Karnak Temples
Karnak Temples
Karnak Temples
Karnak Temple is located on the eastern mainland in the city of
Luxor, about three kilometers north of Luxor Temple. It is the
largest and most important Egyptian temple. The ancient
Egyptians called it "Ibt sout", which means "the chosen spot for
the thrones of Amun"; Where he dedicated to the worship of the
god Amun the head of the Holy Trinity of Thebes with Mut and
Khonsu. It consists of a group of temples and architectural
elements built by the kings of ancient Egypt from the era of the
Middle Kingdom until the Ptolemaic era, surrounded by a huge
wall of mud bricks.
Karnak is a difficult site to understand, Jean Francois
Champollion, the Frenchman who first deciphered Egyptian
hieroglyphs, described it as "so vast and so grandiose" that the
Egyptians must have designed it for "men on hundred feet tall"
Not only is Karnak huge the complex covers over two square
kilometers (1.6 square miles) but it is the result of almost
constant building activity that began over 4700 years ago and
continues even today.
The temple of Amun-Ra, Karnak's principal building, is the largest religious structure ever
built. It was the god's home on earth, and around it lay the
homes of his relative his wife, Mut and their son, Khonsu.
Their temples, too are enormous.Successive kings renewed,
repaired, and enlarged these residences much as generations
of a Family might remodel their ancestral home to
accommodate changing needs and tastes.
The earliest structures found at Karnak date to the Middle
Kingdom. But there are references to building activity as early as
dynasty 3, and archaeological evidence shows that the site was
inhabited thousands of years before that, in prehistoric times.
In the New Kingdom, each king in turn seems to have vied with
his predecessors to built a bigger monument here. Kings tore
down earlier buildings and used the stones to construct new
ones. For example, Amenhotep III built a pylon with stones he
took from over a dozen earlier structure.Kings often remodeled
a predecessor's building, then erased and redecorated its walls,
replacing the earlier king's name with their own.
Egyptologists find it difficult to track the history of all this activity.
Egypt's New Kingdom rulers were exuberant builders and they
spent fortunes adding to Karnak's size and complexity and to its
wealth. Its priesthood was one of the richest in Egypt.
New Kingdom records show that the priests of the Temple of
Amun owned over 81,000 slaves and servants, 421,000 head of
cattle, 691,000 acres of agricultural land, 83 ships, 46 shipyards,
and 65 cities.
In the reign of Ramesses III alone, the temple received gifts that
included 31,833 kilograms of gold, 997,805 kilograms of silver,
2,395,120 kilograms of copper, 3722 bolts of cloth, 880,000
bushels of wheat, 289,530 ducks and geese, and untold
quantities of oil, wine, fruits and vegetables. For economic as
well as religious reasons, Amun truly was "King of gods".
Over two hundred large structures have been found at Karnak.
Undoubtedly, there are hundreds more. Some are simple
mudbrick building that have nearly vanished, some are elegant
structures built of fine alabaster, other are enormous
monuments of sandstone and granite with walls 15 meters
thick that stand 50 meters high.
By the late New
Kingdom, Karnak had
become so crowded
that new structures
were built wherever
space permitted and
older buildings were
often demolished to
accommodate them.
Clearly, there never was
a master plan for the
site.
Many of Karnak's monuments are poorly preserved. Wind and
water erosion have taken their toll, and earthquakes, like that in
27 BC, caused damage so great that engineers are still working
to rapair it.
Curiously, the huge walls, pylons, and columns at Karnak were
erected o the flimsiest of foundations, often nothing more than
shallow trenches filled with pea gravel. Rising groundwater so
weakened the foundations of some buildings that they simply
collapsed. That happened in October 1899, when columns in
the hypostyle hall toppled with a crash heard for miles around.
Many parts of Karnak were razed by later rulers (Ptolemy IX is a
prime example of such a vandal) or used by early Christians as
houses, stables, and monasteries, or damaged in local riots and
wars. Over the last two millennia, tourists have scrawled their
names on decorated walls and hacked out pieces of relief.
