Mummification Museum at Luxor

Mummification Museum at Luxor

Mummification Museum recently introduced in the visitors centre in Luxor, it is the only one of its sort in the world. It houses 150 souvenirs of mummies, coffins, tools the ancient Egyptian physician used, and house paintings corresponding the religious funerary rituals. The story of this museum started when the Egyptian president established that the obligation of the former visitor middle building was to be transmitted from the tourism ministry to that of culture (and, specifically, the Supreme Council of Antiquities). It was opened in 1997.

    Gods of ancient Egypt

    Embalming materials

    Organic materials

    Embalming fluid

    Tools of mummification

    Canopic jars

    Ushabtis

    Amulets

    Coffin of Padiamun

    Mummy of Masaherta

    Mummified animals

Ramesseum

The Ramesseum

This was the temple established by Ramses II (r. 1290–1224 B.C.E.) at Thebes (Luxor). Called “the Temple of the Million Years,”  the  construction  was  part  of  Ramses II’s mortuary  cult.  The  temple  was  dedicated  to  the  deified Ramses II  and  to  the  god  Amun, addressed  “the  United With Eternity.” The site was called the Memnomium, or the Tomb of Ozymandias, by the Greeks.

The  structure  was  included  by  a  brick  wall  and superimposed on a temple constructed originally by Seti I. Pylons drawn Ramses II’s Battle of Kadesh and his Syrian victories. The Ramesseum had a Hypostyle Hall, courts, and a throne room. A big statue of Ramses II,  more  than  55  feet  tall,  was  discovered  in  the  first court.  An  astronomical  chamber  was  likewise  found  on  the site, composing a second hypostyle hall.

In the southwest, a temple devoted to Seti I and Queen Tuya, the  royal  parents  of  Ramses II,  was erected,  and  an  avenue  of  sphinxes  surrounded  various edifices. There were likewise chambers that served as sanctuaries for the different solar barks. A royal hall was part  of  the  design.  The  Twenty-second  (945–712 B.C.E.) and also Twenty-third  (828–712  B.C.E.)  Dynasties  used  the storage  areas  of  the  Ramesseum as a burial  site.  A papyrus  discovered  on  the  site  contained  a  version  of “the  Tale  of  the  Eloquent Peasant,”  and  medical  texts referring  the  treatment  of  tightening  limbs  were  also found.

In  the  reign  of  Ramses IX (1131–1112 B.C.E.), priests  serving  the  Ramesseum were  caught  transferring golden  objects  from  this  shrine.  An  confederate,  a  gardener  named  Kar,  confessed  how  measures  of  golden decorations were taken. He also named his confederates, some  of  whom  were  in  the  priesthood.  They  were seriously punished, as their crimes included not only theft but desecration in violating a religious site.

Colossi of Memnon

Colossi of Memnon

Two big quartzite statues experienced as the Colossi of Memnon are all that rest of the magnificent social system which was built as a mortuary temple for Amenophis III.  Earlier the statues flanked the pylon gates of the temple, now they model side by side amid fields of corn with their hands located neatly upon their knees, quiet facing east waiting for the rise of the new-born sun.  On one position of Amenophis’s feet stands the little figure of his wife Queen Tiye and on the other face stands an equally diminutive figure of his mother Mutemuia.

These two colossal statues were misnamed Memnon by the Greeks who thought that they represented the mighty Memnon who Achilles killed in the battle for Troy.  In Roman times, wind passing through a crack in the northwest statue gave out a baleful cry which was thought to be Memnon crying to his mother Eos.  The crack appeared after an earthquake some 30 BC and stopped when Septimus Severus ordered its doctor in 199 AD.  The statues although anonymous and badly damaged are still very amazing although the south statue now has an appearance of being burned after it was recently treated with preserving material.

Amenophis III, now as well referred to as Amenhotep III, came to the throne when he was only 12 years old and governed Egypt from 1390 – 1352 BC when he passed at the age of 49 years.  He was buried in the Western Valley near the Valley of the Kings. 

