Luxor
Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple
complex located on the east bank of the
River Nile in the city today known as
Luxor (ancient Thebes). Known in the Egyptian
language as ipet resyt, or "the southern
harem", the temple was dedicated
to the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and
Chons and was, during the New Kingdom,
the focus of the annual Opet Festival,
in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded
down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple
(ipet-isut) to stay there for a while,
with his consort Mut, in a celebration
of fertility – whence its name.
3400 years later, he still watches over
the temple he built to his godsConstruction
work on the temple began during the reign
of Amenhotep III in the 14th century BC.
Horemheb and Tutankhamun added columns,
statues, and friezes – and Akhenaten
had earlier obliterated his father's cartouches
and installed a shrine to the Aten –
but the only major expansion effort took
place under Ramesses II some 100 years
after the first stones were put in place.
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