There is little of interest in these two damaged rooms, but chambers on their right (north) and left (south) sides contain wellpreserved reliefs. On the right (north) side of the second hypostyle hall, a small rectangular vestibule is decorated with scenes of the king and RaHarakhty.

 A larger chamber, entered through a door in the vestibule’s left (west) wall, is partly open to the sky and scenes on its architrave show the bark of the sun being adored by lines of baboons whose cries were thought to announce the dawn. Other scenes deal with the sun’s journey through the heavens and with sunset. A small staircase leads from the vestibule to the roof, and traces of decoration suggest that numerous small shrines were erected there to local Egyptian deities. Directly on the left (south) side of the second hypostyle hall, a larger suite of eight rooms was devoted to the king’s reception by Osiris in the afterlife.

In the first on the left (east), the king receives offerings from Thoth and a priest andperforms the Opening of the Mouth ritual. Thoth writes the king’s name on the leaves of a persea tree. In a chamber to the west with two columns along its midline, the king offers to Ptah, Amen-Ra, Sekhmet, Nefertum, Isis, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and Horus. In the small chambers beyond, thin shafts of sunlight stream through small apertures in the ceilings.

 On one wall, sunlight illuminates a fine copy of a vignette from chapter 110 of the Book of the Dead, in which the king tills the fields of Iaru in the afterlife, harvests grain, and presents it to a seated Nile god. Elsewhere in these rooms, the king describes his work in the fields: “I know the lakesof the fields of offerings in which I am. I am strong therein. I am glorified therein. I exist therein.

I plough therein. I reap therein. I beget therein. I remember...I am alive!” In the innermost chamber, a vignette from Book of the Dead chapter 148 depicts a procession of seven “celestial cows” and a bull, associated both with the sun god and Osiris. Chambers at the rear of the temple include a third hypostyle hall, but they are poorly preserved and sparsely decorated. We will ignore them and retrace our steps to the entrance and turn right (south) to examine the exterior walls of the temple and the buildings that surround it.

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a