His prevail was a time of peace and successfulness when Egypt’s wealth inflated enormously and, without any wars to worry about, he shipped on a large building programme including a mud-brick palace known as Malqata, the scant ruins of which are close to the Medinet Habu.  In size, his mortuary temple may well have rivalled that of the mighty temple at Karnak but it was established on the flood-plane and hurt corrosion and earthquake damage soon after its completion.  Many of its finely carved stone stops were later reused in the building of the Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum.  Extensive digging of the temple site has of late started and the bases of some exceptionally big statues have been exposed in 2005.

The car park beside the statues can be complete of tour buses early in the morning so the best time to view the statues is late in the afternoon when most of the tour buses have gave or at night when the statues are light.

Deir el-Medina

Deir el-Medina

Deir el-Medina, a village of ancient Egyptian artisans involved  to  the  New Kingdom (1550–1070  B.C.E.) necropolis  at  Thebes. It  is  based  on  the  west  bank between the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu. The site was named  Set-Ma’at when  grounded  by  Tuthmosis I (r.1504–1492 B.C.E.)  near  the  special  eleventh  dynasty (2040–1991  B.C.E.)  necropolis.  The  artisans  were  formerly known as “the Servitors of the Place of Truth,” the laborers of the tombs in the Valleys ofthe kings and queens. Some  workers  were  valued  for  their  skills  and imaginative artistry. In some reads these workers were called “the Servants of the Place of Truth.”.

From the Tomb of Merit in Deir el-Medina

The homes of these artisans had various rooms, with the workers of higher rank basking vestibules and several architectural adornments. They also raised elaborate funerary  sites  for  themselves  and  their  families,  caricatures  of  the  royal  tombs  upon  which  they  hard throughout their entire lives. Little pyramids were fashioned out of bricks, and the secret walls were covered with stunning paintings and reliefs. The site has provided scholars  with  inscribed  papyri,  ostraka,  and  elaborate depictions of common life.

King Amenhotep I (r. 1525–1504  B.C.E.)  was  an  early supporter  of  the  region.  A  temple  put up  on  the  site  by Amenhotep III (r.  1359–1353  B.C.E.)  was  refurbished  by Ptolemy IV Philopator (r. 186–164, 163–145 B.C.E.). Seti I (1306–1290  B.C.E.) put up temples to Hathor and Amun on the site. Tahrqa (r. 690–664 B.C.E.) also built an Osirian chapel in that location.

Mortuary Temple of Seti I

The Mortuary Temple of Seti I

Beside the modern hamlet of el-‘Araba el-Madfuna are the impressive remains of a unique Egyptian temple built by Seti I (19th Dynasty). The temple contains seven sanctuaries set in a row, each gave to a different deity, the southernmost one rewarding Seti I himself. This dedication emphasizes the building’s role as a funerary shrine for Seti I. This is supported by the name of the temple: “The house  of  millions  of  years  of  the  King  Men-Ma’at-Re  [Seti  I],  who  is  contented  at Abydos.” Actually buried in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, Seti I was coming a longstanding  Egyptian  royal  tradition in building  a  secondary  funerary  complex  at Abydos, the cult central of the Egyptian god Osiris. The temple’s put up relief decoration carved under Seti I on fine white limestone evokes a traditional, classical style. Many of the serious reliefs also retain their original painted details, forming some of the finest bas-reliefs kept from ancient Egypt.

The consequence of the Amarna period, with Seti I restoring the worship of the traditional Egyptian  gods,  may  explain  the  merged  dedication  of  the  temple  to  (from  south  to north) Ptah, Re-Horakhty, Amen-Re, Osiris, Isis and Horus. The unusual L-shaped project of the temple is caused by a southeast wing appended to the main rectilinear temple. This wing  contains  rooms  dedicated  to  Memphite  funerary  deities,  such  as  Sokar  and Nefertum, further underlining the national and funerary centre of the temple. In addition, a good list of legitimate pharaohs is offered in the “kings’ gallery” to the south of the  sanctuaries  in  the  passageway  passing  to  a  butchering  room.  The  names  of Akhenaten, Smenkhkare and Tutankhamen are missed from the list, as if to wipe off their reigns from qualified history.

