Let's discover together the Temples of Millions of Years

These temples are that of Queen Hatshepsut, the Ramesseum or Temple of the Millions of Years of Ramses II, the Temple of the Millions of Years of Amenhotep III, whose presence is marked by the two Colossi of Memnon, the Temple of the Millions of Years of Seti I and the Temple of the Millions of Years of Ramses III, at Médinet Habou, very close to Luxor.

These temples form part of the few square kilometres that make up the Theban Necropolis, opposite Luxor on the west bank of the Nile. If it's not too hot and your hotel is on the same bank, the west bank, you can walk to them. Cycling is no problem, but never leave home without water.

If your hotel is on the east bank, you have several options for crossing to theother side of the Nile. The most direct is to cross the river by ferry. It will cost you less than one euro (20 Egyptian pounds) and then you can board a minibus. If you opt for the minibus from your hotel, you won't be back for another 45 minutes, as it will have to make a diversion to cross the bridge, which is 8 kilometres from the city centre. The most pleasant option is to take a felucca across the river. This will cost you a few euros.

If, on the other hand, you're not that interested in Luxor and you've concentrated your visits on the west bank, i.e. the necropolis (the various "valleys", the temple of Hatshepsut, the temples of the Millions of Years), then book a hotel on the same bank. You can also cross the Nile to Luxor and visit the temples of Karnak and Amun from time to time.

Roughly speaking, each of these sites is between 2 and 5 kilometres apart. So it's easy to organise your visits, and a whole day to see everything is enough. From the Amon Hotel by the Nile, for example, you are 3 kilometres from the Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of a Million Years of Amenhotep III. The latter are less than a kilometre from the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu.

Our advice is broadly the same as for visiting the Valley of the Kings or Queens. We thought it would be useful to dwell a little on the significance of the remains you will visit. Who knows, for example, that the Colossi of Memnon, lost in the desert that will lead you to the mythical necropolis, are in fact the guardians of a temple millions of years old that has now totally disappeared, and whose stones were used to build the other more recent buildings in the region. They are meaningless if you don't know that one of the most monumental temples in history once stood here.

So, on the road back up the Nile after you've crossed it, you can't fail to stop at the foot of the Colossi of Memnon. The visit will only take a few minutes, enough time to take a few photos. In the morning, the colossi face the sunlight.

So what are these two monumental statues doing here in the middle of the desert? In reality, they are the remains of Amenhotep III's Temple of Millions of Years, which has now disappeared. Its ruins were used to build other, more recent temples and tombs in the Valley of the Kings. These two colossal statues represent King Amenhotep III, who was originally accompanied by statues of his mother and wife, in front of the pylon that opened the temple.

This Temple of Millions of Years is both the most impressive and the best preserved. It is less than 3 kilometres from the Ramesseum, at the end of a line of temples that begins at Madinat Habu, to the south-west.

To help you organise your visit, we refer you to this article.

This temple, unlike any other, was designed by the Queen's lover and Grand Majordomo, Senenmut. It is remarkable for its large, superimposed terraces of perfect geometry. It's hard to imagine what a marvel this temple could have been, with its vast suspended spaces covered with gardens, water lilies and hibiscus floating in the pools, and the red ibises of the Nile lounging about.

This funerary temple was never the final resting place of the queen, who died at the age of 50. But it did make a major contribution to her influence and to the tour de force she achieved by becoming pharaoh.

A tomb had been prepared for her when she was simply the wife of Thutmosis II. It was discovered in 1916 by Howard Carter. Carved into the side of the Theban mountain, 28 metres above the ground, deep in the ouadi Sikkat Taquet ez-Zeid, the tomb is high enough for the setting sun to penetrate it during the autumn equinox. However, when the king died, Hatshepsut acceded to the throne and the status of queen-pharaoh. So one day, she would have to be buried in the Valley of the Kings and not here! And so they did.

It then became a real treasure hunt for archaeologists and Egyptologists. After the queen's death, the liturgical authorities decided to reunite the father, Thutmosis I, with his daughter, Queen Hatshepsut. Thutmes I was exhumed and placed with his daughter in tomb KV20 in the Valley of the Kings. Then, for some reason, the two bodies were moved. Hatshepsut's mummy was placed anonymously and probably secretly, to hide it, in the tomb (KV60) of her nurse Sat-Ra, still in the Valley of the Kings, so that her mummy could not be identified. Her father's mummy, on the other hand, was hidden in a royal hideout, a cave built into the cliff overlooking his daughter's million-year-old temple at Deir el-Bahari, the temple of Hatshepsut!

So, for a long time, no one knew where Hatshepsut was. Until 2007, when a tooth found in a canopic vase bearing her name in her father's royal cache was matched with a tooth missing from an unidentified mummy in the tomb of her nurse Sat-Ra. Probably the tooth responsible for the abscess that caused his death.

This is how Hatshepsut's mummy was identified in 2007, when there was nothing else to support it. In moving the king's tomb, the funeral attendants had also moved his daughter's belongings, thereby confusing the issue.

The nanny's mummy is kept at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, while Hatshepsut's mummy is kept at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fostat, Cairo.

Hatshepsut's temple is very close to Ramses II's Temple of a Million Years, otherwise known as the Ramesseum. Just over 3 kilometres by road. So it's on your way back to your hotel, for example, or back to Luxor.

Having stood the test of time to the sole glory of Ramses II, as best it could over the millennia, this temple is well worth a visit. Especially for the colossi that guard its entrance. 4 giant statues representing the pharaoh, behind a giant head of the same Ramses II wearing the Némès, placed on the ground.

This temple, which is in a relatively good state of preservation, consists of a series of monuments to the glory of Ramses II, the predecessor of Ramses III, who had great admiration for him. Of course, many of the cult buildings were dedicated to the jubilant glory of Ramses III.

This temple, millions of years old, was surrounded by a protective enclosure that contained a city where the staff of the temple and royal palace (architects, advisors, craftsmen, farmers, sedentary merchants and doctors) lived. Beyond the gateway are the funerary chapels of the queens who worshipped Amun: Amenardis I, Chepenoupet II and Nitocris.