posted
Can anyone please name this temple on the west bank at Luxor? I took it whilst out horse riding,assuming I could easily identify it later. My escort did tell me but I couldn't catch what he said, and I have been unable to match its image to any photos on the internet or in books. It is well to the south of the west bank, almost into the desert, roughly south-east of the V of Queens, and there are shops, a cafe, and a village just behind the tractor (included in a whimsical "ancient & modern" moment). I keep thinking it must be Medinet Habu as it has two inner pylons as well as the ones you can see, but photos of the outer pylons of M Habu do not match up. I have endlessly looked at aerial views of the W bank complex and cannot match the location/image.
Posts: 2 | From: Hampshire. UK | Registered: Dec 2009
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Working northward from there that leaves * Malqata * Amenophis III's palace * Toth's temple at Qasr el~`Aguz before approaching Medinat Habu and on to the VoQ.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
lynwill53, you were getting warm, when you surmised that it was part of the Medinet Habu temple complex. It is to the north--depending on from which angle one is looking--of the Rameses III built mortuary complex. It is actually a smaller temple complex dedicated to Amun, by Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III. The pylons in view, preceded by columns, was part of a renovation effort by the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Here is an aerial view, wherein I marked the temple complex in question...
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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^Thanx. The top Google photograph was apparently taken after either of the photos below it. The one at the very bottom was apparently taken during construction work on pavement around the complex, and hence more recent than the one immediately above it.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
Thank you, Explorer, for sorting that mystery out. No wonder I could not identify it from Googlemap, the columns are almost impossible to spot, even on your aerial view. And I can now see that the pylons are not solid as I thought, but sort-of hollow, just walls.
I am embarrassed to also admit that I did not really see the extent of the huge main temple behind it either! At the time (mid-Dec 09), there were a lot of quite high spoil heaps along the southerly edge of the complex, which we rode away from in a SW direction,towards the Christian church complex out in the desert, and I was distracted by my guide pointing out the Valley of the Queens.
Thanks again from a sadly inefficient and very amateur observer. Gives me good excuse to go back to Luxor and have a better look at it! It certainly never got a mention on any of the mainstream tours of the West Bank.
Posts: 2 | From: Hampshire. UK | Registered: Dec 2009
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