The temple is set within  a  great  enclosure  wall  (circa  220×350 metre)  with  a  important mudbrick  pylon  confronting  the  desert,  from  which  a  prosodion  way  probably  led  to  the royal tombs at Umm el-Qa’ab. Access to the temple was from the east, up ramps that led into two large courtyards, one after the other. The temple was left unfinished at the death of King Seti I and most of the front part of the temple was finished in sunk ease during the reign of King Seti I’s son Ramses II. The southeast home wall of the first court contains a agency of Ramses II struggling the Hittites at Qadesh. The names of Merenptah, Ramses III and Ramses IV are also preserved on these front courts. To the east of these courts lies a large storehouse or set of magazines, such as were likewise found at the Ramesseum. In the center of these is a pulpit with pillars which would have served as a reception center for entry or outgoing goods.

With  seven  chancels,  the  temple’s  program  is  exceptionally  broad.  Access  to  the sanctuaries  was  through  two  cross  hypostyle  halls,  the  first  with  two  rows  of columns and the second with 3. In the first hypostyle hall the names of King Seti I have been overwritten by Ramses II. The seven sanctuaries are mostly decorated with scenes from the daily cult ritual rendering the king recording the shrine, offering and anointing the god’s statue and barque and then leaving while sweeping away his footprints as he goes. Six of these shrines have a false door depicted on their west wall through which the deity was thought to enter the temple. The exception is the shrine to Osiris; here an actual door leads to a unique suite of rooms at the back of the temple in which the Mysteries of Osiris were celebrated. The highlight of these ceremonial occasions was the erecting of the djed pillar, symbolise the resurrection of Osiris.

Valley of the Queens

Entrance to the Valley of the Queens

This was the purple necropolis of the New Kingdom (1550–1070  B.C.E.),  located southwest of Medinet Habu on the western prop of the Nile  at  Thebes. The  site  was  called  Ta-set-neferu,  “the Direct of the Royal Children,” in the ancient periods and is now called Biban el-Harim, “the Doors of the Women,” or Biban el-Melikat, “the Doors of the Daughters,” in Arabic.  The  queens,  princes,  and  princesses  of  the  New Kingdom were buried here. The necropolis is considered to contain 70 tombs. Located in an arid wadi, the site was got  first  on  the  south  hill  and  then  on  the northwest side.

The about famous tomb of the Valley of the Queens was constructed for Queen Nefertari- Merymut, the Great Wife of  Ramses II (r. 1290–1224  B.C.E.).  This  site  has columned  chambers,  stairs,  ramps,  and  an  offering  hall with shelves and a sepulture chamber with four pillars and three  annexes.  Elaborately  decorated  with  polychrome reliefs, the tomb pictures Queen Nefertari-Merymut in the regular  funerary settings  but  also  portrays  her  in  everyday scenes of mortal life. The Bennu (phoenix) and the Aker lions  are  as well  exposed.  “The  Great  Wives”  of  the  New Kingdom all have tombs in this necropolis.

The  tombs  of  the  royal  sons  of  the  New  Kingdom Period include the resting place of Amenhirkhopshef (1), the son of King Ramses III (r. 1194–1163 B.C.E.). This tomb has a rage, three chambers, and two wings, all painted with scenes  and  cultic  symbols.  A  vestibule  was  part  of the design. The tomb of Kha’Emweset (2), another prince of the dynasty and likewise a son of Ramses III, is in the Valley of the Queens as well. This is designed with three chambers, two  extensions,  and  a  ramp.  The  walls  are  treated  with painted eases. Some officials of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1307 B.C.E.) were given the honor of having small pit tombs in the  Valley  of  the  Queens.  Other  princesses  and  princes were likewise provided with similar pit tombs.