Treasure hunters have dug for objects of art, in the process
destroying much of the site, Yet, hundreds of hectares of
Karnak still remain unexplored and many structures are known
only from bits of stone jutting through dirt and weeds or found
reused in later buildings.
For all these reasons, Karnak remains a bewildering
architectural puzzle. It began as a few small shrines scattered
about the present site, then grew outward from them like
overlapping ripples on a pond.
If you walk for ten minutes in any direction among its ruins you
will encounter buildings from nearly every period of Egypt's
history in no predictable chorological order.
Karnak can be divided into four areas. To the north, a large
enclosure is home to a temple for the fod Montu, another
enclosure is dedicated to the goddess Ma'at, and there are
numerous smaller buildings of stone and mudbrick. The Montu
temple may have been connected by an avenue of sphinxes to
a much earlier temple for that god at Medamud, a site five
kilometers father north. To the east, Amenhotep IV "Akhenaton"
built a huge open air temple complex dedicated to his solar
deity, the Aten. To the south, another enclosure wall surrounds
a temple to the goddess Mut and smaller temples for
Amenhotep III, and Ramesses II (none of these area is open to
tourists).
The fourth area is the largest and most important called the
central enclosure, this is the area visited by tourists, and the
one to which Egyptologists have paid the most attention. Here
lies the great temple of Amun-Ra, king of the gods. That
building alone stretches 375 meters front to back and covers
over 25 hectares.
The central enclosure covers 100 hectares and, in addition to
the temple of Amun, encompasses temples to Ptah, Khonsu,
Osiris, Opet, and others.
Surrounding the four temple areas, buried under several
meters of Nile silt, the remains of ancient Thebes extend
outward in a huge urban sprawl that probably covers thousands
of hectares. Even in the New Kingdom, Thebes had a population
of over 50,000 people and this ancient city is still virtually
unexplored by archaeologists.
The ancient Egyptians called Karnak "Ipet Sout", most esteemed
of places, although originally that term referred only to a small
part of the temple of Amun, not to the entire complex. Some
scholars suggest that the first part of the name "Ipet" with the
definite article "ta", was pronounced something like "taype", and
Greek visitors heard it as Thebes, the name of a Greek city with
which they were familiar. The Egyptians called the city "Waset".
Karnak is the Arabic name of the adjacent modern village. The
word may mean "fortified settlement" a description suggested
to early Muslims visitors by the huge mud brick wall surrounding
the central enclosure, but its etymology remains unclear.The
enclosure wall defines a rectangular area 500 meters deep and
550 meters wide, and stands over 12 meters high and 8 meters
thick. Its courses of mudbrick were not laid horizontally. Instead,
they undulate like waves of water. That was intentional, it was
meant to mimic waves in the great primeval sea that Egyptians
believed had covered the earth before the creation of life,
Priests claimed that the land enclosed within this wall - the
temple of Amun-Ra was an island on which the act of original
creation took place. Large parts of the enclosure wall were
rebuilt by the Antiquities Department about sixty years ago,
when an admission fee was first levied at the site and access
had to be controlled, and the undulating pattern of the
mudbrick courses was retained in the new additions.
Four monumental gateways and several minor ones pierce the
enclosure wall. Decades ago, tourists entered the central
enclosure through its southern gate. But the principal gate lies
in the western wall. in the first pylon of the temple of Amun-Ra.
It was closed until only a few decades ago because it was
farther from the hotels of Luxor where tourists stayed and
because being close to the Nile, it was impassable during the
annual inundation.
Today, in the absence of the annual flood, one approaches the
temple from the Nile, entering into a large, ugly parking lot.
Curio shops stand on the left "north", the headquarters of the
French archaeological mission lies to the south.
The road from the parking area to the Temple lies directly atop
the route taken by ancient priests, but their journey was made
by boat along a canal dug from the Nile to a T-shaped basin
beside a stone landing quay. The Karnak ticket office lies in the
southeast corner of the parking lot, about a hundred meters
(three hundred feet) west of Karnak itself. The sound and light
ticket office is adjacent.
