EGYPT ~ Temple of Luxor - UNESCO ~

... Great views of a complex of architectural wonders ... a monument in the heart of the modern town... this temple might be the greatest testament to why Luxor has earned its nickname, “The World’s Largest Outdoor Museum”... it is is also unique among Egyptian monuments, because unlike many other sites, the temple has been in almost continuous use as a place of worship, and remains so to this day... with matching obelisk stamp👍... one of a former pair of obelisks remained in front of the Luxor Temple... the other obelisk was given to France in the 19thC, and can now be seen in the Place de la Concorde in Paris... Thanks a lot Farah!!¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor and was constructed approximately 1400 BCE on the site of the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes.

The temple was commissioned by the pharaoh Amenhotep III  but like most structures and monuments of the ancient world, it was added to and developed by later rulers, including Tutankhamun, Horemheb and Rameses II, who between them added columns, statues, friezes and, after Akhenaten destroyed his father’s cartouches, he installed a shrine to Aten. There is even a shrine dedicated to Alexander the Great.

Much of Luxor Temple was covered with sand and debris for hundreds of years until the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero began re-excavating the complex in the late 19thC. By the 1960s much of Luxor Temple had been reclaimed for preservation and display, but some adjacent parts of the original temple complex had since been built over and absorbed into the modern city of Luxor.

Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis was declared a World Heritage Site in 1979.The inscribed area includes the two great temples of Karnak and Luxor on the east bank of the Nile, and the Necropolis on the west bank.

Stamps:

Statue of Pharaoh Seostris III
(Issued 30-06-2002)

Obelisc of Ramses II
(Issued 25-05-2002)