List of the Tombs of Valley of the Queens:

QV8 Hori [ disambiguation needed ] and a King's Daughter

QV17 Merytre and Wermeryotes

QV30[3] Nebiri

QV31[3] Anonymous

QV33[3] Tanedjemet

QV34 Anonymous

QV36[3] Anonymous

QV38[3] Sitre

QV40[3] Anonymous

QV42[3] Pareherwenemef

QV43[3] Seth-her-khopsef

QV44[3] Khaemwaset

QV46[3] Imhotep

QV47[3] Ahmose

QV51[3] Iset Ta-Hemdjert

QV52[3] Tyti

QV53[3] Ramses Meryamen

QV55[3] Amun-her-khepeshef

QV58 Anonymous

QV60[3] Nebettawy

QV66[3] Nefertari

QV68[3] Meritamun

QV70 Nehesy

QV71[3] Bintanath

QV72 Neferhat / Baki

QV73[3] Henuttawy

QV74[3] (Dua)Tentopet

QV75[3] Henutmire

QV76 Merytre

QV80 Queen (Mut-)Tuy

QV81 Heka[...]

QV82 Minemhat and Amenhotep

QV88 Ahmose

Tombs of the Nobles in Luxor

The Valley of the Nobles

Nobles' tombs are discovered at a variety of sites throughout Egypt but none are better saved than those on the West Bank. While the pharaoh's tombs were secret away in the Valley of the Kings and dug deep into the valley rock, those of the most essential nobles were ostentatiously built at surface level overlooking the temples of Luxor and Karnak crosswise the river. Their shrines were highly decorated but the poor excellent limestone made sliced reliefs bitter so the façades were finished on smear. Freed from the restricted subject matter of the royal tombs, the artists and craftsmen dedicated less space to rituals from the Books and more to histrionics of daily life and their impressions of the afterlife. Because, unlike the royal tombs, they were discovered to the elements many of the nobles' shrines have deteriorated badly over time. Although some were subsequently used as store rooms and even fitting, others are still in comparatively good condition and give a clear impression of how they must originally have looked. They are precious visiting for their wealth of jargon paintings - quite as worrying as the formal sculptures of the great tombs of the Kings and Queens.

The number of graves open to the public alters from time to time so it is difficult to get any kind of definitive list. The following list, therefore, is only intended as a rough guide and does not include all tombs, and some may even be closed at the time of writing this article.

Tickets for the Tombs of the Nobles are traded in sets of between 2 and 4 but tickets for the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens are sold in sets of three - apart from the tomb of Tutankhamun which required a obscure tickets. As each of the tombs are visited the guide will tear off a corner of the ticket. In the Deir el Medina a ticket gives entrance to two of the open tombs but the tomb of Pashedu needs a obscure ticket.. 

Any up-to-date information worrying the handiness of visiting any of the tombs would be appreciated. 

List of the Nobles's Tombs:

Khonsu (TT 31) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna   

Userhat (Neferhabef) (TT 51) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Nakht (TT 52) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Ramose (TT 55) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Khaemhat (TT 57) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Menna (TT 69) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Sennefer (TT 96) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Rekhmire (TT 100) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Benia(Pahekamun) (TT 343) at Sheikh abd-el-Qurna

Pashedu at Deir el Medina

Senedjem at Deir el Medina

Inherkhau at Deir el Medina
           
May be open

Roy/ShuRoy

Neferenpet

Dhutmosis

Shamut

Luxor Museum

Placed on the Corniche between LuxorTemple and Karnak, the Luxor Museum houses an outstanding collection of artifacts and statues got in archeological sites in and around Luxor. Highlights take the gilded head of Hathor from Tutankhamun's tomb, a larger pink granite head of Amenhotep III, and rest scenes of Akhenaten and QueenNefertiti. Open daily, time schedule changes.

