Day 01
Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum Temples
- A representative will pick you up from your hotel or cruise in Luxor in a modern air-conditioned vehicle to meet your Egyptologist tour guide and discover these ancient sites.
- Medinet Habu is the Arabic name for the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, a massive complex second only to Karnak in size and better preserved. It is among the least visited of Luxor's major sights, yet it deserves far more attention than it gets. Built of sandstone, the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III gives a good idea of what the Ramesseum, its model, looked like before it collapsed. The First Pylon is about the same size as Luxor Temple, though it has lost its cornice and one corner. The reliefs on the pylon show Ramses defeating the Nubians on the left side and the Syrians on the right, although in reality he fought neither.
- You will then move on to visit the Ramesseum Temple. The ancient Egyptians called it the "million year's temple" because of its vast surface area - an incredible fifty thousand meters - and perhaps because of the gigantic statues of Ramses II that were built there. This vast complex, dedicated to the god Amun, took 20 years and tens of thousands of workers to build. The temple was constructed for two purposes: to enable the ancient Egyptians to practice their religious rituals, including prayer and ritual offerings to the gods, and also, perhaps even more importantly, to demonstrate the greatness of the Pharaoh and his political and military achievements. The Ramesseum was made up of two massive walls. A substantial inner wall surrounded the temple itself, while an outer wall enclosed the storage rooms and smaller buildings. A corridor decorated with sphinxes connected the two walls.
- After the tour, return to your hotel.
