Dedicated to the goddess Mut, Luxor temple was once linked to Karnak by an avenue of sphinxes, a few of which still remain. Once a year, Amun was taken from his shrine in Karnak, and rowed down the river to Luxor temple, to renew his vows to Mut, and re-create his son Khons. The temple is open from 6am to 10pm (summer - 9pm winter), and the entrance fee is LE35. In my opinion the best time to visit is around sunset, just as the lighting is coming on.

Luxor Temple from the air. I think the best way to see the sights and the sites from the air is by seaplane - details on my main Luxor pages.

The entrance is at the left, through the pylons built by Rameses II. The temple was built mainly by Amenhotep III and Rameses II. Amenhotep III was the father of Akhenaten, and possibly the grandfather of Tutankhamen.

When the old religion was re-established, Tutankhamen refurbished certain areas of the temple. During Roman times, the area between the temple and the Nile was the Roman military base in Luxor. The southern end of the temple was repaired by the Romans.

The entrance to Luxor Temple. Originally there were two obelisks - the missing one is now in Paris. The statues are of Rameses II, who built more monuments to himself than any other pharoah.
This statue of Rameses shows his wife Nefertari beside him. I guess the Egyptians were not politically correct about the status of women then!

Nefertari again, gently touching Rameses' leg.

Despite convention, it does seem as if it was a love match. Rameses built Nefertari her own temple beside his at Abu Simbel, and her tomb is one of the most perfectly decorated ones in Egypt.

Throughout 2003, Nefertari's tomb was closed for restoration - only a few years after it's last restoration. It seems that it may never open to the public again - when it was open, the tickets were limited to only 100 visitors per day.

Outside the main temple is this shattered statue of Rameses. It appears to have been placed in a small open-air museum in 2003, and may be reconstructed. A very large three-dimensional jigsaw!