Inside Luxor Museum

Statues in Luxor Museum

The Luxor Museum is surprisingly entertaining. Displays of pottery, jewelry, article of furniture, statues and stelae were created  by the Brooklyn Museum of New York.  They include a cautiously selected  variety of items from the Theban temples and necropolis.

There are a  number of exhibits from Tutankhamun, including a cow-goddess head from  his tomb on the first floor and his funerary boats on the second floor.  However, some of the real attractions include a statue of Tuthmosis III  (circa 1436 BC) on the first floor, and 283 sandstone blocks set as  a wall from the ninth pylon of the Karnak Temple. The hours for the  Museum are from (9 am to 1 PM) and last from (4 PM to 9 PM). in the winter.  Afternoon hours in the summer are from (5 PM to 10 PM).

Medinet Habu

Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu

Ramses III dominated Egypt for 31 years (1184 –1153 BC) and like many pharaohs before him was a great constructor.  As well as greatly enlarging the Medinet Habu (Habu’s City) to become his mortuary palace, he constructed the wonderful Osiris courtyard in Karnak Temple. 

The Medinet Habu was a dedicated site long before Ramses III began building there.  It was a feared part of the creation myth and was conceived to be where the Ogdoad (eight previous gods) identified the egg from which the sun came, but Ramses’ acts made it the most beautiful of the Theban sites.  The temple, which is of a alike design to the Ramesseum, is second in size only to Karnak but has a thanksgiving and symmetry that Karnak lacks.  It was not only a mortuary temple as it unified Ramses’ palace where he lodged on his visits to Thebes, his joy rooms where he entertained his harem, his government offices, a devoted lake and a Nilometer which knowing the rise and fall of the river. The outer walls of the temple are likewise finely decorated and a mud-brick wall borders the total complex.  

Ramses III was the son and successor of Sethnakht who became the first King of the 20th Dynasty.  Sethnatkht’s path to the throne is obscure.  It is possible that there was a family relationship between him and Ramses II, but it is just as likely that he grabbed power when the opportunity grown just as Ay and Horemheb had earlier him.  Ramses made his own claim to the throne clear by having the words “I did not take my office by looting, but the crown was set upon my head willingly” inscribed on one of the temple pylons.

During his long dominate, Ramses III fought several campaigns including the battle with the sea peoples, which is established on the walls of secret walls of the first pylon.  However, even in passive times there was wide spread subversion and internal discord in Egypt.  This unrest might have led to the harem plot, which happened later in his reign, when several of his ministers and his wife Ty taken to have him dead during the Opet festival celebrations, intending to make Ty’s son king.  Despite the wide use of magic and imports, the plot looks to have failed as the culprits were caught and drawn to commit suicide, but as Ramses appears to have died before their trial was complete, who is to say that they did not follow in killing him after all.  He was buried in the Valley of the Kings [KV 11] in an particular tomb that was initially involved for his father.

Before entering the mortuary temple visitors pass below the windowed gateway where Ramses had his delight rooms and enter an open space which was once a magnificent garden.  Facing, is the deeply engraved first pylon, which points Ramses fighting imaginary battles against the enemies of Egypt but on the inner walls are scenes of battles that he really did fight and win.  To the right of the gateway is the templethat Hatshepsut built and on the left is the temple of the Divine Adoratrix, which was contributed at a later date.

Inside the first pylon is a large open court, and on the northern side stands rather fat-legged statues of Ramses in the form of Osiris with married women at his feet.  Unfortunately, many of these statues were removed to make way for a Coptic Church, which rested only the temple until the 19th century. 

Temple of Deir al-Bahri

Temple of Deir al-Bahri

Although different women came close to serving as Egyptian Pharaohs, Hatshepsut was the just woman to rule in her individual right (18th dynasty : 1479-1458 BC)  However, to cementum her unique place she was usually shown posing as a man heavy a pharaonic beard.  Earlier in her life, she was married to her half-brother Tutmosis II but was widowed before she could bear him a son.  She may well have seen herself as the natural heir to her father Tutmosis I and probably did everything she could to cement her position as his heir even before he died, pavage the way for her sequence.  On the uppermost terrace of the temple, is an inscription, allegedly attributed to him, that reads “he who shall do her homage shall latest and he who shall speak black in blasphemy of her Majesty shall die”.  This clearly shows her determination to claim Egypt’s throne.

