Luxor Temple, Oct. 2025 (V)
New Kingdom ritual relief in the Court of Ramesses II
A sanctuary stood on the site of the Luxor temple or its vicinity at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, or even earlier, but the temple we see today was built essentially by two kings, Amenhotep III (the inner part) and Ramesses II (the outer part). Several other rulers contributed to its relief decoration and inscriptions, added minor structures, or made alterations, chiefly Tutˁankhamun, Haremhab, and Alexander the Great. The overall length of the temple between the pylon and the real wall is nearly 260 meters.
The temple was dedicated to the ithyphallic Amun (Amenemope) and linked to ideas about the royal ka (the generative principle that carried down the generations) and the annual renewal of the king’s divine powers. Once a year, during the second and third months of the inundation season, a long religious festival was held at Luxor during which the image of Amun of Karnak visited his Ipet-resyt, “Southern Ipet,” as the temple was called.
At the end of the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, just after 300 CE, the first antechamber in the inner part of the temple was converted into a sanctuary of the imperial cult serving the local military garrison and town. It was decorated with exquisite paintings which were still visible in the 19th century but are now almost completely lost. A small mosque of Abu el-Haggag was built in the court of Ramesses II in the Fatimid Period (11th century CE).
from
John Baines and Jaromir Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt (Revised Edition) (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2002), p. 86.
Luxor Temple, Oct. 2025 (V)
New Kingdom ritual relief in the Court of Ramesses II
A sanctuary stood on the site of the Luxor temple or its vicinity at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, or even earlier, but the temple we see today was built essentially by two kings, Amenhotep III (the inner part) and Ramesses II (the outer part). Several other rulers contributed to its relief decoration and inscriptions, added minor structures, or made alterations, chiefly Tutˁankhamun, Haremhab, and Alexander the Great. The overall length of the temple between the pylon and the real wall is nearly 260 meters.
The temple was dedicated to the ithyphallic Amun (Amenemope) and linked to ideas about the royal ka (the generative principle that carried down the generations) and the annual renewal of the king’s divine powers. Once a year, during the second and third months of the inundation season, a long religious festival was held at Luxor during which the image of Amun of Karnak visited his Ipet-resyt, “Southern Ipet,” as the temple was called.
At the end of the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, just after 300 CE, the first antechamber in the inner part of the temple was converted into a sanctuary of the imperial cult serving the local military garrison and town. It was decorated with exquisite paintings which were still visible in the 19th century but are now almost completely lost. A small mosque of Abu el-Haggag was built in the court of Ramesses II in the Fatimid Period (11th century CE).
from
John Baines and Jaromir Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt (Revised Edition) (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2002), p. 86.