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Reading the walls of Luxor Temple

19 October 2026

Luxor Temple is the place to learn royal names, because four famous rulers signed it one after another. Amenhotep III built most of it, Tutankhamun carved its great festival on the colonnade, Ramesses II put up the gateway and its obelisks, and Alexander the Great appears in the sanctuary dressed as a pharaoh. Their cartouches sit at eye level on columns, door jambs and scenes, often carved deep enough to read from a few steps away.

The Egyptians called the temple Ipet-resyt, ipt-rsyt, "the southern sanctuary". Once a year, in the Opet festival, the statue of the god Amun travelled here from Karnak, about 3 km to the north. From the gateway to the sanctuary, the walls step back in time from Ramesses II to Amenhotep III, with Alexander's shrine set among the oldest rooms.

Ramesses II signs the gateway

The pylon, the twin-towered gate, is Ramesses II's work. Its towers show his battle at Kadesh against the Hittites, with the king in his chariot. Two seated colossi of him still flank the doorway, and a granite obelisk stands in front, cut with columns of sunk signs on all four faces. Its pair now stands in Paris.

His throne name repeats down every face of the obelisk: Usermaatre Setepenre, wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ stp-n-rꜥ, "the justice of Ra is strong, chosen of Ra". Find the sun disc (N5) at the top, the head of a canine (F12) for wsr, "strong", and the seated goddess Maat (C10). Below them the adze (U21) writes stp, "chosen", and the water ripple (N35) writes n.

Sun Head and neck of a canine Goddess Maat Adze Ripple of water

See Ramesses II's names sign by sign

Tutankhamun carved the Opet procession on the colonnade

Beyond Ramesses II's court, a tall colonnade leads south. Amenhotep III planned it as the main entrance but died before much of it was decorated. The reliefs on its side walls are mainly the work of Tutankhamun's reign. They follow the boats of Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu from Karnak to Luxor and back again, with priests, musicians, offerings and soldiers whose songs of praise are written beside them. The west wall starts at Karnak, where the king offers before the gods' boats.

Look closely at the cartouches. In many places Tutankhamun's name was cut away and replaced by Horemheb's, a later king who claimed much of his work. His birth name, Tutankhamun, twt-ꜥnḫ-imn, "living image of Amun", puts Amun first out of respect: the reed (M17), the game board (Y5) and the ripple spell imn, then the bread loaf (X1) and the quail chick (G43) give twt, and the ankh (S34) gives ꜥnḫ. The Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago spent 1974 to 1992 drawing these walls line by line.

Flowering reed Game board Bread loaf Quail chick Ankh

Amenhotep III owns the sun court

Past the colonnade opens the wide court of Amenhotep III, ringed by double rows of columns shaped like bundles of papyrus. He reigned about 1390 to 1352 BC, and his two names are the commonest cartouches in the back half of the temple. Several of his colossal statues in the front court were later recut for Ramesses II.

His throne name is short: Nebmaatre, nb-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, "Lord of truth is Ra", written with the sun disc, the seated Maat and the basket (V30) for nb. The birth name is longer. Amenhotep Heqawaset, imn-ḥtp ḥqꜣ-wꜣst, "Amun is content, ruler of Thebes", adds the bread on a mat (R4) for ḥtp, the stool (Q3) for p, the crook (S38) for ḥqꜣ, "ruler", and the sceptre of Thebes (R19).

Basket Bread on an offering mat Stool Crook Was sceptre with a feather

Write Nebmaatre in a cartouche

The birth room makes Amun the king's father

Among the inner rooms, one is carved with the story of Amenhotep III's birth. Amun takes the place of the king's father, Thutmose IV, beside his mother Mutemwiya. The ram-headed god Khnum then shapes the child on his potter's wheel, and the newborn king is presented to the gods.

The scenes are captioned in short columns of signs. Look for Amun's name with the game board above each figure of the god, and for the ankh held to the child's face.

Alexander the Great stands in Amun's sanctuary

The shrine where Amun's boat rested was rebuilt in the name of Alexander the Great, who took Egypt from the Persians in 332 BC. Its reliefs, in the early Ptolemaic style, show him making offerings to Amun as any Egyptian king would, with his name in a cartouche.

Egyptian had no letter l, so scribes spelled his Greek name Alexandros with the signs they had: ꜣlksindrs. The vulture (G1) for the opening a, the recumbent lion (E23) for l, the basket with handle (V31) for k, and the door bolt (O34) for s. The reed and the ripple give i and n, the hand (D46) d, the mouth (D21) r, and a second door bolt ends the name.

Egyptian vulture Recumbent lion Basket with handle Door bolt Hand Mouth

See Alexander's cartouche sign by sign

Four signs carry most of the royal names here

Learn these four before you go:

Name	Sound	Say it
Game board Y5	mn	in the name of Amun
Seated goddess Maat C10	mꜣꜥt	"truth", in Usermaatre and Nebmaatre
Head of a canine F12	wsr	"strong", in Usermaatre
Ankh S34	ꜥnḫ	"life", which Amun holds out to the king

Low sun and floodlights show the carving best

Sunk relief reads by its shadows. In the late afternoon the light rakes across the pylon and the obelisk, and after dark the floodlights do the same for the colonnade. At midday the same walls look flat.

In the vestibule before the sanctuary, Roman painters plastered over the carving when the room served the cult of the emperors, and patches of their paint survive. On recut cartouches, photograph the ring from the side and trace it over your photo at home. Traces of the older signs often show inside the newer ones.

Read a cartouche with the camera

Questions

What do the hieroglyphs at Luxor Temple say?

Most give the names and titles of the kings who built the temple, with captions naming the gods they offer to. The colonnade tells the Opet festival in pictures and short texts, and the obelisk's columns give Ramesses II's titles beside the names of Amun-Ra and Horus.

Where is the second Luxor Temple obelisk?

In Paris, at the Place de la Concorde, where it was raised in 1836. Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, gave both obelisks to France in 1830, but only one was moved. In 1981 France gave up its claim to the one still at Luxor.

Is there a mosque inside Luxor Temple?

Yes. The mosque of Abu el-Haggag stands in Ramesses II's court, raised on the level of the rubble that once buried the temple. It is still in use.

Can you see Luxor Temple at night?

The temple stays open into the evening, and the floodlights rake across the carved signs. Check the hours on the day, since they change.

Glossary

ankh: The sign of life, ꜥnḫ, a cross with a loop on top. Gods hold it out to kings in temple scenes.
birth name: The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
cartouche: An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
Maat: Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
obelisk: A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
papyrus: A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
pharaoh: The king of Egypt. The word comes from per-aa, "great house", a name for the palace that came to mean the king himself in the New Kingdom.
priest: A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
pylon: The huge gateway of a temple: two sloping towers with a door between them, carved with scenes of the king.
relief: A carving on a flat surface. In raised relief the background is cut away. In sunk relief the figures are cut into the stone.
temple: The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
throne name: The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.

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Where to see it

Luxor Temple site
Karnak Temple site