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

Lady Duff Gordon Lived in the ruins of Luxor Temple and wrote two books Titled 'Letters from Egypt'

When I lived in Luxor I made friends with a really interesting and polite old man called Mr. Mohammed, who had a beautiful traditional house with a small courtyard and a tree in the middle and was sat at the bottom of the little alley next to my friends Edward and Freeda. who own 'Our Luxor' a beautiful Self catering Flat with a flavour of The Arabian Nights

Mr. Mohammed was one of the first registered tour guides in 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.

One day he told me the story of a remarkable woman called Lady Duff Gordon who had actually lived inside the first courtyard of Luxor Temple that over the centuries had been filled with sand, she lived in a small ruined house for seven years that was  built in the sand filled temple, her home had cavernous gaps between the floorboards. but she set up  a hospital from her home and welcoming the people of Luxor, regardless of their station in life, they could be officials, rich, poor or even slaves. Lucie's attention to the sick, her charm, and 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'. Lucie created a makeshift hospital in her home for the local Egyptians, and mostly she gave them her miracle for all cure, a cup of English tea !


Lucie had to leave her home in England, her husband Alexander, and her three children because she had contracted Tuberculosis, and so she travelled to Egypt because the weather was considered to be better for her health than the English climate.

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,  that she referred to as ' Mutter', Sarah Austin.

Whilst living in London Lucie had led a Bohemian, eccentric and highly unconventional life with her husband Alexander, they had socialized with  with such luminaries as Tennyson, Dickens and Thackeray. Alexander and Lucie had married for love, and when she had to leave him she wrote many letters to encourage him to travel to Egypt about the Egyptian culture, religion and customs, she shunned the English community in Luxor and later when she moved to Cairo, and immersed herself in the Egyptian way of life. The local Egyptians gave her the Egyptian name Noor ala Noor  which means 'light from the source of all light'

Lucie learnt Arabic, and wrote many letters about Egyptian culture, religion, and customs. Her letters expressed her outrage at the ruling Ottomans, and many personal stories from the Egyptians living around her. This photo shows the Festival Hall of Amenohotep 111 in Luxor temple with a group of Victorian tourists. As you can see the huge columns are half covered by sand, and the Mosque of Abu Hagag (Behind the tourists) that was built over 800 years ago, was originally built on the extended floor of the temple. In  the mid victorian period Gaston Maspero of the Antiquities Service ordered the temples to be cleared of local inhabitants who had made their homes inside the temples and on their rooftops, and so if you enter the first courtyard of Ramses 11 today the door to the mosque is high up off the existing floor, and a new entrance to the mosque had to be created on the opposite side of the temple.

                                                                         

I have taken clippings from Lucie's books where she describes the life of the Egyptians around her to her husband and her mother Sarah:

'I heard a boy singing a Zikr (the ninety-nine attributes of God) to a set of dervishes in a mosque, and I think I never heard anything more beautiful and affecting.  Ordinary Arab singing is harsh and nasal, but it can be wonderfully moving'

'have a black slave—a real one.  I looked at her little ears wondering they had not been bored for rings.  She fancied I wished them bored (she was sitting on the floor close at my side), and in a minute she stood up and showed me her ear with a great pin through it: ‘Is that well, lady?’ the creature is eight years old.  The shock nearly made me faint.  What extremities of terror had reduced that little mind to such a state.  She is very good and gentle, and sews quite nicely already.  When she first came, she tells me, she thought I should eat her; now her one dread is that I should leave her behind.  She sings a wild song of joy to Maurice’s picture and about the little Sitt.  She was sent from Khartoum as a present to Mr. Thayer, who has no woman-servant at all.  He fetched me to look at her, and when I saw the terror-stricken creature being coarsely pulled about by his cook and groom, I said I would take her for the present.  She is very good; but now she has set her whole little black soul upon me.'

Amelia wrote about the West Bank : 'It's deserted palaces, and crowded hovels scarce good enough for pig styes.  ‘One day man see his dinner, and one other day none at all, and the children are shocking from bad food, dirt and overwork, but the little pot-bellied, blear-eyed wretches grow up into noble young men and women under all their difficulties.  Their  faces are all sad and rather what the Scotch call ‘dour,’ not méchant at all, but harsh, like their voices.  All the melody is in walk and gesture; they are as graceful as cats, and the women have exactly the ‘breasts like pomegranates’ 

 A tall Bedaween woman came up to us in the field yesterday to shake hands and look at us.  She wore a white sackcloth shift and veil, and asked Mrs. Hekekian a good many questions about me, looked at my face and hands, but took no notice of my rather smart gown which the village women admired so much, shook hands again with the air of a princess, wished me health and happiness, and strode off across the graveyard like a stately ghost.  She was on a journey all alone, and somehow it looked very solemn and affecting to see her walking away towards the desert in the setting sun like Hagar.'

'Nothing seemed to have changed in the past 500, 1,000, 6,000 years. There was the life-giving river, its banks lined with papyrus and reeds and the bulrushes where Moses had been secreted. Just beyond the river banks lay intensely green fields of beans, clover, maize and sugar-cane. In the distance, farmers followed the tracks of their ploughs; closer at hand, stolid brown oxen trudged round and round, turning the wheels which carried the Nile's water to the fields. Tall, barefoot women in black walked to the river banks, with huge clay water-jars gracefully balanced on their heads. Broad-winged egrets - so large that they looked like children's parchment kites - swooped and flew off, or stood poised, absolutely still, like birds on a Chinese screen, amidst the water reeds on the river's edge.'

Lady Duff Gordon died in Cairo on 13th July 1869, she was 48, and was buried in the English cemetery there. Her husband died in London on 27 October 1872 he was 61


If you would like to read more of Lucie's Letters from Egypt click onto this link - It is a free publication about Lady Duff Gorden's Letters from Egypt:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17816/17816-h/17816-h.htm