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| During
our four days in Luxor we spent much of our time on the West
Bank where most of the monuments are located. These include
the mortuary temples of many of the New Kingdom pharaohs, the
Valley of the Kings, the tombs of their queens and nobles, and
the village where the craftsmen who worked on the tombs lived. |
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The
Temple of Hatshepsut |
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| The
Mortuary Temple of the great female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, sits
in a great bay in the cliffs that mark the western edge of the
Nile Valley. The temple is organized on three terraces, each
with a portico at the back. These porticoes shelter painted
reliefs depicting (among other things) the divine birth of the
pharaoh and a shopping expedition to Punt at the southern end
of the Red Sea. |
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The
Expedition to Punt |
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| Deir
el-Bahri had long been sacred to the goddess Hathor and a chapel
was built in her honour at the southern end of the middle portico.
There was a smaller one, dedicated to Anubis, at the other end. |
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Chapel
of Hathor |
Chapel
of Anubis |
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Maureen,
Ellen, Hany, Bayla, Margarit & Udo |
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Osiride
Pillars on the Upper Terrace |
Dos
Amigos |
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| After
Deir el-Bahri we visited the mortuary temple of Ramesses II,
the Ramesseum. Mortuary temples such as this one and Deir el-Bahri
were designed for the cult of the pharaoh, both in this life
and the next, but otherwise there is little to distinguish them
from other Egyptian temples. |
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The
Ramesseum |
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Ozymandias |
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| In
the courtyard of the temple lies the torso and head of a colossal
statue of Ramesses II. One of his five names was Usermaatre-setepenre
(“The Justice of Re is Powerful, Chosen of Re”
)— rendered as Ozymandias by the Greeks. |
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Ramesseum.
Hypostyle Hall |
Steve,
and Merril's Hat |
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Ramesseum.
View from the top of the First Pylon |
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