Things to see and do Gourna - Thebes West

This monumental complex - the largest after Karnak - occupies a site long dedicated to the cult of Amun.

What you will see is only part of a complex that included not only a royal palace, but also stores, administrative and priestly buildings, as well as a sacred lake fed by a canal that allowed pharaohs to reach their apartments without setting foot on land.

The whole complex formed a city, a veritable extension of Luxor on the other bank, and extended to the south-west of the temple. The mud-brick enclosure, which dates back to Ramses III, was home to a large Christian community until the early ^9th century. This community built a church in the second courtyard of the great temple, which has now disappeared.

You enter the complex through a monumental gate flanked by two towers. Immediately to the left is a small temple with two funerary chapels for the divine worshippers of Amun. On your right, you'll notice the small Temple of Thutmes, whose construction dates back to Amenhetep ^I for the sanctuary, and to Thutmes ^I, II and III for the six chambers at the back.

But it's above all the first pylon of the great temple that catches the eye, despite the partial destruction of its upper parts. On its façade, you'll recognize the king, to whom Amun is holding out a sword, preparing to finish off the prisoners. The first courtyard is lined with seven Osirid pillars representing Ramses III. The left wall, sheltered by a portico, was flanked by a balcony from which the king could attend ceremonies and processions without leaving his palace.

A ramp leads to the foot of the second pylon, giving access to the second courtyard. Having taken the Ramesseum as his model, Ramses III gave his temple the massive, imposing appearance that was the glory of that of Ramses II. This courtyard is bordered on all four sides by porticoes supported by columns. Numerous traces of exquisitely coloured paintings can be seen.

On the right-hand pylon, on the way back to the first courtyard, you'll see a heap of severed hands and sexes. They weren't kidding in those days!

The next room was supported by twenty-four columns, of which only the base remains. It takes a great deal of imagination to picture the original site. The rest of the temple is badly deteriorated. On the sides, several rooms for various purposes display some interesting bas-reliefs.

Even more than its architecture, the site's location at the foot of a vertiginous limestone cliff is likely to surprise you. Extremely dilapidated when Auguste Mariette began clearing it, it is still being restored today.

Hatshepsut's temple, originally surrounded by hanging gardens with pools, was built by the architect Senmout during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1490-1468 BC). Access was via an alley lined with sphinxes. On the queen's death, her successor, Thutmes III, who had previously been kept out of power, had most of the bas-reliefs depicting Hatshepsut hammered out. During the reign of Amenhotep IV and his heresy, as well as during the Christian era, Hatshepsut's temple suffered further abuse before being transformed into a monastery. On either side of the ramps leading to the upper terraces are magnificent bas-reliefs, the finest being those on the middle level. They depict the maritime expedition organized by Hatshepsut to the land of Punt, identified today as Somalia and Ethiopia, from which animals and a particularly wide range of riches were brought back.

At thefar end of the left-hand portico is a small chapel dedicated to the goddess Hathor, whose cow-like ornaments make her easily recognizable as an ornament on the capitals. On the right wall, soldiers march in orderly rows, each carrying a different weapon: spear, stunner, axe... Next to them, rowers compete. The next room, long off-limits to visitors, is now open, so you can see the colors still adorning the walls.

On the right, there's a chapel of Anubis, sculpted with splendid bas-reliefs in absolutely intact colors. The ceiling, painted a deep blue and studded with yellow stars, is admirable.

The third terrace , whose restoration was completed in 2002, features a colonnade of Osirid pillars bearing the effigy of Hatshepsut, whose alignment of icy smiles is sublime. Inside, a former hypostyle hall, now roofless, opens onto several oratories, including the one to the left of Thutmose I, the sovereign's father.

To the left of Hatshepsut's temple, almost completely ruined and clearly visible from the top of the cliff, are the remains of the temple of Mentuhotep I, built six centuries earlier, and behind it, in a similar state, the temple of Thutmes III.

If you drive along the road to Gourna, you'll see two pillars which, as you approach, turn out to be two gigantic statues, the largest remains of the funerary temple built for Amenhotep III on the left bank. Originally carved in a single block, they reach a height of around 20 m on their plinths and represent Amenhotep III in a seated position, hands on knees, the position of peace. His mother and wife are depicted smaller at his feet. They originally adorned the entrance to the king's huge funerary temple.

Nothing remains of the temple - which explains their unusual presence in the middle of a sugarcane field - even though it was gigantic, stretching 700 m to the foot of the Theban Mountain. Shaken by an earthquake at the very beginning of the Christian era, the northern statue began to emit a sound due, it seems, to the heating of the stone exposed to the sun, a whistling sound that the Greeks attributed to Memnon, the mythical king of Ethiopia, son of Dawn, who inspired numerous pilgrimages and gave his name to the site. For two centuries, until Septimius Severus had the statue restored, depriving it of its distinctive sound, the Colossi of Memnon were a major tourist attraction. Among their famous visitors was the emperor Hadrian, whom Marguerite Yourcenar, in Memoirs of Hadrian, imagines resting in the shadow of the statue. Excavations are still taking place on the site, in the shadow of the colossi if you will.

The funerary temple of Ramses II, originally a splendid structure designed to remind his descendants of the glory and prestige of his reign, is today rather dilapidated, but still imposing.

The average archaeologically-inclined traveller will see almost as much of it from the outside as he will by entering the enclosure, and will thus make substantial savings. The facades of the two pylons, partly destroyed, depict the pharaoh's warlike exploits against the Hittites. Every year, from October to January, the Ramesseum conservation team resumes its excavation and restoration work. You can play your part in safeguarding the site by purchasing a Ramesseum excavation booklet, the proceeds of which are donated to the association in charge of promoting the site.

In the first courtyard between them, the upper part of a colossal pink granite statue of Ramses II lies on the ground. With its pedestal, it must have measured some 18 m, and its weight is estimated at at least 1,000 tonnes.

The great hypostyle hall preserves 29 columns (out of the original 48) supporting a few fragments of ceiling. It is followed by two chambers, the first of which retains a ceiling decorated with astronomical scenes. The brick stores behind the temple (clearly visible from the mound alongside the road) served as warehouses. They are the only visible remains of the extensive outbuildings that surrounded the Ramesseum. For Marguerite Yourcenar, it was the most romantic temple in Thebes.

Ramses IV reigned for six years, during which time he built this beautiful tomb with its remarkable granite sarcophagus. Note the superb scenes painted with the goddess Nut on the astronomical ceiling, symbolizing rebirth with perfectly preserved colors. Nut swallows the solar disk and it emerges through her feet, symbolizing the daily renewal of sunrise and sunset. Coptic graffiti, created by monks at the very beginning of the Christian era when they were inventing monasticism, are also noteworthy.