The Luxor Temple is a large ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city known today as Luxor and built around 1400 BC. It is known in Egyptian as Ipet Resyt, "Southern Sanctuary".
Built over hundreds of years by Amenhotep III, Ramesses II, Tutankhamun, and other pharaohs, the Luxor Temple was the largest and most important religious center in ancient Egypt. Located in what was then Thebes, the Luxor Temple was the "place of the first occasion," where the god Amun was reborn during the annual coronation ceremony of the pharaoh. Today, the remains of this massive complex include the massive Great Hypostyle Hall, about 200 feet (61 meters) long, with 28 columns twenty-one feet high, which was largely decorated by Tutankhamun around 1330 BC. Many of the temple's side walls were demolished after the pharaohs' reign and recycled as building materials.
