The banks of the Nile in Luxor are filled with so many ruins of Egypt's illustrious past that the area is sometimes called the largest open-air museum in the world. Luxor was once ancient Thebes, the former capital of Egypt, and for more than 1,000 years, the pharaohs erected temples, monuments, and sculptures there as evidence of their power and wealth.
The New Kingdom (circa 1550-1070 BC), which many scholars believe to be the culmination of Egyptian culture and arts, was a particularly prolific period. Among the archaeological sites on the east bank of the Nile are two of the largest and most important temples in all of Egypt, the Karnak Temple, which The ancient Egyptians called it "the most chosen place", and Luxor Temple was known to them as the "southern sanctuary".
These two massive religious complexes, both celebrating the Trinity of Amun-Re at Thebes, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu, still boasted their former glory - ornate columns, gigantic statues, soaring obelisks, and expertly carved reliefs, the complexes were linked by a grand processional road about approx. Two miles known as the Sphinx Street, it is lined with more than 600 statues of ram's head and sphinxes carved in stone.
The most prominent archaeological remains on the West Bank, an area known to scholars as the "City of the Dead", is a group of funerary temples built by some of the most prominent rulers of the New Kingdom, including Hatshepsut (ruled about 1479 - 1458 BC), Ramses II (1279 BC). -1213 BC), and Ramses III (about 1184-1153 BC). Funerary or funerary temples were not the burial place of the pharaohs, but they were commemorated and worshiped forever after their death, along with other Egyptian deities, according to the American ARCHEALOGY.
Amenhotep III erected a pharaoh over Egypt During an unprecedented period often referred to as the Egyptian Golden Age, the pharaoh began an extraordinary building campaign that spurred urban growth in his capital, Thebes. The "golden" image of Amenhotep III is only enhanced by the recent discovery of a previously unknown city built during his reign, and now buried among the ruins of the West Bank. Some archaeologists consider this city one of the most important discoveries of the last century in Egypt. Both the temple and the city now serve as powerful reminders of an era of peace and prosperity.
Tue, Aug. 30, 2022
