Luxor Temple is a Unique Temple in Egypt as it Celebrates Many Faiths'

I feel that Luxor temple is a unique temple as it is not the home of a god, nor is it a mortuary temple; this temple was originally created to celebrate the 'Opet Festival' of  Birth, and Rejuvenation.

What  makes Luxor Temple so special is that it celebrates many faiths that have been, and still are worshipped here. Firstly the ancient Egyptian Gods, Amun, Mut, Khonsu, and Amun Min (the fertility God), It also celebrates the Greek period, the Roman period, Christianity, and finally the Muslim faith



The Mosque of Abu il Hagag

As I stood quietly in the shade beneath one of the awesome marching statues of Ramses 11 in the first courtyard, the muezzin call suddenly echoed from the Mosque of Abu il Hagag that was built onto a corner of the temple roof 800 years ago,'Allah Akhbar', (God is great) , suddenly as I stood and listened my body became a washed with the feeling of the divine, and in that one single moment in time I felt that I had become one with Egypt’s past and present in this wondrous place of worship.

Ancient Egyptian 'Feast of Opet'


In Ancient Egypt every year a wonderful celebration was held here in Luxor Temple, it was known as the 'Opet Festival,'  and was celebrated just before the flood season, when Egypt would be renewed for another year.  The ceremony started at Karnack temple when the king would walk down the avenue of sphinx that stretched for about one mile with priests carrying the sacred barques of the God Amun,  his wife Mut, and their son Khonsu.  During these celebrations the king and Egypt was symbolically reborn every year, the king would disappear from the festival and re-emerge seven days later from the birth room, so when I think of Luxor temple I imagine it as a living womb, and when it was time for the birth the festival and ceremony of the birth was enacted. Recently a few years ago many of the sphinx were dug from the sand, to create a larger avenue leading from Luxor Temple towards Karnack, but  most of the Sphinx are under the streets of Luxor now, so the life blood, energy, and vitality, that flowed between the two temples has been severed.



Walking across the large Festival Hall of Amenhotep 111 you enter a small area that the Romans used for their faith. Here a doorway leads you to a suite of rooms and the Holy Barque shrine. I circled around the outside of the barque shrine  and  walked through a doorway that led into a suite of rooms that represent the bedroom of Amun where the festival rituals took place, and the pharaoh  retired to the Birth Room, from which he would later  emerge symbolically re-born and restored. The statues of the king’s ka were no longer on display because the ka was now believed to have taken residence in the pharaoh’s body.  Reliefs in the birth room represent Amon choosing the Queen Mutemweje to give birth to his Divine son. He sent Thoth with the message to the queen and ordered Khnum to create an image of himself on his potter’s wheel. The fingers of the god Amun are shown to touch those of the queen She awoke because of the god’s scent and cried out with pleasure before his majesty. … She rejoiced at the sight of his beauty, and love of him suffused her body. …'How great is your power!'… Your dew permeates all my limbs,' and so the boy child Amenhotep was born into the world created by Amun and then crowned as the King. I realized the similarity of this sequence of events of this ancient Egyptian relief as it compares to our Christmas story of the angel coming to visit Mary to tell her that she will give birth to the son of God. As the Royal scribe Ani said; 'God reveals himself in millions of forms'

Alexander the Great in Luxor Temple

Beyond the Festival hall you will arrive at the heart of the Temple which has smaller chambers, and contains The Sacred Barque shrine that originally had acacia wooden doors inlaid with gold. The scenes on its walls were plastered over during the rule of Alexander the Great, and show him dressed as a pharaoh, entering and receiving the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and making offerings to the God Amun.

Alexander dedicated the Holy Barque shrine to himself  , it is noticeable that Alexander embraced the Egyptian Gods, this could be a tactical move on his part, as religion plays a very large part in the ruling of the many countries that he invaded.The Barque shrine of Amun was rededicated to Alexander the Great, he is crowned King of Upper and Lower Egypt. In this relief Alexander offers incense to the God of fertility and rejuvenation, Amun-Min, who was celebrated during the Ancient Egyptian 'Opet Festival'

 The original  reliefs on the surrounding walls outside of the Barque chapel portray Amenhotep III driving cattle to the temple for the feast and celebrations, to be slaughtered before the god Amun,  He also offers Amun, flowers, vases and incense. He is then accepted by the god and conducted into his presence in the sanctuary.



The Romans in Luxor Temple

During the Roman era,  Luxor Temple and its surroundings were a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in Thebes. The Roman's created a chapel inside the Ancient Egyptian Barque chapel of the Goddess Mut in the first courtyard of Ramses 111 and later it became a church in 395 A.D.

Walking through the Festival Hall of Amenophis 111 you then enter a small area where the Romans created their Imperial Chamber which consists of  a small 3rd Century legionary shrine on the right hand side from the reign of Diocletian, and to the left of the shrine high up on the wall there is a beautiful Roman fresco that has been lovingly restored almost showing their original colours
The murals were painted in fresco on lime plaster by a group of exceptionally skilled artists who were probably attached to Diocletian's imperial court.

Walking back through the Main Pylons of Luxor Temple on the right hand side outside the temple, behind the avenue of sphinx, the Romans built a small chapel using burnt bricks, this chapel was dedicated to Serapis  and was reconstructed by Gaius Julius Antoninus, a former soldier and neokoro (temple attendant) of Serapis.

The God Serapis personified divine majesty, and represented the sun, fertility, healing, and the afterlife.

The Cult of Serapis was created by Ptolemy I Sotar  of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, as a means of creating Religious harmony between his Egyptian and Greek subjects.

The Goddess Isis was considered to be the Consort and wife of Seraphis, Ancient Egyptians adored the Godess Isis, who had brought her husband Osiris back from the dead, Isis was worshiped by the Greeks and the Romans who believed her to be the supreme deity who created the World.

The devotees of Isis were a small proportion of the Roman Empire's population but were found all across its territories. The Romans remained faithful to Isis until they converted to Christianity, when the worship of Isis was outlawed, the last temple in Egypt to still worship Isis was the Temple of Philae., then the priests were driven out of her Temple, and the Christians moved in creating their churches and carving their crosses on the walls and pillars.The new Christian faith drew upon the image of the Goddess Isis holding her baby son Horus for the depiction of the Madonna with the Christ child.

Inside the small chapel of Seraphis you can see the remains of columns, and a small statue of the Goddess Isis.