Saturday 8 October 2011

Luxor Temple and its Orientation

Ancient architects built temples on the eastern side of the Nile along a west-east axis and temples on the western side following an east-west axis.

Luxor Temple, however, was oriented on a north-south axis, perhaps to align it with the northern complex of Karnak Temple and the Avenue of Sphinxes, which connected the two temples.

Later, the architects of King Ramesses the Second most probably had to alter the axis of the added buildings of Ramesses, the pylon and the court, from the temple of King Amenhotep the Third when they rebuilt the earlier triple shrine of Queen Hatshepsut and King Tuthmosis the Third.


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