Equally a powerful monarch, her edifices plans were some and she left repositories in Nubia as well as Upper and Lower Egypt but her most amazing achievements were in Thebes where in addition to her fabulous mortuary temple, she enlarged Karnak Temple and built a temple to Amun at Medinet Habu .  However, the chagrin of Tutmosis III, the young nephew she seized from the throne, was so great that afterwards her death he finished all references to her from her own temple.  He later built his own mortuary temple next to hers but long since it was low in a landslide, so perchance Hatshepsut had the last word after all.

Deir el Bahri is the temple’s Arabic name but it was originally known as the “Splendour of Splendours’ and its clear lines would have been softened by an over-planting of trees, aromatic flowers and shrubs.  As a final ornamentation for this stark but magnificent building, a long line of sphinxes probably linked the temple to the river.

Inscriptions on its lower and middle colonnades show Hatshepsut’s divine birth and her achievements, such as a made Nubian campaign, the transport from Aswan of obelisks for Karnak, and the collection of myrrh trees from Punt.  At the southern end of the middle terrace, which is reached via an impressive ramp, is a temple to Hathor the cow-eared goddess of the western memorial park.  There is a closed-gated refuge here and some fine reliefs of the goddess in cow form.  When archaeologists dug the site in the early separate of the last century, they found baskets of wooden penises that could have been used in rituals and birthrate ceremonies.  The upper colonnade, which is reached by a second ramp, was once whole lined with statues of Osiris, some with the face of Hatshepsut, but now only a few rest.  Perhaps it was through fear of offensive Osiris, that these imagines were not blemished.

Beyond the upper colonnade, further sanctuaries are recorded through a central doorway and a peristyle court.  Pictures of the Feast of the Valley advance decorate the north side of the court and scenes from the Opet festival decorate the south side. The other courtyards, at present remote, contained niche shrines to the gods taking Amun and an altar to the Sun god. 

At the put up of this upper court is a central rock-cut sanctuary to Amun beneath which is a tomb that was prepared for Hatshepsut but was evidently unused because she chose to be sunk in the Valley of the Kings (KV 20).  As it transpired, she was not to be left in peace in either place.

Last in the 19th century, in an inconspicuous tomb close to the temple, archaeologists found a cache of moms that had been gone there for refuge by the tombs’ ancient protectors.  Enterprising villagers had been selling them off for years before the trade was stopped.  Among those got in the tomb were the mummies of Hatshepsut, Tutmosis I, Seti I and Ramses II and King Ramses III. 

In a cave to the north of the temple, sexual graffito from a long forgotten dissident shows that irreverence of royalty is not new.  Among the variety of doodles and inscriptions is a getting of a Pharaoh wearing woman’s underwear being sodomised by an unknown man. Perhaps this could be a comment on the kinship between Hatshepsut and one of her ministers.

I have found visitors express dashing hopes with their first view of the temple.  This might be because it is so different from the later more ornate temples in the necropolis, but its lines are unchanged and its simplicity is powerful. This temple is a must see on any route even though it can get very busy in the earlier part of the day but in last afternoon when the tour buses have gave and the warmth of the sun has diminished the peace of the temple can be felt.

Luxor

Luxor  is  the  popular  Arabic  name  for  South Opet, the  area  of  Thebes in  Upper  Egypt  that  was  devoted  to  the  god  Amun during  the  New  Kingdom (1550–1070  B.C.E.).  The  modern  name  is  derived  from the Arabic el-Aqsur, the Castles, an obvious reference to the vast ruined complexes in the area.

