Egypt: Day 7
September 22, 2022
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Above: The First Pylon of the Luxor Temple, with two colossal statues of Ramesses II, and four other a bit smaller ones, plus the Luxor Obelisk.
There used to be two obelisks at the gateway ... the smaller one is now at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Construction on the temple began
after 1400 BC with Amenhotep III, continued with Tutankhamun (1232-1223 BC), and went well into the reign of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC).
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1 to 5 show the Avenue of the Sphinxes, with 1057 sphinxes, both ram and lion headed, going for about 2.7 km to Karnak, including from the 1950's.
6 is the First Pylon of the Temple of Luxor as night begins.
7 and 8 is the Abu el-Haggag Mosque, taking over the Christian church there in 640 AD when the Arabs conquered Egypt. The mosque has been
continuously open since then, and still today, making the Luxor Temple the oldest religious building used for religious purposes, over 3400 years.
9 to 11 show the Ramesses Court, some of which houses a lot of Ramesses statues, including a picture from the 1870's.
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