Luxor and El-Karnak Temples, Egypt
Luxor and El-Karnak Temples, Southern Egypt
Both of these temples represent ancient Thebes and the most complicated examples of ancient Egyptian architecture. Thebes was the capital of Egypt from around 2,000 BC and the stone temples mark its pinacle with Luxor in the Southern region and El Karnak in the Northern region.
The Luxor temple is situated close to the Nile and has been used almost constantly as a place of worship over the ages. The Luxor temple is central to the Festival of Opet which was designed to bring together the duality of human and divine aspects of the Pharaoh. A procession (and later a ceremonial barge) started at Karnak and ended at the temple of Luxor.
Karnak is 2 miles ( approx. 3.2 km) away and is the largest religious building ever built. It actually comprises 3 main temples – the Monthu, Amun and Mut temples – and a few smaller enclosed temples. The development of the site occured over 1,300 years of Pharoah successions. The most striking feature of the Karnak temple complex is the Hypostyle Hall in which the walls, ceilings and columns were painted with natural earth tones. The original temple was originally roofed 25 meters supported by 12 sandstone columns which, in turn, are flanked by 7 smaller columns 13 metres high (total 134 column). The difference in height between the middle and aisle columns allowed softly filtered, natural light in via vertical stone slats.
The Hypostyl hall leads out onto the narrow court which was once home to several intimidating obelisks which no longer strewn over the court. Beyond this and deeper into the complex lays the Holy of Holies or the sanctuary which contains several ancient inscriptions.
As the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the “world’s greatest open air museum”, the ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor standing within the modern city.