The Quay
The quay Amun is the landing stage where the great boats
bearing statues of Amun and his entourage docked on festival
occasions. It is a sandstone platform 13 by 15 meters, reached
today by a wooden bridge that crosses the eastern end of the
ancient T-shaped basin. Two four- meter (13 feet) high obelisks
once stood at the northeast and southeast corners of the
platform and one of them, carved for Seti II, (19 dynasty), stands
there today. A granite pedestal in the center of the quay was
used during ceremonies to hold a model bark bearing the god's
statue.
When the lower part of the quay was recently cleared, texts of
the Third Intermediate period were found that recorded the
heights of annual Nile floods. The highest flood occurred in the
sixth year of the reign of Taharqa (684 BC) and flooded the
Hypostyle hall in the Temple of Amun with 84 centimeters (33
inches) of water.
Such floods continued until a drainage canal was dug around
Karnak in 1925. Southeast of the quay (slightly to its right) near
the first pylon stands a chapel of Acoris, a king of 29 dynasty.
It is one of several way stations where priests carrying statues of
the god could pause for prayers during processions to and from
the Temple of Amun.
The statues were brought forth from their temple sanctuaries in
gilded shrines on model boats borne on the shoulders of
priests. From the quay they were sent off on great barges on
ceremonial visits to various Upper Egyptian temples. Two such
boats were called Meri-Amen and Userhet and were made of
cedar wood, decorated with sheets of gold and elaborately
woven fabrics.
Musicians and dancers performed age-old rituals and offering
bearers carried inlaid boxes filled with gold and jewels and
finest linen.
Priests, dignitaries, and local villagers watched in awe as the
statue of the god passed by. Before the first pylon was built,
these processions would have passed through an area in front
of the first pylon filled with lush gardens and ponds of papyrus
and lotus flowers. We have paintings of these gardens in several
private tombs at Thebes (for example in TT 49, the tomb of
Neferhotep from the end of 18th dynasty, and TT 161, the tomb
of Nakht from the reign of Amenhotep III). From these sourses,
we know that royal palaces were built north of the quay and
were surrounded by gardens of date palms and pomegranate
trees. Vegetables and flowers grew in profusion, many of them
used in offerings made to the god.On the east side of the Quay,
a ramp slopes down to an avenue of sphinxes called the way of
offerings, which leads to the first pylon.
Small figures of king Ramesses II in the pose of Osiris stand
between their paws. It was once thought the sphinxes were the
work of Ramesses II, but in fact they were carved for
Amenhotep III and Thutmosis IV, in 18th dynasty and installed at
Luxor Temple. They were usurped by Ramesses II and moved
here only later.Forty criosphinxes line the avenue today, but
before the first pylon was erected, when the Avenue of sphinxes
extended to the second pylon, there were 124. After the first
pylon was built. 84 sphinxes were moved alongside the walls of
the first court. They were to have been taken to another site,
but that did not happen and so they stand here even today.
The First Pylon
In spite of its rough- cut stones and lack of decoration, the
unfinished First pylon is an impressive introduction to the
temple of Amun. It was planned by Sheshonk I (dynasty 22) to
be an exact copy of the second pylon, actual building did not
begin until the reign of Nectanebo I, (dynasty 30).The pylon
stands 113 meters long, 15 meters thick, and 40 meters high.
Eight large windows were cut into each of its two towers and
below them, four niches held flagpoles that towered at least 45
meters high and carried long, colored linen banners.
In the center of the pylon stands a doorway 19 meters high,
7.5 meters wide, and 5 meters deep. In antiquity wooden
doors were fitted here, covered with sheets of gold or bronze
with beaten relief decoration.
The adjacent walls still show traces of a fire that destroyed the
doors early in the Ptolemaic period. High up on the right
"south" jamb, scholars accompanying Napoleon's expedition in
1799 inscribed the latitude and longitude of (Carnac), Luxor,
and other Egyptian sites. The height of the inscription above
the modern ground level shows how much debris covered the
pylon when it was seen by those Europeans two centuries ago.
