Colossi of Memnon are two massive statues on the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor city. They stood at the entrance of the mortuary temple of king Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty, New kingdom. These statues are the only residual part of this temple.

These two twin statues depict King Amenhotep III, seating on the throne chair and wearing the Nemes, the royal headdress. The statues measure 20 meters tall. They are made of quartzite sandstone. The northern statue presents the king with a small statue for his mother (Mutemwiya), while the southern one presents him with his beloved wife (Tiye). Amenhotep, son of Hapu supervised the construction of these statues.

After an earthquake had occurred in 27 BC, the northern statue was deeply affected, as cracks appearing on it. These cracks resulted to when the winds were passing through the northern statue at dawn, making mysterious sounds and forming dew drops on the statue’s body.

The Greeks linked between these sounds and dewdrops and the crying of Memnon’s mother on her killing son (Memnon). Memnon was the king of Ethiopia, traveled to Asia to help in defending Trojan city, the beleaguered city under attack. But he was killed by Achilles. So they are famous for the Colossi of Memnon.

Later, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus restored the northern statue that led these sounds to stop.

Luxor temple is one of the most beautiful remained monuments on the east bank of the Nile River in Thebes, or Luxor city now.

The history of construction of Luxor temple King Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty started to build this temple, but the main building of the temple was completed by King Tutankhamun and King Horemheb. Then King Ramses II added some elements to the temple.

During Amenhotep III’s reign, the main entrance of the temple was on the northern side. After that, you will see the great colonnade consisting of seven pairs. It takes the shape of high open-flower papyrus columns. Then you will move to the courtyard of King Amenhotep III. Then the hypostyle hall, containing thirty-two columns.

The cache of Luxor temple was discovered by the archaeologist Muhammad al-Saghir on the morning of January 22, 1989.  While he was cleaning the courtyard of King Amenhotep III, he found a wonderful collection of statues for gods and kings of the New kingdom. Most of these collections are moved to be displayed at Luxor Museum.

Behind the hypostyle hall, there are four secondary rooms, the room of the Divine birth of King Amenhotep III, Alexander the Great’s shrine, and the Holy of Holies of the triad of Thebes (Amun, his wife Mut, and their son Khonsu).

The divine birth room houses depictions tell an amazing story of how the king’s true father was none other than the god Amun himself.

• He added a massive pylon decorated with inscriptions of the Kadesh Battle against the Hittites. This pylon was preceded by six colossal statues of King Ramses II and two granite obelisks. One of these two obelisks is transferred to the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

In front of this pylon, there is the avenue of sphinxes linking the Luxor Temple and Karnak Complex. This avenue was used during the Opet Festival, as Amun used it to move from Karnak Complex to Luxor Temple.

• Also, King Ramses II built another courtyard in front of the great colonnade of King Amenhotep III. In this courtyard, on the right side, you will see the shrine of Queen Hatshepsut and King Thutmose III.

The temple remained used in the Greco-Roman period. In the Christian period, the hypostyle hall of the temple was changed to be a Christian church.

After many years, the temple was covered and hidden by sand and streets, resulting in the construction of the Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj mosque over the Northeast side of the temple in the courtyard of King Ramses II in 640.

The Southern Tomb Location and dimensionsIn the southern end of the Great Court is a long building with a low, vaulted roof known as the South Tomb. The elements of the substructure are very similar to those of the pyramid (although on a reduced scale) but differ somewhat in their arrangement. The burial chamber was at the bottom of a vertical shaft, 7 x 7 metres and 28 metres deep—the same dimensions as the one under the pyramid and on more or less the same North-South axis. It was made out of the same pink granite and there is even evidence for an earlier limestone version with stars carved into the ceiling. The interior of the tomb was far less disturbed by robbers than the Step Pyramid and the ‘manoeuvre chamber’ has survived reasonably intact. Even the beam used to lower the granite plug was still in place. The walls were of limestone and the ceiling had been carved in imitation of palm logs.

