LUX'OR. A village of Upper Egypt. on the east bank of the Nile, in about latitude 25' 50' N.. standing upon the site of ancient Thebes. a little to the southwest of Karnak (q.v.). Its Arabic name El-knsnr ( plural of el ka!sr) , of which Luxor is a corruption, means the palaces, and has reference to the magnificent ruins upon which the village encroaches. The ruins are the remains of a great temple built by Amenophis III.. on the site of an ancient sanctuary, and dedicated to the Theban triad Ammon. Jlut. and Chons. It was not entirely finished at the death of Amenophis, and his son, the fanatical re former. Amenophis (q.v.), caused the name of Ammon and the reliefs representing the god to be obliterated throughout the building. Under Seti I. the reliefs were restored. and Rameses added a great colonnaded eourt.before whose mas sive pylon be erected six colossal statues of himself. Three of these statues are still in place. Before the main entrance stood two obelisks erected by Rameses II.: one of them is still in place. while the other now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The front of the pylon is covered with reliefs, representing scenes from the Asiatic wars of Mimeses IL, and below the reliefs is inscribed the poetic account of the battle of Nadesh on the Orontes, usually known as the Epic of I'entaur (q.v.). A gate between the towers of the pylon gave entrance to the great court of Rameses IL, 1ST feet long and IGS feet wide. with a colonnade (74 pillars) running along its four sides. In the northwestern corner are the remains of a chapel built by Thothmes This court was formerly completely covered up with rubbish, and houses were built over it : the western side has been cleared. but a mosque
still stands over the eastern portion. The walls of the court are richly adorned with reliefs and inscriptions. and near the southern end are sev eral colossal statues of Rameses Ii. From the court a colonnade of several pairs of each 50 feet. high. leads to a second court I 1 IS feet long and 108 feet broad) built by Amenophis III. A colonnade. of which a large portion is well preserved, runs around three sides of it, while the upper end opens into a hypostyle hall. its roof supported by thirty-two columns. A door in the rear wall of the hvpostyle hall leads into a smaller hall, which in Christian times was used as a church, the doorway leading to the inner room- of the temple being walled up and m verted into a niche. The ball is flanked by two chapels dedicated to the deities Mit and Limns, respectively, and to the rear is a \ ule ti)tti which opens a sanctuary. built by Amen .1 us Ill., and rebuilt by Al•xamb r the Great, designed for the reception of the sacred bark Of Amn on. To the east of the vestibule and sanctuary arc small halls containing reliefs. representing the birth and accession to the throne of .Amenophis 111 To the rear is anot•er hall, and into it opens another sanctuary in which was kept the sacred image of the god. t'on-ult : 11), script kat dr rEgypte (Paris, Is09••29) ; Lepsins, Denk utate• (Berlin: 1S-19-5S) des ((H•n Acgyptcns ( Berlin, 187'1) ; Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes il.onaon, 1535) ; Baedeker, n (4th ed., Leipzig. l597). "see also