10 Luxor Temple Discoveries in Egypt That SCARED Archaeologists
The Luxor Temple is one of ancient Egypt’s southernmost marvels. The temple and the city
of Luxor itself is home to some of the ancient civilization’s most incredible discoveries!
10. Assasif Cemetery
Not everyone in Egypt managed to get their own pyramids built in order to contain their bodies,
even when it came to members of the royal family and the elite of ancient Egypt in general.
Just like today, ancient Egypt had plenty of cemeteries,
but some of them were quite extravagant when compared to their modern counterparts.
One of the most incredible cemeteries of ancient Egypt would have to be the Assasif Cemetery.
It was considered a more “royal” cemetery, and it contains the tombs of royals from the 18th,
22nd, 25th, and 26th dynasties of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
While no pharaohs were ever found buried here, since they usually had even more
extravagant burials, many other sarcophagi continue to be discovered here to this day,
and in recent years the Egyptian government actually opened two recently discovered
sarcophagi, which might lay a curse on the officials, according to ancient Egyptian legend.
9. Karnak Temple
The Luxor temple isn’t the only major temple in the city of Luxor,
there are also many other temples in the area as this city was considered a center of the ancient
Egyptian religion and its many variations. The Karnak temple complex is one of these,
and sometimes, this temple is incorrectly referred to as “the Luxor Temple'' itself,
as it’s just as historically relevant. The Karnak temple is considered the largest open air museum
in the world. Among the many discoveries made here are massive statues of King Ramses II and the
Obelisk of Thutmose I. Practically every ruler in Egypt from the 18th to the 26th dynasty has left
something behind in this temple complex, making it one of the most culturally rich historical
sites of ancient Egypt. The temple remained in relatively decent condition throughout history,
and wasn’t completely buried in sand unlike some other monuments from ancient Egypt.
8. Luxor Dromos
Ancient Egyptian art is something that has intrigued historians as well as the general public
for countless centuries. One incredible feature of the Temple of Luxor was a massive avenue that
connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak, and what made this avenue stand out from the rest was
that there were these incredibly detailed Sphinxes along the way. These Sphinxes had human heads,
although it’s hard to tell whether they depicted any ruler or god at all. Most of these Sphinxes,
known as the “Luxor Dromos”, can still be found around the ancient Luxor Temple to this day.
7. 20 Wooden Coffins
The ancient Luxor Temple was, as we’ve mentioned, a significant site for the
ancient Egyptian religion. Because of that, many people, especially the rich in ancient Egypt,
wanted to be buried there. This has led to Luxor becoming one of the cities with the most
ancient coffins ever discovered, and one of these discoveries happened rather recently when in 2019,
Egyptian authorities uncovered a cache of 20 wooden coffins near the city of Luxor.
These coffins were lavishly decorated and withstood the test of time,
as they were still in great condition when they were found. The discovery was described as
"one of the largest and most important" in recent years by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiques.
6. Luxor Sphinx
The Sphinx is one of the most iconic symbols of the ancient Egyptian civilization. The Sphinx,
not just the monument but the symbolism of it as well, was considered an integral part of
ancient Egyptian art and religion, and there were various Sphinxes found all over Egypt,
with many different pharaohs also being depicted as them. The Luxor temple had its own Sphinx
discovered rather recently. In 2018, while constructing a road nearby, construction workers
noticed something that looked like an ancient artifact that was found while they were digging.
The Sphinx was almost unrecognizable due to the state it was in, and the construction was put to a
halt in order to safely remove the Sphinx from the site, so that it may not suffer any more damage.
Priceless artifacts halting major construction is just “part of the job” when it comes to Egypt.
5. Valley of the Kings
We’ve mentioned before how many people, especially from the ancient Egyptian elite, preferred to be
buried near the Temple of Luxor and around the city, and the pharaohs of Egypt were no different.
The Valley of the Kings is a little further from the temple than some of the other items on
our list, but it’s actually one of the defining discoveries made of ancient Egypt and has been
the site of numerous other discoveries. This is the location where numerous Pharaohs of ancient
Egypt were buried, and over time, many of these graves were robbed by looters and colonial rulers.
Despite that, many of the tombs were never discovered, and to this day, many new tombs are
found in this valley. There are 18 tombs at the site that are allowed to be open to the public,
but they rarely ever are due to the immediate threats faced by the site from over-tourism.
This has led to the Valley of Kings being much
less crowded by tourists when compared to other great ancient Egyptian sites.
4. Excavation of Luxor Temple
Historians have noted the significance of the Luxor temple for a long time,
so it wasn’t exactly a shock when the site of the temple was actually rediscovered by Europeans,
still, with Egyptomania at an all-time high, the rediscovery of the site led to even more craze
around the ancient civilization in Europe. The excavation was led by Gaston Maspero and
was started in 1884. To make way for the project, large numbers of people who had settled around the
temple had to be removed from their homes and the temples were completely buried in hills of rubble.
The excavation was one of the largest in history, and lasted all the way up until 1960.
Since then, excavation in the area around the temple still continues.
3. Luxor Obelisks
While Egyptomania in Europe certainly led to a lot of new information about
ancient Egyptian civilization, as well as some incredible discoveries that taught us almost
everything we know about it, it also led to a lot of Egyptian history and priceless artifacts being
stolen from Egypt and brought to Europe to please the richest. Some of these stolen items include
even large Obelisks, which are a kind of pillar usually placed in the middle of a public square.
One of these Obelisks is placed in the Place de la Concorde in Paris,
the Obelisk here is over 3,000 years old, and was given to the King of France by an Ottoman
sultan who ruled over Egypt in the 1800s. The sultan, knowing France’s history with Egyptomania,
wanted more information on French mechanical clocks and the technology behind them,
so he traded an entire Obelisk to be able to get his hands on one.
2. Rosetta Stone
While the Rosetta Stone may be one of the most famous ancient artifacts from Egypt,
what many people don’t know about it is the discovery of the item itself.
It was actually found very close to the Luxor Temple, and without it, we would’ve never
been able to decipher the ancient Egyptian language. The Rosetta Stone was discovered
by French soldiers in 1799, during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. The stone contained a decree
that was written in the ancient Egyptian language, along with the ancient Greek language. While the
ancient Egyptian language had been extinct by that point, ancient Greek was still decipherable, thus,
this stone gave historians the first opportunity to be able to decipher the ancient Egyptian
language once and for all, increasing our knowledge of this ancient civilization.
1. Lost Golden City of Luxor
Luxor was undeniably the Mecca of ancient Egypt, and the religious significance of this city and
the ancient Luxor Temple cannot be understated, but many historians and archaeologists
expected the city of Luxor to have been much larger, considering its significance.
Well, they were right, as, in recent years, a massive lost city has started to be uncovered by
archaeologists in what may be the most significant ancient Egyptian discovery in hundreds of years.
The city is estimated at being at least 3,400 years old, and it was discovered by a team led
by famed Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass. Hawass was quoted as saying "This is amazing
because actually we know a lot about tombs and afterlife," "But now we discover a large
city to tell us for the first time about the life of the people during the Golden Age."
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