West Bank of Luxor

The west bank of Luxor was the necropolis of ancient Thebes, where kings, queens, princes, princesses, nobles, priests and even workers were buried.

                        Ramesseum
The remains of the temple are very impressive in their dimension. This mortuary temple was constructed by Ramses II. The declaration of the temple again shows the exploits of the pharaoh who stopped the Hettites advance.

        Hatshepsut-Temple (Deir-el-Bahari)
Senmut, architect of Queen Hatshepsut, constructed a funerary temple, directly next to the 500 years older Temple of Montuhotep.
The great insight of her architect was the way in which he exploited the rocks, to build a temple of three terraces. The temple pointing out to the east, consists of three ramps leading to the sanctuary. The beautiful reliefs depict expeditions into the mysterious territory of "Punt" in Africa and the birth scenes in the second terrace.

             The Colossi of Memnon
The only remains of the temple of King Amenophis III, are the "Colossi of Memnon". These two gigantic statues, cut out of single blocks of sandstone, are 17.9 metres high and weigh over 700 tons. Originally they were placed at the entrance of the greatest mortuary temple in Thebes, which unfortunately disappeared, since it was used as a quarry in the Ramesside period. The colossi received their name after the legend of Memnon, the son of the "dawn" in the Greek mythology.

Beyond the pylon which is 63 metres high and decorated with war scenes, one enters first a courtyard, one side of which is taken up by a decorated gallery with Osirian pillars. beyond other gates and other courtyards one eventually arrives at the last hypostyle hall which is dominated by a group of statues depicting Ramses III with the god Thot.