Luxor Temple in the 19th Century- Excavating the temple and its Residents from the Sand

The front Pylons and Obelisk of Luxor Temple surrounded by houses, inside the temple and outside

In 1884 Gaston Maspero of the Antiquities Service had been given the Order to excavate about 40ft of Sand from inside and around the Temple of Luxor, that had accumulated over thousands of years. It wasn't wasn't his only problem though, as many Egyptians had built their homes inside of, and around the edges of the temple, so he had to negotiate compensation for the Egyptians for their pieces of land and the it is not a house that can be compensated for, but the land it stands on, and the dependancy of their families.

Amelia Edwards visited Luxor Temple and described her findings in her book 'A Thousand Miles Up The Nile' She said : 'Beyond that entrance lay a smoky, filthy, intricate labyrinth of lanes and passages. Mud hovels, mud pigeon-towers, mud yards, and a mud mosque, clustered like wasps' nests in and about the ruins. Architraves sculptured with royal titles supported the roofs of squalid cabins. Stately capitals peeped out from the midst of sheds in which buffaloes, camels, donkeys, dogs, and human beings were seen herding together in unsavoury fellowship. Cocks crew, hens, cackled, pigeons cooed, turkeys gobbled, children swarmed, women were baking and gossiping, and all the sordid routine of Arab life was going on, amid winding alleys that masked the colonnades and defaced the inscriptions of the Pharaohs. To trace the plan of this part of the building was then impossible.'

The Mosque of Abu Hagag

Inside the first temple courtyard, created by Ramses 11, there was an 800 year old mosque known as the Mosque of Abu Hagag, Once the sand was excavated it left the entrance door about forty foot above the new ground floor level, so the Mosque also had to be compensated for a new entrance door, and a set of steps leading up to the new entrance door to the rear. The mosque is still in use today, and if you go inside the mosque today you will see the top half of Ramses 11 columns, surrounded by prayer mats on the floor.

Gaston Maspero had lots of  problems to resolve before he could excavate the sand from inside the temple, there were also stores, houses, huts, pigeon towers, donkey's goats and chickens in both the courtyard of Ramses 11 but also the Festival hall of Amenhotep 111. In this photograph we can see an old man sat outside the door to his home with his grandchildren.

An English Lady lived inside Luxor Temple

When I lived in Luxor I made friends with a polite old man called Mr. Mohammed, who had been one of the first tour guides in Luxor, his permit was number 5, Mr. Mohammed had a beautiful Egyptian traditional house with a small courtyard and a tree in the middle, which was sat at the bottom of the little alley near to my friends Edward & Freeda who own 'Our Luxor.'  Sadly Mr. Mohamed has died now, but I often think about our talks over a drink of tea, as we both had the same passion for the history of Egypt. He used to call me 'A crazy English Woman' because I would ride over to the temples and Valley of the Kings on a bicycle.

One day he told me the story of Lady Duff Gordon who had actually  lived in a small ruined house for seven years that was  built in the sand filled Luxor  temple. She had shunned European society in Egypt and embraced the life with the Egyptians and their culture. Inside her home she created a makeshift hospital and welcomed the people of Luxor, regardless of their station in life, they could be rich or poor, and she would help them if she could,  usually she gave them her special cure for all ailments, a cup of English tea ! Her sympathy with the oppressed, endeared her to all the Egyptian people, to whom she was known as Sitt el Kebeer (Great Lady), who 'was just, and had a heart that loved the Arabs'.  Another name the Egyptians gave her was 'Noor Ala Noor', which means 'light from the source of all light'

Lucie is best known  for her two books ' Letters from Egypt,'  - 1863–1865 and ' Last Letters from Egypt  -  1875, most of which are addressed to her husband, Alexander Duff-Gordon, and her mother, Sarah Austin that she referred to as ' Mutter'.  Lucie had left England for the warmer climate of Egypt because she had contracted Tuberculosis. Whilst living in Egypt she learn't Arabic so that she could converse with her neighbors and she wrote many letters about Egyptian culture, religion, and customs,  and many personal stories from the Egyptians living around her inside Luxor Temple

The Festival Hall of Amenhotep 111 in Luxor Temple

Amenhotep 111 created a huge festival hall that was surrounded by both open and closed papyrus styled columns. This hall was used during the feast for dancing and eating, Oxen, ducks, fish, bread, wine,Beer, fresh salad and vegetables, were all brought to the temple by the priests for the festivities.

During the 'Opet Festival'  the King would enter the 'Birth Room and emerge seven days later symbolically reborn, where both himself and Egypt would be infused with new vitality and energy and Egypt would be refreshed with plentiful harvests.

You can see the festivities on the walls behind Tutankhamun's colonnade that joins the courtyard of Ramses 11 to the Festival Hall of Amenhotep 111. Tutankhamun was the grandson of Amenhotep 111, and the son of the Heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, who nearly brought Egypt to economic disaster by closing the Temples down, and moving his palace, and temples to the Aten, to a new beginning in the desert known as Armarna. He insisted that Egyptians must only worship one God, the Aten.

Luxor Temples Missing Obelisk

When you visit Luxor Temple now, there is only one Obelisk. Originally there were two erected by Ramses 111 that praised him by all his names, and when the rays of the sun flashed down the geometric sides highlighting the Hieroglyphics, Ramses name would be brought back to life again. The tip of the obelisk had a cover of Electrum, which is a mixture of Gold and Silver. Obelisks were usually erected in pairs to provide an energy field across the entrance to the temple infusing it with new life and vitality. The missing Obelisk was given to France by the Ottoman Ruler, Mohammed Ali, in 1835 in recognition of Champollion deciphering the Rosetta stone, enabling scholars to read the God Words on the temple walls once more

In this photograph there is a deep ditch in front of the pylons and Ramses sat on the Throne of Two Lands has finally been released from the centuries of sand, the sand was nearly up to his shoulders before the excavations began.


The Avenue of the Sphinx stretches from Karnack Temple to Luxor Temple

In Ancient times Luxor Temple was known as 'Ipet Resyt' which means'The Southern Sanctuary'. Luxor temple is unique as it is not the Earthly home of a God, nor is it a Mortuary Temple, it was created mostly by Ramses 11 and Amenophis 111 to celebrate the 'Opet Festival' which was held every year just before the flood, when the King and the Priests would carry the Holy Barques of The Gods Amun, Mut and their son Khonsu. from Amun's Earthly home at Karnack Temple down an avenue of sphinx that stretched from Karnack Temple to Luxor Temple approximately for two miles. In this photograph you can see that they have demolished the houses from in front of the Temple, and they are excavating the Avenue of Sphinx.

In October 2010 the Antiquities Service decided to dig further to reclaim some more of the sphinx,  which laid buried beneath a mosque, the police station, roads, shops, and houses in which modern day Egyptians had built and lived and worked in.. The Avenue of Sphinx comes to a standstill beneath one of the main roads that cuts through the town of Luxor.

Luxor Temple Today, unburdened and released from the sand