Tourism Guidance Department,

Faculty of Tourism and Hotels,

Beni Suef University

Monuments of Ancient Egypt

New Kingdom

By
Mohammed S. Tawfiq
Lecturer at Tourism Guidance Department
An introduction to the ancient
Egyptian architecture
Geographical and natural factors

Geological factors

Influenced Climate factors

factors on
architecture Religious factors

Social factors

Historical factors
 Types of architecture
Domestic architecture

Types of Military Houses&

Cities
constructions palaces
architecture

Funerary architecture

•Funerary • Royal
temples tombs
•Solar temples
•Private
•Temples of Temples Tombs tombs
daily life
 The ancient Egyptian Temple
The ancient Egyptians believed that temples were the homes
of the gods and goddesses (hwt nthr – pr nthr). Every temple
was dedicated to a god or goddess and he or she was
worshipped there by the temple priests and the pharaoh.

The large temple buildings were made of stone so that they

would last forever. Their walls were covered with scenes
that were carved onto the stone then brightly painted. These
scenes showed the pharaoh fighting in battles and
performing rituals with the gods and goddesses.
The temples types: the temples are classified to five types:

The deity The mortuary The valley The shrine The memorial
temples temples temples temple temples
There were six main parts to
ancient Egyptian temples built
during the New
Kingdom period.These parts are:
•The pylon pkhnt
•The courtyard wskht hpet
•The hypostyle hall wskht khaet
•The second hall
•The sanctuary st wrt
•The sacred lake
One of the most mysterious
places in ancient Egypt was
the inside of a temple.
Temples were the homes of
the gods and goddesses and
very few people were allowed
to see the inside. You, The front of an ancient
however are one of the lucky Egyptian temple was built to
ones. Today you will have the look impressive. It was,
chance to wander around an after all, the home of a god
ancient Egyptian temple and or goddess.
learn some of its secrets.
The two blocks that make up the facade are called the pylon. In front
of the pylon are two obelisks.
The pylon (pkhnt) was constructed to …….
It was usually decorated with flags as a kind of decoration and also to
protect the temple from the evil spirits
Enter the doorway into the courtyard wskht hpet.
Ordinary ancient Egyptians may have been allowed to enter the
courtyard on special festival days, but could go no further into
the temple. On the rest of the days of the years, they were not
even allowed to enter the courtyard.

A row of palm columns surrounds the courtyard and

another pylon is the gateway into the next room.

Stand in the doorway and look into the next hall.

If you look straight ahead you can see the doorways

into the rooms beyond the courtyard. Each of these
rooms is more sacred than the one before.
 Wskht khaet

This is called the hypostyle hall. Notice the light streaming in through the
windows cut into the roof.The columns in this room are shaped to look
like papyrus plants. The ones in the centre where the light shines are open as
though they are blooming. The columns in the dark corners of the room are closed
as though the buds have not opened yet.
Scenes of religious rituals were carved into the walls.
Only the important priests and the pharaoh were allowed to enter the hypostyle
hall. This room would have been used for performing religious rituals.

Walk to the doorway into the next hall.

This hall does not have any light shining in, and it is very dark. Only
special priests were allowed to see this part of the temple.You may
have noticed that the ceilings are getting lower and the floor slants
upwards as you move further into the temple. This is because you are
getting closer to the sanctuary- the most sacred part of the temple.

The walls of the second hall were decorated with carved and painted
scenes showing the pharaoh with gods and goddesses.
Now stand in the doorway to the sanctuary.
You have reached the most secret and special part of the
temple. Straight ahead of you is the shrine where the statue of
the god or goddess would have lived. It was important to take
good care of the gods and goddesses so that they would
protect Egypt and bring wealth and prosperity to the country.
The sanctuary was the most special and important
part of the temple. It was a very dark and mysterious
place. Only the high priests and the pharaoh could
ever enter the sanctuary.
In the middle of the sanctuary stood the shrine where
the statue of the god or goddess was kept. The ancient
Egyptians believed that sometimes during rituals the
god or goddess would enter the statue.
The walls of the sanctuary were decorated with
scenes of the gods and goddesses.
As you step out of the temple your eyes adjust to the bright sunlight.
In front of you is a large pool of water. This is the sacred lake, It
represented the world before time began. The priests used water from
the sacred lake to perform rituals in the temple.. These were the most
sacred parts of an ancient Egyptian temple.
 Creation Story

At first, there was only Nun. Nun

was the dark waters of chaos.

