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To ancient Egyptians, the pharaoh was Amun-Ra�s representative on earth. As a result, it was important for each pharaoh to validate his claim to be the son of Amun-Ra. After passing through the hypostyle hall, we entered some smaller rooms, or sanctuaries. One of these sanctuaries had once housed the sacred barge of Amun-Ra. When Alexander the Great became ruler of Egypt in the 4th century BC after driving the Persians out of Egypt, he was recognized by the native Egyptians as a descendent of the pharaohs. To help validate his claim to be the son of Amun-Ra, he rebuilt this sanctuary and redecorated one of its walls with raised reliefs of himself making offerings to Amun-Ra. Thereafter, all subsequent Ptolemaic monarchs used this same tactic of assimilation into the Egyptian culture. Hence, the time during the Ptolemaic Period was generally a peaceful one as the Ptolemies ruled like traditional pharaohs.

Over time, Luxor Temple became engulfed in sand and silt, and a village grew up over its grounds. In the late 1800�s when the temple was rediscovered, excavation work could not begin until the village was relocated. Only the 13th century mosque was allowed to remain, thus providing us a picture today of the original height of the street level (blue line) before excavation. On our way back to our cruise boat we visited the Papyrus Museum. In the evening we were entertained by the spellbinding dance of a whirling Moroccan dervish.

Blue Line

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