The First Court
The gate in the first pylon was built during the dynasty 30 reign
of Nectanebo and his served as the formal entrance to the
temple of Amun for the last 2300 years. It leads into the first
court, 100 meters wide and 82 meters deep. Prior to the
construction of the first pylon, this was a large open area with
several buildings. Two of them remain, a small shrine of Seti II
in the northwest corner of the court and a shrine of Ramesses
III in the southeast corner. When the first court was built, the
two shrines were incorporated into the new plan.
The idea of enclosing the area in front of the second pylon had
been around for some time before it was finally acted upon,and took several centuries to complete. Our tour of the court
starts at the shrine of Seti II, immediately left of the entry gate.
The shrine, called the August Temple of Millions of years, is a
simply- constructed and hastily-decorated structure. It was
dedicated to the Theban Triad and served as another of the
many buildings used as rest stops during processions of sacred
barks.
Statues of Seti II stood between the doors to the three
corridor-like rooms. The room in the center was dedicated to
Amun, depicted in human form on the left wall and as a ramheaded deity on the right. the room on the left was dedicated
to Mut, that on the right to Khonsu. On the chamber walls Seti II
offers to each deity. In the center of the first court, two rows of
five columns once formed part of a large kiosk built by Taharqa
in dynasty 25 and restored in the Ptolemaic Period. Only one of
the Original columns still stands, the five on the left (north)
were partially reconstructed in the last century.
These hug columns with open papyrus capitals stood nearly 19
meters hugh and were joined by a thin wall of stone in the reign
of Ptolemy IV. The roof - if the shrine was roofed - presumably
was built of wood because the space between the rows of
columns, 14 meters, could not have been spanned by stones. (one
scholar has also suggested that the columns were not supports
for a ceiling but pedestals for statues, that seems unlikely) A
large block of alabaster in the center of the structure served as
a resting-place for sacred barks during ceremonial processions.
One of the most interesting features in the first court is a huge
mudbrick construction ramp whose remains abut the eastern
face of the south tower of the first pylon. It consisted of a series
of mudbrick walls built at right angles to the pylon, the spaces
between them filled with rubble. (A ramp built against the north
tower, now gone, was more carefully built entirely of well-laid
brick). Blocks of stone for the pylon's construction were dragged
up these ramps using rollers or sledges and ropes. When
Napoleon's Expedition visited here, several sandstone blocks
still sat on the ramp where they had been left by workmen 2600
years earlier.
The ram should have been removed when the pylon was
completed but, as the unfinished face of the pylon attests, it
never was. A similar ramp can be seen in wall paintings in the
tomb of Rekhmi-Ra.The row of columns along the court's
southern wall offers further evidence of ancient building
techniques. the drums of the column nearest the first pylon
were not dressed or decorated. Typically, that work would have
proceeded from the top down after the rough-cut drums had
been set in place and as the construction ramp was removed.
The shrine of Ramesses III
The shrine in the southeastern (right rear) corner of the first
court is one of the best-preserved architectural features at
Karnak. Rameses III based its plan on his memorial temple at
Madinat Habu on the west Bank at Thebes. The small shrine /
temple seems out of place here because it was built before the
first court was enclosed. It juts through the enclosure wall and
now seems awkwardly placed.Until, 1896 the shrine was almost
completely buried under debris whose depth can be judged
from the heavy staining on the walls. The shrine was decorated
in the squat, heavy –handed style characteristic of most of
Ramesses III's monuments, but it is well preserved largely
because it was buried, and unlike many larger temples. Its
ground plan is easy to understand. Two statues of Ramesses III
stand before the shrine's first pylon.
-125-
Nearby texts describe a great
double leaf door of acacia wood
plated with bronze that closed the
doorway. The king wears the
double of Upper and Lower Egypt
on the face of the left (east) tower
of the pylon and crown of Lower
Egypt on the right (west). His pose
is a typical one, standing before
Amun with a mace in one hand,
grasping foreign captives with the
other. Amun holds forward a
sword of victory.The names of
towns and countries in Nubia and
western Asia from which the
captives came over written
nearby, but they are now
destroyed.
