The cruise ship Queen Isis arrived back at Luxor in the early morning just in time to see the local ferries crossing the river crammed full of people from the west bank on their way to work in Luxor, which is situated on the east bank of the river Nile, or "El Bah" as the river is known to the residents of Luxor.

    You should remember that at this time in 1989 the only way to cross the river was by the large native ferries or with the modern tourist ferry, the road bridge for vehicles to the west bank was still many years hence in the future.

 

  
  

Early morning commuter ferries docking near to the Luxor Temple.

 

  Disembarking near the old Government Buildings, we made our way across the busy tree lined Corniche and bought tickets to visit Luxor Temple, and was surprised to find the Mosque of Abu el-Haggag, a local Moslem saint, which is built inside the temple ruins, hidden away behind the temple's high pylons. The Mosque was built in the Middle Ages, at ground level, but now the excavations have left its doors some twenty feet up in mid air.

   

Abu el-Haggag Mosque is in the Temple with its doors in mid air.

 
   An avenue of some 90 sphinx has been uncovered in front of the temple with about two and a half kilometres more of them still  buried under Luxor town and extending all the way to the temple  complex of Karnak, built by the King Nectanebo 380-343 B.C. The best view was actually from the street outside the temple railings, as in the photo, but the street no longer exists as it has been removed recently to uncover the continuation of the avenue of sphinxes.

 

 

   The workmanship of the avenue is outstanding with one sphinx in particular having such an enigmatic pink sandstone smile that I called him the Mona Lisa.

 

  

 
It was while I was photographing this sphinx that I noticed the ground to the rear had been cut back into a bank exposing layer upon layer of pottery shards and a small ceramic bowl stuck out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately when the bowl was removed it proved to be half a bowl, but never mind, some 2000 years ago in the Greco-Roman era, when this bowl had last seen the light of day it had been used by a lady for cosmetics. Living history, and as you are aware by now, finding something, anything, makes my day.

  
The Mona Lisa Sphinx and the small Roman Ceramic Bowl for Cosmetics

Through the entrance gate into the courtyard one is confronted with yet more huge statues of Ramesses the Great and on level with his knees is a statue of his beloved Nefertari, she for whom the sun shines.

  

 

     The pillars here are covered with symbols of the Lapwing on a Cup with a Star, which roughly translates as "All the multitude of common folk worship King Ramesses and acknowledge He is the Star God of Heaven". The Lapwing is the Bennu, or Egyptian Phoenix, who rises from the ashes, to be reborn, as would be the King every morning with the rising of the sun.

 

       

   

All the multitude of common folk worship King Ramesses, the Star God of Heaven

 

King Ramesses rules OK?

 

 

 

 Passing on through the colonnades of Amenophis III into his forecourt where a most unexpected discovery was made whilst sinking boreholes to check on rising groundwater and the stability of the foundations.

 

     The drill was happily zooming down through soft sand when it suddenly stopped after hitting something hard. An excavation revealed a dozen perfect statues which the priests had buried in antiquity to protect them from the over zealous Christians who had taken over the Temple. These included Iunet, Hathor, and Atum. Most of them went on to the Cairo Museum, one to the local museum, and the Temple Guardian took me to the store to show me a sphinx from the hoard that no one wanted because it was so small. Hands up all those who would like to take him home with them.

 

 

 

    Then the Guardian took me into an "off the public" section where the true nature of Luxor Temple was shown by the god Amun-Min to be that of sexual rejuvenation at the festival of Opet.    The Luxor Temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun-Re, his wife Mut, and his son Khonsu. It was called "Ipet resyt," which means the Southern Opet or the Place of the Seclusion of Amun-Re. It was directly connected to the temple of Karnak, the main cult centre of Amun-Re or Amun-Min, the sky god or the ithyphallic fertility god. Ithyphallic refers to the phallus carried in the ancient festivals.

    As I rejoined the group we progressed into the next section which the Romans had taken over and rebuilt into a fortress. The stone blocks, although very strongly built, had been put together in a random order, the most obvious being a block with a picture of a foot - upside down.

 

  

 

     Roman inscriptions are common in the Inner Sanctum and the walls were plastered over and painted over with pictures of Saints by Coptic Christians. We had another look in the stone store and bade farewell to the Guardian.

 

 

 A good time was had by one and all for an entry fee of £E 2 per head (1989).  The ticket cost £E 44 in 2009, wow, but the temple is still excellent value and there is much more to see now.

 

  

Looking down the Avenue of Sphinxes towards Karnak Temple before leaving for dinner on board the Queen Isis.

 

    A short walk along the Corniche brought us back to the ship, for dinner, and after another superb meal Sandra and myself went ashore again on our own to see the temple at night. The ship would not leave without us.

 

The Colonnades of Luxor Temple from the Corniche

 

The Colonnades of Luxor Temple from the Court of Ramesses

    Well worth the visit at night and afterwards a short walk along the Corniche brought us back to the ship, and the guest participation party where we could all dress up and go native, which had started without us, hence our absence from the group photo, but we were able to join in most of the fun, as the ship sailed on overnight to our next port of call at the town of Esna.

 

We're all going to the party

 

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