Within this broad temple, the Imperial Cult Chapel is the Roman-period adaptation of a southern-wing space that had earlier been part of the temple’s pharaonic chapels (specifically the chapel of the goddess Mut) and other subsidiary rooms. Under Roman imperial rule (circa third to fourth centuries CE), this chamber was converted into a space for the cult of the emperors — in effect a symbolic assertion of Roman power within an Egyptian sacred landscape.

The apse of the Roman sanctuary in the south-western wall, it was converted in to a church cira 300 CE after the Diocletian's persecution of Christians in Egypt. It was transformed, and an apse installed during the Era of the Martyrs along with a few other churches around the site. The small entrance in the apse (peek inside) leads to the offering hall of Alexander the Great. Adapted from a Pharaonic building of the time of Amenophis III the central hall that is described by all the leading authorities as a Christian church.

In terms of significance, the chapel is important because it illustrates how the Roman Empire engaged with local religious architectures and traditions: rather than demolishing the Egyptian temple, the Romans repurposed part of it, overlaying their political-religious schemes onto an existing sacred geography. The preservation of Roman-era frescoes depicting imperial figures within an Egyptian temple is fairly rare in Egypt and makes this chapel a key locus for understanding the late antique transformation of Egyptian temple sites.

The space of the ancient egyptian temple was very useful for creating the principia. It included the court, the hypostyle hall which probably became the basilica, the chapel of the Roman Imperial Cult and additional chambers, which had been pharaonic chapels before (el-Saghir et al. 1986. P. 31). In the main chamber of the chapel there were paintings which were not preserved, However because of sir John Wilkinson’s watercolours painted in the middle of the nineteenth century CE, scholars studied them a lot and J. Deckers did their reconstruction.

circa 280 CE

Egyptian Period
The room forming the basis of the Imperial Cult Chapel was originally constructed under Amenhotep III during the New Kingdom, between circa 1390 and 1352 BCE. It was designed as part of a sequence of inner sanctuaries dedicated to the Theban deities, especially Mut, and formed one of the smaller subsidiary chambers beyond the main hypostyle hall. Following Egypt’s incorporation into the Roman Empire, Luxor Temple became the site of a fortified garrison and administrative complex. During this phase, the southern chapels were adapted for imperial worship, and the room in question was converted into a chapel of the Imperial Cult, likely during the Tetrarchic period (late third century CE).

Roman Empire Period
The conversion involved significant architectural and decorative interventions. A semi-circular apse was built into the rear wall, and frescoes were applied over earlier carved reliefs. These paintings depicted the four emperors of the Tetrarchy — Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius — portrayed in ceremonial poses consistent with both Roman and Egyptian traditions of divine kingship. The frescoes were executed over plaster laid upon the sandstone walls, partially obscuring the reliefs of Amenhotep III venerating Amun-Re. This deliberate palimpsest signified continuity and domination simultaneously: the Roman emperors asserting themselves within a divine lineage rooted in pharaonic kingship.

Christian Period
In the fourth century CE, following the Christianization of ancient Egypt, the chapel was reused once again, this time as a Christian church. Archaeological traces of this later phase include structural modifications and the partial defacement of imperial and pagan imagery. Thus, within a single confined space, the chapel bears witness to a progression of religious transformations spanning nearly two millennia — from pharaonic ritual, through Roman state cult, to early Christian liturgy.

circa 1350 BCE

The architecture of the Imperial Cult Chapel retains the underlying geometry of its Egyptian origin while incorporating Roman spatial and decorative elements. The chamber’s initial configuration as an eight-columned hall was modified when the Romans repurposed it. The floor level was raised considerably, probably through the reuse of earlier column drums and stone blocks. The apse, characteristic of Roman ceremonial architecture, was introduced into the southern wall to serve as a focal point for imperial worship.

The Roman builders applied a thick layer of stucco or plaster over the carved sandstone walls, then executed fresco paintings using mineral pigments. These frescoes, though largely fragmentary today, depict imperial figures and ceremonial processions, rendered in a style that merges Roman realism with schematic Egyptian conventions. The integration of an apse and painted surfaces into an existing stone-cut temple room represents a pragmatic adaptation rather than a complete architectural overhaul — a synthesis of Roman liturgical form within the monumental solidity of Egyptian construction.

The walls of the chapel are constructed from fine-grained Nubian sandstone, the same material used throughout Luxor Temple, quarried from Gebel el-Silsila. Traces of the original New Kingdom reliefs, showing Amenhotep III before Amun, remain visible in several areas where the Roman plaster has flaked away. The juxtaposition of these two visual programs — one carved and ancient, the other painted and imperial — makes the chapel a rare architectural document of religious and political continuity.

circa 1350 BCE

Original Reliefs
The date of the original building is given by the magnificent series of bas-reliefs on the walls, most of which have been revealed from beneath a thick coating of plaster, on the remaining parts of which can still be seen traces of late antique paintings. It is, in the main, these paintings that have attracted the attention of scholars, both of those who saw them immediately after excavation and of those who, since then, have deplored their almost total destruction at the hands of the Egyptologists, who stripped off the greater part of the stucco to reveal the underlying Egyptian sculpture.

circa 280 CE

Fresco (A)
Roman fresco, to the south of the apse, in the sanctuary (inspect), recreated over the temple’s hieroglyphs, depicting the Roman soldiers who had occupied the site. These frescoes provide fascinating insight into the political landscape of the late Roman Empire and, as the only surviving wall paintings from the tetrarchic period, into the history of Roman art.

circa 1400 BCE

Luxor Temple Complex
The Luxor Temple, where the Roman sanctuary of Imperial Cult is located, was constructed over hundreds of years by Amenhotep III, Ramses II, Tutankhamun, and other pharaohs, Luxor Temple was the largest and most significant religious center in ancient Egypt. In what was then Thebes, Luxor Temple was “the place of the First Occasion,” where the god Amon experienced rebirth during the pharaoh’s annually reenacted coronation ceremony.