The west outer wall of the shrine shows the procession of barks
from Karnak to Luxor Temple during the Opet festival. This is
also the subject of scenes in the colonnade of Luxor Temple.
Inside the temple a small peristyle court has a colonnade of
eight pillars on its east and west sides. Mummiform figures of
the king as Osiris stand before the pillars, stocky figures carved
with little concern for proportions or details. The backs of the
pillars show various deities. On the left (east) wall of the court,
the bark of Amun is carried in procession by priests, on the right
(west) wall, they carry ithyphallic statues of Amun, on the inside
face of the pylon, Amun delivers blessings for a long life to
Ramesses III.At the southern end of the court a ramp leads to a
vestibule (the pronaos) with four Osiris pillars and four
columns. Behind it stands an eight columned hypostyle hall and
beyond that, three doorways leads into chambers for Amun (in
the center) Mut (on the left), and Khonsu (on the right). Each has
at least one side chamber.
Imagine an ancient procession entering this temple. It is early
morning, already hot, and the sunlight in intense. Senior priests
carry on their shoulders a wooden bark with a gilded shrine
holding a statue of the god. They have come from deep within
the temple of Amun and will pause here for prayers before
continuing the quay. Outside, the sunlight emphasizes the
brilliant red, blue, yellow, and blindingly white paint on the
temple walls. The procession moves slowly into the increasingly
cool, dark chambers, and the priests pause to let their eyes
adjust to the dim light. In the Holy of Holies at the rear of the
temple, where the god's statue is to be placed, the shrine is
completely dark and silent.
Only a few people are permitted here senior priests, the king,
selected royal family members and they come to welcome the
god's statue and pray for a safe journey. To witness a ceremony
in such a place must have been a profoundly moving
experience.
Ramesses III's shrine is an excellent example of a traditional
New Kingdom temple. All the standard features are present.
The temple facade is a pylon whose tall towers resemble
mountains on the horizon, with a valley between them, behind
which the sun rises and sets. The temple is bilaterally
symmetrical along a single axis. Stone ramps in each gateway
raise the floor of each chamber higher than its predecessor and
the ceiling become lower, their dimensions smaller. The
procession from an open, sunlit environment into increasingly
more restricted, dark, silent, and claustrophobic rooms
reinforces the impression that one has entered a sacred place.
The Bubastite Portal
Between the shrine of Ramesses III and the second pylon
stands a gate known to Egyptologist as the Bubastite Portal. It
takes its name from the Delta town of Bubastis, capital city of
the dynasty kings who built it. The stones for the gate came
from a quarry south of Thebes at Jabal as Silsila and an
inscription there tells that King Sheshonk I instructed his
overseer of works. Horemsaf, to undertake the building project
“His Majesty gave stipulations for building a very great pylon… in
order to brighten Thebes, erecting its double doors of myriads
of cubits in height, in order to make a jubilee court for the
house of his father, Amun-Ra, king of the gods, and to surround
it with a colonnade ”.At the top of the east wall of the gate King
Osorkon I receives from Amun-Ra a sword and palm branches
symbolizing long life. Below, the god Khnum offers an Ankh-sign
(symbol of Life), and the king is suckled by the goddess Hathor.
On the west wall, Takelot II and his son, a high priest of Amun,
stand before the god.Through the Bubastite Portal to the left,
on the southern end of the second pylon, king Sheshonk I the
king Shishak of Bible commemorates his victory over
Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Jedah, when Egypt attacked
Solomon's temple in dynasty 22. The quality of carving is only
fair (and best seen in mid morning light) but the scenes have
historical interest. In one, Amun-Ra stands with a sword in his
hand and announces the conquest of 156 villages in Judah and
Palestine, each town is named in crenellated ovals surmounted
by human heads. The battle is described in 2 Chronicles (12: 2-
3) and in 1 kings (14: 25-26), “In the fifth year of king Rehoboam,
Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, he took away
everything. He also took away all the shields of gold which
Solomon had made… ”.To the right (east), on the southern outer
wall of the Hypostyle Hall, Ramesses III carved military scenes in
imitation of his father's on the north side of the hall.
