Many of Luxor's tombs and temples are located on the West Bank side of the Nile
but Luxor does have two magnificent temple sites on it's East Bank
which are easy to find and well worth visiting whilst on holiday at Luxor. These
are at Karnak (around 3km from Luxor) and there is also Luxor Temple which is located
right in the centre of the city opposite the River Nile.
Amenophis III
commenced the building of Luxor Temple to celebrate the Festival of Opet around
1400BC and then Rameses II added a Court some time later.. The City authorities
floodlight Luxor Temple in the evening to show it's magnificent granite pillars
and it is a really beautifull sight - the Temple is open until around 9PM.
Also good views can actually be acheived from the pavement outside the complex beside the River Nile since
in a way you get a better overall view of the site - we took quite a few
photographs from around there.
Compared to the massive Karnak complex Luxor Temple
seems somewhat small - in hindsight we should have visited Karnak last of
all on our sightseeing because it just dwarfs all the other temple sights.
However we certainly did enjoy walking round Luxor's Temple - it really is
very impressive in it's own right.
The entrance to the Temple of Luxor is located fairly near to the
Winter Palace, about halfway along the paved area beside The Nile. If you
wish you can have a guide to take you round and explain everything - one
will certainly try and attach himself to you as soon as you enter the site,
however in our case we just like wandering around, being ever more
impressed with the sheer side of the pillars and the beauty of the
drawings and taking our photographs of it all.
It is of course useful to have some information about what you are seeing
and we think one book is particularly good -
"The Illustrated Guide to Luxor, Tombs, Temples and Museums"
by Kent R. Weeks is listed as ISBN 977-424-800-7. It is possible that this
book can only be purchased in the Middle East - we got ours in
Luxor for 200LE (after a bit of haggling of course).
Colonade built by Amenhepet III Abu Al-Haggag Mosque Shrine of Alexander the Great
and Hypostyle Hall
As would be expected at such maignifcent sites there are
plenty of coach trips which have Luxor Temple on their itinerary and the
groups being led around can make it pretty busy, however most of these
seem to be gone by around midday and the area becomes quieter with mostly
just us "do it yourselfers" around, then it all starts getting busy again
around 3 o'clock.
There are quite a few sphynx which have been excavated on the site - some of these sphynx's are damaged but
there are a few fairly intact ones to be found.
Originally a thousand
ram-headed Spynx lined the 2.5km long causeway between Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple
- this route was used for religious processions between the two Temples.
Via our Main Luxor Page please find holiday guides about
visiting Dendarah, Hatshepsut, Tombs of the Nobles, Karnak Temple,
Madinat Habu, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Valley of the Workers
plus Egyptian Train and Boat Photos and a Luxor Canal Walk.
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