The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the Djeser-Djeseru (“Holy of Holies”), is located beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari on the west bank of the Nile near the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It is dedicated to the sun god Amun-Re.

Hatshepsut’s chancellor, royal architect, and possible lover Senemut oversaw construction and most likely designed the temple. Although the adjacent, earlier mortuary temple of Mentuhotep was used as a model, the two structures are nevertheless significantly different in many ways. Hatshepsut’s temple employs a lengthy, colonnaded terrace. There are three layered terraces reaching 97 feet tall. Each ’story’ is articulated by a double colonnade of square piers, with the exception of the northwest corner of the central terrace, which employs Proto Doric columns to house the chapel. These terraces are connected by long ramps which were once surrounded by gardens with foreign plants including frankincense and myrrh trees. The layering of Hatshepsut’s temple corresponds with the classical Theban form, employing pylons, courts, hypostyle hall, sun court, chapel and sanctuary.

The relief sculpture within Hatshepsut’s temple recites the tale of the divine birth of a female pharaoh – the first of its kind. The text and pictorial cycle also tell of an expedition to the Land of Punt, an exotic country on the Red Sea coast. While the statues and ornamentation have since been stolen or destroyed, the temple once was home to two statues of Osiris, a sphinx avenue as well as many sculptures of the female pharaoh in different attitudes – standing, sitting, or kneeling.

This video shows the different variations in the features of the ancient Egyptian men and women through sculptures and paintings.

The Temple of Edfu is located on the west bank of the Nile in the city of Edfu, known in Greco-Roman times as Apollonopolis Magna, after the chief god Horus-Apollo. It is one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BC.

The building was started during the reign of Ptolemy III and completed under Ptolemy XII. It was built on the site of an earlier, smaller temple also dedicated to Horus, although the previous structure was oriented east-west rather than north-south as in the present site.

A naos of Nectanebo II, a relic from an earlier building, is preserved in the inner sanctuary, which stands alone while the temple’s barque sanctuary is surrounded by nine chapels.

The Temple of Edfu’s archaeological significance and high state of preservation has made it a center for tourism in Egypt and a frequent stop for the many riverboats that cruise the Nile.

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Egyptian blue was widely used as a pigment in the Mediterranean world. This video explore evidence of its use in the Parthenon, specifically in the so called Elgin Marbles at the British Museum.

In 2007, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin proposed that the most effective way for the ancient Egyptians to build the Great Pyramid at Giza is the use of an internal ramp that according to the architect still exists inside the ancient Egyptian man made structure.

The first stage of construction, according to Houdin, used a traditional external ramp. The next stage involved building the internal ramp in the shape of a spiral. Once the bulk of the pyramid was finished, the open corners of the ramp were filled in as the pyramid was finished off, but the ramp’s tunnels were left empty. Scientists are now seeking permission from the Egyptian government to do more non-invasive tests that would prove or disprove Houdin’s theory.

A virtual recreation of the ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza.

Work conducted by the Supreme Council of Antiquities to restore, preserve and manage the pharaonic, islamist and other monuments and museums in Egypt.

A summary of the efforts conducted by the Supreme Council of Antiquities to restore, preserve and manage the monuments and museums across Egypt.

The Temple of Isis at Philae as it might have appeared in ancient times, reconstructed by Mark Millmore.
http://www.eyelid.co.uk

The approach by water to the Temple of Isis in Philae is quite the most beautiful. Seen from the level of a small boat, the island, with its palms, its colonnades, its pylons, seems to rise out of the river like a mirage. Piled rocks frame it on either side, and the purple mountains close up the distance. As the boat glides nearer between glistening boulders, those sculptured towers rise higher and even higher against the sky. They show no sign of ruin or age. All looks solid, stately, perfect. One forgets for the moment that anything is changed. If a sound of antique chanting were to be borne along the quiet air–if a procession of white-robed priests bearing aloft the veiled ark of the God, were to come sweeping round between the palms and pylons–we should not think it strange.

Source: Wikipedia

3D reconstruction of the Great Precinct of Amun in Karnak (Egypt), done by Marc Mateos for a lecture in Museu Egipci de Barcelona in October 2004.

The Karnak Temple Complex comprises a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings, notably the Great Temple of Amen and a massive structure begun by Pharaoh Ramses II (ca. 1391–1351 BC). An ancient sacred lake is part of the site as well. It is located near Luxor, some 500 km south of Cairo, in Egypt. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut (“The Most Selected of Places”) and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. The Karnak complex takes its name from the nearby, and partly surrounded, modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5 km north of Luxor.

Source: Wikipedia