Our adventures in Egypt continued as we headed for Luxor, a city on the east bank of the River Nile. We spent a restful day cruising, enjoying the incredible scenery, and although it got busier on the river as we approached our destination, the many traditional sailing boats (feluccas) made for a very pretty sight, with their large sails billowing in the wind. Our arrival just after 5 p.m. was perfect for our scheduled evening visit to Luxor temple.
The modern town of Luxor is the site of the famous city of Thebes, known as Waset in ancient Egyptian, which means the City of a Hundred Gates. Luxor Temple, dedicated to the Theban triad Amun Ra, his wife Mut, and their son Khonso, is the largest and most significant religious centre in Ancient Egypt. While the building was started by Amenhotep III, several other pharaohs were involved in its completion, including Ramses II and Tutankhamun.
Aside from avoiding the heat of the day, it made a nice change for us to visit a temple in the evening and we arrived just as the sun was beginning to set. The orange-pink hues of the sky made for a perfect backdrop to Luxor Temple, which seemed all the more impressive bathed in a floodlit glow. A huge obelisk stood proudly outside the front entrance, which was flanked by four mighty statues of Ramses.
We didn’t head straight into the temple but instead walked a short distance away from it so that we could admire the many beautiful Sphinx statues that lined either side of the aptly named Avenue of Sphinxes. Extending for a distance of 3km, the avenue connects Luxor Temple with Karnack Temple and although we didn’t walk that far, it was certainly worth a look. And we timed it perfectly, just as the sun was setting behind the regal Sphinx statues. Just beautiful.
Luxor Temple is quite unique as it has a Mosque and a Church within it, a ploy to keep it in favour with the dominant religions of the various times. It was designed to take on the form of a body, with the Holy of Holies (the most sacred part of the temple) being the head and 32 pillars on either side of a courtyard representing the lungs and breasts, commonly associated with the moon. Other parts of the temple made up the rest of the body, it really was very clever! This was, without doubt, another extremely impressive temple. You just can’t help but marvel at the size of the pillars, as well as the statues that stand majestically around the inner courtyards.
We were also told that it was within this temple that Alexander the Great became an Egyptian Pharaoh. There’s actually an image on one of the temple walls showing the God of Fertility donating his sperm to the Pharaoh! And yes, there is a sperm within the image if you look closely enough, which is pretty impressive when you consider this was carved way before microscopes could have identified them!
The powerful masculine energy of Amun Ra was very evident at this temple, which made it all the more important for us to hold the feminine frequency. Our initiation here was to balance the masculine and feminine energies within our hearts and sustain that vibration, clearing away any aspects of our masculine energy that was out of balance. Luxor Temple was symbolic for us as a temple of rebirth and resurrection, and one in which we reconnected with our Egyptian power codes. All in a day’s work for a Priestess, of course!
And then our work was done. We left the busy temple and headed back to our beautiful Dahabiya boat, to rest up before what was set to be another early start tomorrow …
To be continued …
A wonderful blog. Very interesting facts shared. Loving following your Egyptian tales.
Thank you Laine xx