One day, a hill rose up out of the

waters. This hill was called Ben-Ben.
On this hill stood Atum, the first god.

Atum coughed and spat out Shu,

the god of the air, and Tefnut, the
goddess of moisture.
Shu and Tefnut had two children. First, there
was Geb, the god of the earth. Then, there
was Nut, the goddess of the sky.

Shu lifted Nut up so that she

became a canopy over Geb.
Nut and Geb had four children named Osiris,
Isis, Seth and Nephthys.

Osiris was the king of the earth and Isis

was the queen. Osiris was a good king, and
he ruled over the earth for many years.
However, everything was not well. Seth was
jealous of Osiris because he wanted to be the
ruler of the earth. He grew angrier and
angrier until one day he killed Osiris.

Osiris went down into the underworld and

Seth remained on earth and became king.
Osiris and Isis had one son called Horus. Horus
battled against Seth and regained the throne.
After that, Horus was the king of the earth and
Osiris was the king of the underworld.

The End
 Luxor
• Luxor Introduction.
Here stood the imperial city of Amun later called "Thebes", which for
more than 1000 years ruled over the Egyptian empire. It first
appeared in Egyptian history at the beginning of the 11th dynasty
c.2100 B.C. However, the time of the city's greatest glory did not
come until the 18th dynasty, about 500 years later, when the great
warrior kings who ruled from Thebes vied with one another foreign
conquests, rich tributes flowed into the city, enabling her monarchs to
build those gigantic temples and monuments of which Champollion
wrote: no people, ancient of or modern, has conceived the art of
architecture on a scale so sublime, so great, so grandiose as the
ancient Egyptian. Thebes, the great capital of Egypt during the New
Kingdom, was a crowed city stretching along the Nile's eastern bank
in the area existing between the present little town of Luxor and its
suburb Karnak, about 670 KM south of Cairo
The ancient Egyptian called the city Wast "WAst" (the city of the
scepter), capital of Egypt's Fourth Nome. It was the Greeks, many
centuries later, who called it Thebes. Thebes one of the most
important political and religious centers of the Pharaonic Egypt, the
Nile flows from south-west to north-east, the ancient city occupied
the area between the modern cities of Luxor and Karnak.

On the west bank, opposite the city of the living, extended the area of
the shadows, a gigantic set of necropolis, funerary temples and
tombs. At the time of the Memphite Dynasties of the Old Kingdom
(2778-2423 B.C), Thebes is just a large village that worshiped god
Amen. Thebes has been inhabited continuously for the last 250,000
years; the first evidence of the Paleolithic in Africa was found here.
But the most important period in the history of Thebes was the 5
century long New Kingdom. Thebes was one of the first sites listed
by UNESCO as a World Heritage site in 1979.
Names of Thebes

The name Thebes was given to the town by the early Greek travelers.
Some Historians believe that it came from Tape, or tp, meaning head
in ancient Egyptian. In the bible, Thebes was called Nw from the
ancient Egyptian word Niwt meaning City.

The Egyptian also called it Wast, the name of the Nome

(administrative district) in which clay, or Niwt Amen City of Amen,
which the Greek translated literally as Deuspolis City of Zeus (the
god with whom Greeks equated Amen). The Egyptians had many
epithets for Thebes "City Victorious”, “the Mysterious City", "City of
the lord of Eternity", "Mistress of Temples", "Mistress of Might", and
others, the more recent name for Thebes "Luxor", derives from the
Arabic Al-Uqsar, which in turn may derive from the Latin word
Castra meaning a military garrison.
Triad of Thebes

