The Colossi of Memnon are the remnants of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III which was once the largest temple complex on the west bank. It was believed to have been larger than Karnak. It had hundreds of statues, gold throughout, silver on the floor, and on and on. It sat, however, on the Nile flood plain and over the years, the Nile just washed it away.

The two statues that remain today sit out in a cutout of an alfalfa field. They are 64 feet tall and massive. You can see these in the first two photos.

If you look at the background of the second photo and at the next photos, you can see many tombs in the mountain in the background. Our guide said that the people living here were the people (descendants, that is) who built the pharaohs and royals tombs. So since they had the knowledge and skills, they built their own families tombs behind where they lived. This area is just down the road from the Valley of the Kings. We also visited the Valley of the Queens with its 75 or more tombs, but it was not that different from what you have already seen in previous posts.