THE OBELISK OF HAPSHEPSUT
The next room we went to was in front of the origional temple built in earlier times. It became the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies. It is now in total ruins. The space was totally open. Over in the distance on the right we could see the obelisk of Hapshetsut
Obelisk of Hapshepsut made of granite from Aswan. It is seventy feet high. Origionally there were four obelisks but three were knocked over in the passage of time. They used to stand at the entrance of the temple.

LUXOR TEMPLE

Next we went to Luxor temple which is connected to Karnak Temple by a path that has a row of sphinxes on both sides. The temples are only a few miles apart.

Someone in antiquity first built a shrine on the site where the temple now stands. Then later others came and did some major work on the site. The temple is crooked. There was supposed to be a straight line when you first come into the entrance of the temple but you have to move a few steps to the right to see down to the end of it. The entrance of Luxor Temple as well as

Luxor Temple most of the major temples of ancient Egypt are made in the pylon slyle. Ramses 2 built the entrance to this temple. Origionally there were six statues of Ramses 2 in and around the front of the temple. Four were seated and two were standing. Now there are only two standing. The rest have been defaced by his enemies and early Christians and Muslims who were destroying graven idols of man. Ramses 2 knew he had many enemies so he had to have many statues made of himself. His enemies couldn't possibly lop off the heads of all his statues. Consequently many statues of Ramses 2 are ruined but many more still remain.

There are two obelisks in front of the temple. One is standing and the other is now in France. Long ago the French took it and it now graces one of their city squares.

Ramese 2's battle with Kadesh is depicted on the exterior of the pylon at the entrance of the temple.

The Arabs started coming to Egypt after the fall of the Roman Empire and gave their own names to the temple sites and to the whole of the ancient Egyptian kingdom. Centuries ago the Arabs built a mosque on top of the Temple of Luxor. It is still there today.

After we spent some time listening to what the guide had to tell us about the temple and walking around for awhile looking at everything we went back to the ship and had lunch and didn't do much for the rest of the day.