Luxor Temple Miniatures (Ancient and Modern)

While there are countless aspects of Luxor Temple that made me fall in love with it when first I learned about it, the most interesting – and humbling – part for me was how much this temple had seen in its lifetime.

Like the pyramids of Egypt, many of its temples are also monuments to the dead. Or more specifically, to that one dead person who commissioned whatever pyramid or temple you're looking at. They offer unique and beautiful insights into a very specific point in time and culture. Temples like luxor or Karnak, on the other hand, are monuments to the Gods, to be used by the living to worship all the way into eternity. As such, they offer a much broader view and insight into many different cultures and eras.

By the time Luxor Temple was built around 1400 BC, the pyramids of Giza were already a thousand years old, and probably hadn't changed much during that time. A thousand years into its own history, Luxor Temple had experienced at least three expansions, one of them by Alexander the Great. Another thousand years later, and the temple would already house the ruins of a Roman church and a mosque that is still in use today.

I was fascinated by the thought that a wall built by King Tut and used by Alexander the Great would now be photographed athousand times a day by bussloads of sweaty tourists. That the same shores were swarming with golden barges and fishing boats instead of luxury steamers and recyclables.

So now, after having made both a 9000 piece and 3000 piece version of the temple (the latter still being a longer set than the Titanic), I just had to sit down and make one that might actually fit into a regular collector's living room. While the big sets can be modified to show either modern or ancient versions of the temple, for the microscale version I decided to just make them both separately. They can still be taken apart and reassembled dfferently, like if you want them as triple bookends or to interchange the ancient and modern parts (if you suchly dare).

With Lego trying to expand their architecture series, I think it's important to touch on as many aspects of this world and its culture as possible, and to give people as many choices as possible to express their own world and culture (as it pertains to Lego). As to why I think Luxor Temple should become a product (in either of its sizes), I mean just look at them.