The second Pylon
Begun by Horemoheb, continued by Ramesses I and Ramesses II,
and finally added to in the Ptolemaic Period, the second pylon
was built partly of blocks taken from earlier structures built east
of the temple of Amun by Amenhotep IV / Akhenaton. The pylon
was called illuminating Waset, or less commonly, Amun Rejoices.
Large holes cut into the lower part of the pylon were made by
archaeologists looking for earlier re-used blocks In its interior. A
red granite statue of Ramesses II, usurped by several later kings,
stands in front of the north (left) side of the second pylon's
gateway. His daughter Bintanat is shown at much smaller scale
standing between his feet. Two other statues of Ramesses II, one
now destroyed, flanked the gateway.
The gateway itself is thirty meters (ninety-eight feet) tall and was
restored by Ptolemy VIII. Before the gateway proper, a small
vestibule was begun in dynasty 18 by king Horemoheb and
completed by Ramesses II. Scenes in the vestibule show
Ramesses II before Amun smiting the enemies of Egypt.
On the south wall, sacred barks of the Theban Tried bear
cartouches of Ramesses II and III. On the doorjambs, Ramesses
II before offers to the gods. At this point in the tour you have
two cj = hoices of itinerary. If you wish to visit the Open-Air
museum (which deserves a visit), walk northward (to your left as
you face the second pylon) and exit the first court through the
door in its north wall. The museum entrance lies directly in front
of you, a few meters along a paved pathway. (toilets are located
nearby). If you chose not be visit the museum, then proceed
eastward through the second pylon and enter the hypostyle
hall.
The Hypostyle Hall
No part Of the temple of Amun is more famous or impressive
than this huge pillared hall, one of the Largest religious
structures ever built. Neither photographs nor raw statistics
give a true impression of its size and beauty or in the eyes of
some travelers. One visitor waxed enthusiastic, “The Pyramids
are more stupendous. The Colosseum covers more ground. The
Parthenon is more beautiful. Yet in nobility of conception, in
vastness of detail, in majesty of the highest order, the Hall of
pillars exceeds them every one, “But another remarked that“ the
columns are far too numerous. The size which strikes us is not
the grandeur of strength, but the bulkiness of disease.“Perhaps
the Hypostyle Hall was over engineered with too many large
columns placed too close together, but there can be no doubt
that inspires overwhelming awe.
Ironically, this vast forest of columns, larger than any other such
hall on earth, was intended to symbolize the most prosaic of
features, a papyrus swamp like the thousands that lined the
banks of the Nile. Each year, such thickets flooded during the
inundation and the Hypostyle Hall was built so that it too would
be covered with shallow Nile water in summer. The hall
represented the swampland surrounding a primeval mound on
which Egyptians believed life was first created. Originally, in
dynasty 18, only two rows of six huge columns stood here.
They are the ones we see today on the central east-west axis of
the hall. Immediately to their north and south, two walls defined
a colonnade similar to that in Luxor Temple. It was only later, in
dynasty 19, that these walls were moved farther out and the
Hypostyle Hall we know today created by adding another 122
columns.
When first seen by Europeans, parts of the Hypostyle Hall were
already in a disastrous state. The situation was made even
worse in October 1899, when foundations weakened by ground
water caused columns to topple and walls to collapse. Thanks
to Egyptians and French archaeologists and engineers who
have been working here for nearly a century, this splendid
monument is being restored to its original condition.
The Hypostyle Hall in 103 meters wide, 53 meters deep, and
covers 5.500 square meters. Its ceiling in supported by 134
sandstone columns. Six columns on each side of the main eastwest axis have open papyrus flower capitals and stand 23
meters tall. They are 10 meters in circumference, built of stone
drums, each 1 meter high and 2 meters in diameter. One
hundred and twenty-two other columns stand in four groups,
two on each side of the hall's north-south and east-west axes.