Luxor

One of the  leading  social systems  in  Luxor  was  a  temple used for religious rises. Erected by Amenhotep III (r. 1391–1353 B.C.E.) of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the temple  honored  the  Theban  god  Amun.  The  first  Pylon of the Luxor temple and the columnar court of the temple were reconstructed by Ramses II (r. 1290–1224 B.C.E.) of the 19th Dynasty. This section enclosed a sanctuary  that  was  credibly  built  by  Tuthmosis III (r.1479–1425 B.C.E.). Tuthmosis III personally taken the construction  of  the  sanctuary  during  his  reign  in  the Eighteenth Dynasty to take the famous bark of Amun.  The  bark  was  part  of  the  particular  festival  ceremonies and was refurbished periodically and protected in a safe storage area when not in use. Amenhotep III, a successor of Tuthmosis III, raised an actual temple on the site, start the complex.

Six  colossal  statues  and  two  obelisks  mounted  the area  leading  to  the  second  pylon,  which  was  also  established by  Amenhotep  III.  The  court  of  Ramses II  is  settled nearby,  with  colossal  statues  and  double  bud  columns. In the same area, a colonnade and two rows of papyrus capital  columns  were  designed,  bordered  by  papyrus bundle pillars in the same area. A cross Hypostyle Hall, with  32  more  columns  arranged  in  four  rows  of eight,  opened  onto  the  secret  temple  area.  Additional hypostyle  halls  were  surrounded  by  ritual  chapels  and led to the original sanctuary. Amenhotep III raised the walls of the temple with reliefs rendering his birth and his royal parentage, an affectation used often by the rulers  of  the  New  Kingdom. 

Tutankhamun (r.  1333–1323  B.C.E.),  newly  exchanged  to  the  worship  of  Amun afterwards  the  fall  of  ’Amarna and  Akhenten’s  dissident cult  of  Aten, left  the  temple  with  more  reliefs, depicting the ceremonies being conducted in the sanctuary  to  honor  Amun.  It  is  not  certain  if  these  reliefs were  really  the  original  ones  of  Amenhotep  III  or brought  to  placate  the  priests  of  Amun  and  the  Theban people.  Horemhab, at  the  close  of  the  Eighteenth Dynasty,  tried  to  use  the  same inscriptions  to announce his own achievements and awards. Many statues and 2 red granite obelisks, one nowadays in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, raised the Luxor Temple. The barks of Mut, Khons (1), and other deities rested as well in the temple area, which was linked to the massive Karnak complex by a double row of sphinxes. The rulers of later  eras,  taking  the  Late  Period  (712–332  B.C.E.) and  the  Ptolemaic  Period  (304–30  B.C.E.),  contributed  to Luxor temple, which also has an archway put up by the Romans.

The  deity  Amun  was  held to  the  Luxor  Temple once a year to visit his particular manifestation there. The god Amun favorite at Luxor was a vibrant, ithyphallic form of  the  god,  a  patron  of  fertility and  involved  with  the necropolis sites on the western shore of the Nile opposite Thebes. This same form of the deity was also revered in cultic rites at Medinet Habu and remained popular even in the periods of occupation by foreign armies.

The Third Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

The third dynasty date: 2705—2630

The dynasty list of Kings:

Sanakhte (2650—2630)

Djoser (Netjerykhet) (2630—2611)

Sekhemkhet (Djoser Teti) (2611—2603)

Khaba (2603—2599)

Huni (2599—2575)

Monuments of Huni

The Meidum pyramid

There are 7 small step pyramids, dating from the second half of the third synasty and as late as the early 4th dynasty. Likely there are others that have yet to be discovered. These may all belong to Huni and their purpose is unknown. They have no internal chambers, nor underground structures. They are generally on the west bank of the Nile. They are not tombs (lacking national structure) although they may have been cenotaphs (fake tombs) of the queens. They may have been enshrines.


Benha Pyramjid
Lepsius Pyramid 1
Zawiyet el-Meititin Pyramid
Sinki Pyramid
Elephantine Pyramid
Naqada Pyramid
Kula Pyramid
Edfu Pyramid