Cleopatra's Needle is located on the Thames Embankment in London close to the Embankment underground station. The Obelisk was actually constructed for Tuthmose III and is carved with Hieroglyphics praising Tuthmose and commemorating his third sed festival. Later inscriptions were added by Ramesses II to commemorate

One of the most impressive exhibits in the Luxor Museum is a reconstruction of a section of wall from a temple of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). When the orthodox religions were restored many of the Aten monuments were defaced or destroyed. At Karnak many of the small sandstone blocks, known as Talatat or 'Two Hand Width' were later used as rubble fill for the Pylons there.

In total over 40,000 stone blocks were recovered. Of these only those found in the 9th Pylon were sufficiently ordered, and carefully enough removed, to enable a reconstruction to be attempted

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There are Talatat bricks in collections all over the world, but to date the Luxor example is the only comprehensive reassembly which has been completed. The blocks were removed from the pylon between 1968 and 1969 by The Center Franco-Egyptian.

The left half of the wall is dominated by scenes of Akhenaten worshiping the Aten, such as those shown here. In some scenes he is accompanied by Nefertiti.

The wall consists of several scenes displaying both worship and daily life in the early years of Akhenaten's reign. On the right of the wall the temple workers are shown, including people tending to livestock as well as scenes of the temple workshops. Amongst the more 'human' images on the wall, one scene shows a peasant feeding a calf and two geese eating grain from an open jar.

Every Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt sough to immortalise themselves in stone. Widely varying amounts of these statues survive depending on the reign involved, and how well it was remembered by later dynasties. In addition a great deal of the survival is down to luck. For example there is only one small statue of the Pharaoh Khufu who built the Great Pyramid. Most of the surviving sculpture is from quite late in Ancient Egyptian history, but it should be remembered that Khufu had been dead for two millennia when Amenhotep III (Right) came to the throne. Perhaps the most well known statues of Amenhotep III are the Collossi of Memnon, which are virtually all that remains of the Pharaoh's Theban mortuary temple.

Another Pharaoh who left behind a vast number of statues was Ramesses II. His temples at Abu Simbel and his additions to Luxor and Karnak temples contain literally dozens of representations of Ramesses. This statue is from Ramesses mortuary temple at Thebes. It is another example of how visiting the site can bring home how much has been removed from Egypt. This piece from the British Museum was removed from the Ramesseum by Belzoni. Belzoni's drawing of the transportation of the statue is shown below.

Throughout Egyptian history it was common practice for later pharaohs to usurp the monuments of previous rulers. Although the cartouches on the statues were recut the experienced eye can still identify the original subject by small stylistic differences which appeared through time. Cont... Next Page>>>