Alabaster Mosque of Mohammed Ali *Citadel of Salah al-Din* Cairo, Egypt 薩拉赫丁城堡

Built in AD 1830 on the northern elevated part of the Citadel, the mosque is visible to most parts of Cairo.

Designed by the Greek architect Yussuf Bushnaq, The Mohammad Ali (Alabaster) Mosque in the Citadel was begun in 1830 (finished in 1857) in the Ottoman style by Mohammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, and founder of the country's last dynasty of Khedives and Kings. The mosque is the Tomb of Mohammad Ali and is also known as the Alabaster Mosque because of the extensive use of this fine material from Beni Suef. Its two slender 270 foot minarets are unusual for Cairo. From the arcaded courtyard, visitors have a magnificent view across the city to the pyramids in Giza. Just off the courtyard is the vast prayer hall with an Ottoman style dome which is 170 feet above. The parapet to the southwest offers a good view of the Sultan Hassan and Ibn Tulun Mosques and of Cairo itself. Perhaps because of its location, it is one of the most frequented Mosques by tourists.

Khafre's Pyramid 卡夫拉金字塔

Giza, Egypt, originally uploaded by dennislim.

Khafre’s pyramid is the second biggest pyramid in the ancient Egyptian Pyramids of Giza. Khafre was the son of Khufu who also made a pyramid called Khufu’s pyramid which is bigger. Khafre’s pyramid can be also called the Great Pyramid of Khafre. Khafre’s pyramid was finished at the end of his reign of being pharaoh (around 2532 B.C). It is a few hundred meters southwest of The Great Pyramid of Khufu in the Giza necropolis (where the pyramids are) outside of Cairo. The pyramid has a height of 143.87 (275 royal cubits or 471ft). It stands at 136 m (446 ft) tall with a center of 215.29 m (410 royal cubits or 704 ft). It is 11 acres in a total distance. When cracks began to form they made it smaller. It is at a high location that makes it look bigger than Khufu’s pyramid. It actually isn’t bigger. The pyramid was made out of limestone and granite blocks weighing about 2.5 tons each. Unlike the Great Pyramid and Menkaure’s Pyramid, Khafre’s Pyramid has some limestone right out at the end points of the pyramid. Some of the outer blocks of the pyramid weigh about 7 tons. In the pyramid there are two entrances. The lower entrance goes down, which then rises up. Then there is an upper entrance. You walk through a long hallway that leads straight to the burial chamber. In the chamber there is nothing but a sarcophagus (the resting place of a pharaoh who is dead) which is made out of black granite. The other entrance leads to a subsidiary chamber (extra chamber). Nobody knows what it was used for. In the burial chamber the pharaoh’s most prized items would be there. Bronze mirrors, sandals, headrest, food, couches, hunting tools and many other things. In their afterlife they thought they would need these things. They also put these things called shabtis (little statues). They believed that these things would do all the work for them in there afterlife. Hieroglyphics are on the shabtis. They are magical incantations (chants) on them so they would come to life to work for them.

Queen Hatshepsut Temple 女王哈特谢普苏特神殿-十八王朝（公元前1534年至 1292年） -德尔巴拉巴哈里，底比斯，卢克索-埃及

Luxor, Egypt, originally uploaded by dennislim.

The temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Maat-Ka-Ra) is located in Thebes, modern day Deir El Bahari, at the west bank of Luxor – Egypt. Built during the XVIII Dynasty (1534-1292 BC). It is situated directly against the rock face of Deir El Bahri’s rock bay, echoing the lines of the surrounding cliffs in its design. The temple consists of 3 terraces connected by ramps with each other. In the middle of both ramps a central row of stairs lead upwards. The terraces are surrounded by gardens, sphinxes & T shaped papyrus ponds. Queen Hatshepsut recorded that she built the temple as "a garden for my father Amun," Each terrace is articulated by a double colonnade of square piers at the front, rounded & 16 sided columns at the back, with the exception chapel of Hathor with the characteristic Hathor-headed pillars. The layering of Queen Hatshepsut’s temple corresponds with the classical Theban form, employing Pylon, courts, hypostyle hall, sun court, chapel, and sanctuary. The model is a faithful attempt to reconstruct the temple to scale using ancient Egyptian measurements of royal cubits (RC). 1 Royal Cubit (RC) = 0.524 mtr. / 52.4 cm. Queen Hatshepsut’s temple is considered the closest Egyptians came to the Classical Architecture of the old kingdom namely the architecture of Imhotep, who designed the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. After download, open with Google sketchup, check out "layers" under window tab, to see details inside the temple.

Avenue of the Sphinxes (Luxor, Egypt)

Avenue of the Sphinxes (Luxor, Egypt), originally uploaded by dennislim.

Avenue of the Sphinxes, Luxor, Egypt

The Avenue of Sphinx connects the feted Temple of Luxor and the world-famous Temples at Karnak. This Avenue of Sphinx is an imposing avenue of about 2 kms or 1.2miles south of the Karnak Temple and bordered on both sides by the majestic sphinxes. It is believed that in the ancient times, the avenue extended over a length of 3km length and the number of Sphinxes present there was about two thousand.
However it is said that the sphinxes do not belong to the original cult design of Luxor.
The Avenue of Sphinx was erected at first by Amenhotep III . However in the 4th century the sphinxes were re-constructed by King Nectanebo I in the 4th centuryin order to replace the desolated sphinxes of New Kingdom Era in Egyptian history.
At present the sphinxes that line the avenue have the body of a lion with the head of Nectanebo I who ruled from 380-363 B.C.E. Nectanebo I replaced the former ram-headed sphinxes with his own head. The sandstone built majestic structures reflects a golden color during the day and looks stunning during the sunset.

The Avenue of Sphinx which links the temple of Karnak was known as Ipet-isut in the old days. It was dedicated to the Theben tercet of Amen, Mut and Khonsu. Originally the temple complex consists of three main temples, enclosed and outer temples. This enormous complex embracing an area of 100 hectares was constructed before a thirteen hundred year period and is the largest temple complex in the world.

The famous Luxor Temple that is also connected by the Avenue of Sphinx was built by Ramses II, especially the pylon (the huge wall in the background), two obelisks of which only one remains today and six figurines of himself.

This striking Avenue of Sphinx which encompasses the entire region from Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple imparts a ceremonial grandeur to Luxor.

Leaving。。。

Leaving。。。, originally uploaded by dennislim.