Luxor and Karnak were religious centers or party towns. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. The name in ancient Egyptian name meant southern harem. The main purpose of the temple was to provide a setting for the annual opet-festival which lasted two to four weeks. The inner sanctum behind the boat shrine represents the bedroom of the god Amun. The story on the wall tells of Amenhotep’s mother Queen Mutemwiya being impregnated by the God Amun and the resulting child, Amenhotep, is then presented to Amun. A brilliant solution of having a divine Pharaoh being born of a human mother. But that problem seems to arise quite often in eastern religions. A ritual impregnation occurs every year to the reigning Pharaoh’s mother is a secret ritual. There is a mile long walk way between Karnak and Luxor with one thousand stone lions lining the sides. Images of the gods are marched once a year from Karnac to Luxor The Egyptians are restoring the walk by removing all of the villages and houses that have been built above it in the intervening two thousand years. I do not believe you can dig a hole in Egypt without uncovering a temple, statue or fortified wall. Egypt tries to catalogue and restore everything, but progress s slow in a country where you can’t put a barbeque pit in your backyard with out calling the Department of Antiquities. And then you run the risk of having your house condemned and torn down to save the antiquities.
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