Together Amen, Mut and Khonsu from the so called Theban Triad
worshiped throughout the area. The temples of Luxor and Karnak
were dedicated in a various ways to this Triad.
 Luxor Temple
It is located on the east bank
of the Nile River in the city
today known
as Luxor (ancient Thebes)
and was constructed
approximately 1400 BCE. In
the Egyptian language it was
known as ipet resyt, "the
southern sanctuary".
It was one of the two primary
temples on the east bank, the
other being Karnak.
The temple was built by Amenhotep III (1390-52 BC) but completed by
Tutankhamun (1336-27 BC) and Horemheb (1323-1295 BC) and then added
to by Rameses II (1279-13 BC). Toward the rear is a granite shrine dedicated
to Alexander the Great (332-305 BC).
The temple has been in almost continuous use as a place of worship
right up to the present day. During the Christian era, the temple’s
hypostyle hall was converted into a Christian church, and the
remains of another Coptic church can be seen to the west. Then for
thousands of years, the temple was buried beneath the streets and
houses of Luxor. Eventually the mosque of Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu
al-Hajjaj was built over it. This mosque was carefully preserved
when the temple was uncovered and forms an integral part of the
site today.

Before the building works by Rameses II the northern end of the

court was originally the entrance to the temple. It was an enclosed
colonnade of seven pairs of 52-foot (16m) high open-flower
papyrus columns. It was begun by Amenhotep III and completed by
Tutankhamun and still support its huge
In front of the pylon, two 80 foot (25m) pink granite obelisk built
by Ramesses II once stood before the gateway but today only one
remains the other stands in the Place De La Concorde in Paris. Four
sacred baboons are carved on the pedestal and the names of
Ramesses appear on each side of the obelisks.
 Luxor Temple pylon of Ramses II
The pylon was half buried in sand until the 1880s but when cleared it
revealed two towers measuring 24 meters high and 65 meters wide. They
are carved in sunken relief depicting Ramesses at the battle of Kadesh.

On the facade of the west (right) tower, the king is depicted with his
advisers and generals. On the east (left) tower, the battle is shown with
Ramesses driving his chariot over the dead and dying enemies.
Two massive seated statues of Rameses II guard the huge gateway
and are flanked by four standing statues of the king, each weighting
120 tones.
An avenue of human headed sphinxes of over one and a half miles (3
km) once connected the temples of Karnak and Luxor. This was used
once a year in a festival during which the image of Amun travelled from
Karnak to visit his southern dominion. It was at Luxor temple that he
was transformed into Min the god of fertility.
The construction of the Avenue of Sphinxes was begun during the
New Kingdom and finished during 30th Dynasty rule of
Nectanebo I (380-362 BC).
The road was renovated by the Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra (51-30
BC) and later used by the Romans. Recently 850 sphinx
fragmented have been discovered along a section of Sphinx road
built Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC).
The great Court of Rameses II is 188 feet (57 m) long and 168 feet (51 m) wide.
Seventy four papyrus columns, with bud capitals surround it and in the Northwest
corner of the court there is a shrine to Thutmose III, while in the southern part of the
court there are a number of standing colossi of Ramses II.
The court to the east is now partly occupied by the Mosque of al-Hajjaj.
 Luxor Temple Colonnade of Amenhotep III
The Colonnade of Amenhotep III has
seven pairs of 52 foot (16m) high
open-flower papyrus columns, which
still support their huge architrave
blocks.
The reliefs on the walls of the hall
bear the names of Tutankhamun,
Horemheb, Seti I, Rameses II and Seti
II. Tutankhamun decorated the eastern
walls but Horemheb later erased the
name of the boy king, and inscribed
his own.
Its decoration, most notably the
scenes depicting the Opet Festival,
were completed by Tutankhamun
(c.1336–1327 BC) and Horemheb
(c.1323–1295 BC).
 The Opet Festival
Although the main temple of the god Amun was Karnak, another temple, further
south also in Luxor, was dedicated to another version of him called Amenemopet.
This was Amun in his aspect of creator and god of male fertility. A long
processional way lined with sphinxes connected these two temples. The
magnificent procession of the annual Opet Festival, protected by these sphinxes,
used it to travel from Karnak to Luxor Temple and back. The walls of the Great
Colonnade in Luxor Temple depict this procession with exquisite detail. This was
truly a procession that was worthy of the most important festival of the ancient
Egyptian calendar. Troops from the army, armed with their weapons, marched to
the sound of music, Nubian soldiers blew into their horns and banged their drums
as dancers and acrobats added even more liveliness to the festivities. Fattened up
oxen, ready for sacrifice, were led, and the nobility rode their chariots as priests
and priestesses chanted. The purpose of the Opet Festival warranted the attention
that it received. The ancient Egyptians observed the nature that surrounded them
closely. What they saw was that nature, and everything in it, had to be periodically
regenerated.
The sun set and died every day, plunging the world into darkness,
only to be reborn, young and new, in the eastern horizon, recreating
the world once again. The annual Nile flood, although a powerful
force that drowned the fields and caused destruction if it was too
high, was still necessary for the new crops to regrow because it
regenerated the soil. Thus, once a year, when the Nile Flood was due
to return, in the second month of the year, the cult images of Amun of
Karnak, his wife Mut, and their son, the lunar god Khonsu, were
taken from Karnak to Luxor Temple. There, they united with
Amenemopet’s creative and regenerative powers, rejuvenating
themselves, the king, and all of nature in the process, before
returning north to Karnak, bringing the Nile flood with them, which
then continued on its life-giving northbound journey to the rest of the
Nile valley.
 Luxor Temple Court of Amonhotep III

