Evening visit to Luxor Temple

Feb. 25: Part 2

Our interesting morning excursion got us back to the ship before lunch. In the late afternoon, we departed for a second excursion to another ancient Egyptian site, the Temple of Luxor, not far from the Nile River.

 Luxor Temple


Akram, the Egyptologist/guide for our group (He named our group of 22 ‘Ramses') had us meet a little later than the other groups to lessen the crowds and also to let us see the temple after sunset.

 Ramses the Great

The temple contained many statues and cartouches of Ramses the Great, even though he was not the builder. Under his orders, he modified the temple built by one of his predecessors erasing that ruler's name and adding his own, carvings of his battles, and numerous statues from life sized to gigantic.

The walls of the interior temple rooms also included images and stories of  Alexander the Great, who may have had Egypt under his control. He was shown to be communicating with one of the powerful Egyptian gods who seemed to favour Alexander. Another story shows tells a made up story about the heritage of a common woman who was the pharaoh's wife. The king and the head priest conspired to create these illustrations to elevate the status of the woman by showing her, too, in intimate close contact with one of the gods.
Alexander the Great, shown dressed as an Egyptian ruler, interacting with one of the gods.

 Avenue of the Sphinxes at Luxor Temple and giant image of Ramses the Great (below).

 Luxor Temple Columns

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