The Southern Tomb Substructure: In the South Tomb at Saqqara, a descending corridor led down to the tomb—although from the west rather than the north, as was the case with the step pyramid. About halfway down was a rectangular gallery about 30 metres long, filled with pottery and stone jars. On top of them was a wooden stretcher, a wooden box and a set of poles from a canopy—still bearing traces of gold leaf. Lauer assumed the stretcher was used to carry the vessels into the tomb and then simply left behind but, given the other equipment found, transportation of a statue seems a little more plausible.

The Southern Tomb Decorations:There was a similar arrangement of galleries, including a number with the same faience decoration mimicking the appearance of reed mat panels and doorways—again, probably representing the private apartments of the royal palace. There is every reason to believe that this suit of rooms was constructed before those under the pyramid, which were far less accomplished and less complete. As was the case in the latter, the false doorways contained reliefs of the pharaoh taking part in various rituals. On the door jambs and lintels were carved the name and titles of the king. He is invariably referred to by his Horus name, Netjerykhet. Apart from much later graffiti, the name Djoser does not appear anywhere in the complex.

The king is shown wearing only a skimpy loincloth (at most), a false beard and the crown of Upper Egypt. In his right hand he is carrying a flail, an agricultural tool used in threshing grain but also an important symbol of power for the pharaoh. In his left hand he is holding a fishtailed object, presumably the flint version that figures so prominently in the predynastic archaeological record and is thought to have been used in the ‘Opening the Mouth’ ceremony to reanimate the deceased. Hovering over his head is Horus, the god of kingship, holding an ankh symbol (the hieroglyph for ‘life’) in his talons. In front of him is a standard bearing the image of a jackal (Wepwawet, the ‘Opener of the Ways’). He is striding between two pairs of horseshoe-shaped territorial markers.

The Southern Tomb Function:Secondary tombs can be found at some, but by no means all, Old Kingdom pyramids. In some cases, they are thought to belong to the pharaoh’s principal wives. but the burial chamber of the South Tomb is very small, 1.6 x 1.6 and 1.3 metres high—probably too small for an adult woman and her coffin. Various theories have been proposed for its function—to house the royal placenta that had been preserved since the pharaoh’s birth; to contain his internal organs (lungs, stomach, intestines, and liver) removed during the mummification process; or to serve as a repository for the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. Lauer believed that it was a cenotaph, meant to replace the royal tomb at Abydos. The most popular theory is that they were the tombs of the pharaoh’s ka, represented in the form of a statue. Shown (left) is a wooden shrine containing the ka-statue of the Dynasty XIII pharaoh Hor’ in his shrine. The arms reaching upwards on top of his head is the hieroglyph for ka.

The Nilometer is founded by the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil in 861 AD. It is considered the second Islamic sightseeing built in Egypt after Amr Ibn Al-Ass Mosque.

The Nilometer was used to measure the Nile River’s water level to set the taxes. The water measurement occurred by a marble octagonal column 19 cubits in length standing in the middle of the building. This meter became unused after the building of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.

The structure is divided into two parts. The first part is the conical dome. The second part is a flight of spiral stairs leading down, with depth markings along the walls.

The Cave Church, Saint Simon Church, or the Tanner Monastery lies in the Mokattam Mountain, near Garbage City or, in Arabic, El Zabbaleen City.

This monastery is carved into the Mokattam Mountain in 1975. It houses many Coptic churches.

Saint Simon Church is one of the hidden treasures in Egypt and the Middle East. It is famous for its design, taking the shape of an amphitheater. It is considered the biggest church in Egypt, as it accommodates 20 thousand people.

St. Simon St. Simon worked as a tanner and lived at the end of the 10th century. He was in charge of the legend of transferring the Mokattam Mountain.

The Garbage City The garbage city, or El Zabbaleen city in the Arabic language, is famous for its population working in collecting, sorting, and recycling the garbage.