The Court of Amonhotep III measures 148 feet long (45 m) by 184 feet wide (56
m), with double rows of papyrus columns on three sides. The northern end was
originally the entrance to the temple.
It leads into the Hypostyle Hall, which has 32 papyrus columns, arranged in four
rows of eight columns. At the rear of the hall are four small rooms and an
antechamber leading to the birth room, the chapel of Alexander the Great and the
sanctuary.
The Court of Amonhotep III is also known as the sun court. Its walls
are poorly preserved, but traces of scenes showing Amenhotep III
with god Amen, and others with Alxander the great on the east side

In 1989, workmen sweeping the unpaved floor of the court exposed a

large, filled-in hole found to contain 26 statues buried in roman times
by priests, these statues now are displaying in luxor museum and
known as luxor cachet
 The hypostyle hall
Beyond the sun court lie the rooms and halls of the original opet
temple, this area has a complicated plan. the Hypostyle Hall, which
has 32 papyrus columns, arranged in four rows of eight columns. At
the rear of the hall are four small rooms and an antechamber leading
to the birth room, the chapel of Alexander the Great and the
sanctuary.

The scenes of the hypostyle hall were inscribed with the names of
Rameses IV, VI
East wall:
- A scene of the king presenting the offerings to amun and amunet.
- A scene for the king and his ka driving calves and consecrating
boxes of cloth
- Two small chapels for khonsu and mut, while on the west side
• The hypostyle hall is followed by the first antechamber that contains 8 columns,
maybe it is the chamber of the divine king.
• In the late third century AD, the Romans built a fort around the temple, and the
first room beyond the hypostyle hall of Amenhotep III became its sanctuary. The
original wall reliefs were covered with plaster, and painted in the Graeco-Roman
artistic style, also on the south wall, an apse was built and painting with scenes
depicting Emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD) and his three priests.
• In 1950, the antiquities department cut the apse and open the door that led into the
2nd chamber or the offering vestibule, it contains 4 pillars
• The scenes on the walls of
this vestibule represent the
king while presenting the
offerings in front of the
god (saluttering, flowers,
vasels and incense)
• In the southern wall of the
vestibule an entrance led
to the bark shrine of
Amun-Ra
• One of the inner rooms contains a series of scenes that are known
as the Divine Birth. They tell the amazing story of how the king’s
true father was the god Amun himself.
 Questions
• What is the additions of Ramesses II to Luxor
Temple.
• Luxor Temple was not constructed by one
single ruler. (T or F)
• The oldest evidence for Luxor temple dates to
the Eighteenth Dynasty (T or F)
• Why the king built the pylon?
Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
mst01@fayoum.edu.eg
+201155226627
+201098892293

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