Entering the Temple of Amon, remember that this area was closed for all ordinary folks in the days when the cult was still performed here. So whatever has been lost to nature and looters, we should be grateful of being allowed into the most secret chambers of one of Egypt's largest temples. The processional way leading up to the 1st Pylon once lead to a canal linking the temple with the Nile, allowing the river transportation of gods, priests and pharaoh during the Opet festival. The processional way is lined with ram-headed sphinxes, protecting a, for once, tiny Ramses 2 between the forelegs. This modesty of Ramses 2 is quite unusual, being the pharaoh which erected enormous statues of himself all along the Nile. The 1st Pylon is 113 metres wide and 43 metres high, twice the size of the pylon at Luxor Temple. It is however far younger than one would expect, built during the Ethopian 25th Dynasty, ruling Egypt around 700 BCE.
