was the site of many ancient temples, including Umm el-Qa’ab, a royal necropolis where early
pharaohs were entombed. These tombs began to be seen as extremely significant burials and in
later mes it became desirable to be buried in the area, leading to the growth of the town’s
importance as a cult site.
Today, Abydos is notable for the memorial temple of Se I, which contains an inscripon from
the Nineteenth Dynasty known to the modern world as the Abydos King List. This is a
chronological list showing cartouches of most dynasc pharaohs of Egypt from Menes unl Se
I’s father, Ramesses I. It is also notable for the Abydos graffi, ancient Phoenician and Aramaic
graffi found on the walls of the Temple of Se I.
The Great Temple and most of the ancient town are buried under the modern buildings to the
north of the Se temple. Many of the original structures and the arfacts within them are
considered irretrievable and lost; many may have been destroyed by the new construcon.

-Temple of Dendera :
Hathor was among the most important and popular deities in ancient Egypt. She was
associated with music, joy, dance and motherhood; she was also known as the lady of the
sky. Her main cult center was at Dendera where one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt
stands today. The entrance of the temple, with six massive columns surmounted with the
head of Hathor, is considered among the most beautiful monuments in Egypt. Sistrums (a
musical instrument) closely associated with the goddess, frame her head.
The temple of Dendera dates back to the Ptolemaic Period, although evidence points to
older structures once existing on the site, dating as far back as king Pepy I, from the Old
Kingdom. Among the temple’s most notable features are astronomical engravings on its
ceiling.