Learn about the Art and Architecture at Luxor Temple

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A guided tour

You’ve just arrived at Luxor Temple, a great example to study the New Kingdom art and architecture of Ancient Egypt.

It was built on the banks of the Nile River in the city of Thebes, known today as Luxor.

The temple was dedicated to the main gods of Thebes, known as the Theban Triad, which included Amun, his partner Mut, and their son Khonsu.

A powerful and influencial pharaoh, Amenhotep III, began building the Colonnade Hall (the large square in the middle), the sun court behind it, and the sanctuary.

The Colonnade Hall was late completed by the famous pharaoh Tutankhamun, Amenhotep’s grandson.

The front court and entrance were built later by Ramesses II whose statues still line the entrance. Other pharaohs added chapels or decorations on the walls.

We'll go over the main concepts of an Ancient Egyptian temple. Let’s start at the front . . .

This is the main gate to the temple, known as the pylon. Pylons were usually giant stone gates that would impress anyone entering the temple.

These pylons were carved with war scenes and have big statues of Ramesses II in front.

You can see areas where the statues are partially reconstructed today.

The pylon had two tall obelisks on either side.

Obelisks are rectangular stone pillars that were put up to remember a special event, or to honor the gods. What does the top look like to you?

The other obelisk has been removed from the site.

It's currently on display at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France today.

Through the pylons is the court of Rameses II, an open area surrounded by two rows of columns.

Columns are upright, circular pillars that support a roof or beam. Columns can be different shapes and sizes as you see here.

These columns are shaped to look like papyrus, a plant that grows near water.

It was very important in ancient Egypt because people used it to make paper!

Around the courtyard are giant statues of Ramesses II.

You'll see the architectural style shift with the mosque built in the temple.

The mosque stands on the ancient columns of the temple and dates to 640 AD.

Next we move into the colonnade hall. It’s more narrow than the courtyard we just left and these giant columns originally held up a roof.

What do you think it looked like here during ancient times?

Around the columns, there were walls that were carved with reliefs depicting scenes from major festival at Luxor Temple, the Opet Festival.

Egyptologists have only recently been able to understand these reliefs through time-consuming epigraphic work, where they drew, transcribed, and translated the walls that we can see here.

Hover over one of the archaeologists' drawings and click to toggle the transparency.

The Colonndae Hall leads us to another big courtyard. Like the first one, it is surrounded by rows of columns.

Do you see something on the bottom of the columns? The Ancient Egyptians wrote in symbols, called hieroglyphs.

This writing is enclosed in a circle, called a cartouche. A cartouche contained the name of a royal person, goddess, or god.

Just like before, after the large, open courtyard, there is a narrow hall. As we move to the back of the temple, notice how the spaces get smaller.

The ancient Egyptians built temples so they went from larger, more public courtyards, to smaller, more sacred rooms restricted to important people. Only the pharaoh and the priests could enter the holiest room, the sanctuary.

Do you see architecture in front of you that looks different?

The arch and columns were actually built by the Romans when they came to Egypt and used the temple to build a church and shrine to the emperor.

Now we are moving into the offering hall, a smaller, roofed room.

The offering hall contains ornately painted reliefs depicting all the of the offerings that were brought into the chamber.

The next room as we move to the most sacred places in the temple is even smaller!

In the reliefs in the most sacred parts of the temple, the reliefs that we see here were meant to enact the rituals in the event that a priest was unable to do them.

These rooms at the back of the temple is where the king and the priests would perform rituals and worship the gods.

There is a special room dedicated to Amun, one of the main Egyptian gods who was also believed to be the father of the king.

In this very special room, called the Birth Room, the pharaoh performed a special ceremony in which he was reborn as a divine king and the son of the god Amun.

This ritual took place during the yearly Opet Festival to honor the pharaoh and his spiritual father, the god Amun.

One of the reasons this temple is so important is because of the pictures and writing on the walls, which tell us a lot about the ancient Egyptians' religion, history, king, and worldview.

In fact, some people spend their whole lives studying the ancient Egyptians, they are called Egyptologists.

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