We took a plane from Cairo to Luxor in the early morning. It was a charter flight out of the domestic airport and it went off without any problems. We had a tour of Luxor Temple on our way to the ship. This temple is both massive and ancient. The temple complex was started over 4000 years ago and was worked on and added to for 2000 years right up to around 300CE. There are 67 different shrines and temples on this site and our two hour visit covered only 2/3 of one temple! It stared with the avenue of sphinxes. These had the heads of rams and a small statue of the Pharoah standing between their paws. We proceeded past multiple Ramses II statues into an area with 134 columns. All richly decorated and many had been cleaned and were very colorful. We then passed through other areas of the complex exploring obelisks and seeing the sacred lake
Another avenue of the sphinx's stretching from Luxor Temple to the Temple of Luxor
Very weathered and missing many
For every museum that has a big sphinx, I think that they must have come from here
The diagram in the entrance was so big
It had to be big just to show the layout
Whenever the statues of the gods were brought out they were placed in ceremonial boats like these
Amun -Ra
Amun-Ra's wife and son behind
The First Pylon was never finished due to an invasion by the Persians
A mosque was put here ion the later centuries
This is the harbor where the ceremonial boats would catch a ride
Sphinx buts
A sign post
The first pylon was the last one built here and it is huge! The one of the right is 103 feet tall and the one one the left is 70 feet tall
The small statue in the front represents the Pharaoh
It is our favorite, Ramses II
Rams and Ramses!
The remains of the mid brick ramps that were used during construction are still up against the walls
Another row os sphinxes are inside the walls
This column is 70 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter at the top. Supposedly 100 people could stand om the top
I would not want to be the one standing on the edge
An unfinished column to the right
Ramses II reined for 67 years!
So many mysteries still are unsolved, such as what was this thing?
A palm tree hat for Ramses II
Ramses was shameless and would put his name on the statues of other pharaohs
The dimensions are mind-boggling
A row of 134 columns
Guess who! Ramses II he had 34 wives and over 100 sons and daughters
Conservation work is ongoing
The amazing pigments are still beautiful once they are uncovered from the eons of dirt and dust
At one point asrea had a roof
The bee is the symbol of the lower Nile near the delta
Column after column all deeply carved with hieroglyphics and royal exploits
Obelisk time
Graffiti from 1850
The god has the yellow hat on
The pharaoh had two names depicted in these glyphs
Way up in the sky
Picket fence made of stone
Many birds were carved in the sandstone
Every inch of every surface was decorated
Gods getting offerings
Pharaohs giving offerings
Scary beasts
Graceful birds
Amun Ra in the god form
The tree of life
Head of a falcon
Head of an Ibis, no problem, you could still gat a date
Gateway to another temple
Much to be said
Deeper engraved hieroglyphics could keep your name form getting erased by a following ruler
The Obelisk in the front is just the remains of a much taller one. To the right is the 97foot tall Queen Hatshepsut Obelisk and her son's Thutmose III in the center
The largest Scarab ever uncovered
The lucky dung beetle
The scared lake
Enjoying ourselves
Long long neck on that pinhead
The closed Papyrus style
Here Hapi, the hermaphrodite god of the Nile, binds the lotus with the papyrus flower. The lotus is the symbol of upper Egypt and papyrus the symbol of lower Egypt
Huge stone structures
Some were co-opted by the christians
Still brightly decorated
Amazing
The view from our furthest extent
The forbidden stairway, the chain had to be removed for us to pass
Through the door we go
The temples here were in disarray
A bit standing here and there
Always there was hieroglyphics
The guard took some pictures
What a great place to explore
At the doorway
The guard helped Leslie navigate the tricky steps
A different kind of stone was used for this doorway
A smooth greenish stone
97 feet tall is like a 10 story building
A huge boat carved on the wall
Heading back out