They have closed papyrus flower capitals and are 15 meters tall,
8.4 meters in circumference in height between the two central
rows of columns and the others in the hall a difference of about
10 meters allowed clerestory lighting to be installed along the
main axis.Some of the huge sandstone grills in the windows are
still in place. This design meant that the main axis of the hall
was brightly lit, but away from the axis the hall became
increasingly dark. Statues were placed throughout the hall and
must have appeared as eerie presences in the dim light. Three
such statues stand today near the main axis.
The hypostyle Hall was apparently envisioned by Ramesses I,
but it was built by Seti I and Ramesses II, Cartouches in the
northern half of the hall are Seti I's in the southern half
Ramesses II's. The names of Ramesses I, III, IV, and VI are also
present. The cartouches and royal titles of these kings
constitute the principal inscriptions of the columns.
There is a clear difference in the quality of workmanship in the
two halves of the hall, Seti I's artisans produced delicately
carved raised relief, and there are many examples of figures
that were recut several times before the artisan achieved what
he considered proper proportions. (Look, for example, at the
face of Seti I at the north end of the west wall.) In contrast,
Ramesses II's decoration was hastily done, often in sunk relief,
there was little modeling or attention to detail.
Many reliefs still retain traces of paint, and it is worth spending
time wandering through this forest of columns, admiring the
architecture and decoration. If you are lucky enough to be in
the hall alone, the silence and the sense of grandeur make it a
truly impressive experience. On the left as you enter the hall
stands a huge statue of Ramesses II and Amun. On the right, a
slab of alabaster lies on the floor (Below what was originally a
large stela), carved with figures of Nubian and Asiatic enemies of
Egypt, collectively known as the Nine Bows.
The scenes in the hall all have religious themes intended for a
limited audience of priests. They show the king offering to
deities, the processions of the sacred barks, and various temple
rituals. For example, north (left) of the gate in the second pylon,
Seti I and Hathor greet Amun and Mut. Farther along, Ramesses
I adores eight deities. On the north wall of the hall (left of the
door), priests in full regalia carry an elaborate sacred bark of
Amun on their shoulders and Seti I greets the Theben Triad.
Traces of paint can still be seen here and indicate how brilliantly
decorated (even how garish) the walls originally must have
been. This wall has on it some of the finest carving to be found
at Karnak.The bark, smaller than the actual river-going barges
used in festival processions but still large enough to require
twenty men to lift it, has the head of the god Amun carved bow
and stern. To the left (east), a stunning raised relief figure of Seti
I presents a bouquet of papyri. His mouth and nose are finely
carved, his cheeks delicately modeled, his wig and broad collar
drawn in great detail. On the right (east) side of the door, Thoth
stands and writes the king's names on the leaves of a persea
tree (Mimusops schimperi). Seti I kneels beneath it. Compare
the workmanship here with that in a similar scene carved for
Ramesses II on the hall's southern wall. The Seti I scene has
considerably more appeal.
The outer walls of the hypostyle hall
To us, scenes on the inner wall walls of the Hypostyle Hall often
appear cryptic, filled with untranslatable details of strange
ceremonies. This part of the temple was intended for the
initiated, for priests and royalty who already knew the
iconography and understood what it meant. The outer walls,
however served another purpose. They could be seen by lowlevel priests and by minor temple employees, perhaps even by
commoners allowed to visit parts of the temple enclosure on
certain festival days.The subject matter on the exterior walls in
not religious but in a sense propagandistic The scenes
emphasize the virility and military prowess of the king, he leads
his army into war, wages great and always successful battles,
returns in glory to Egypt, and donates the booty he has
gathered and the prisoners he has captured to the temple of
Amun-Ra. Lengthy texts laud the king's powers, describe his
daring exploits, and catalog the towns he has captured. Since
over ninety-nine percent of the Egyptian population was
illiterate, such reliefs would certainly have impressed upon
them the awesome power of gods and their king, just as
paintings in medieval churches showed illiterate viewers the
torments of hell and the joys of true belief.
There was also a desire to contrast the disorder and chaos that
existed beyond the temple enclosure with the peace and
harmony that reigned within the “dwelling- place of the gods”
and to show how great a role the king played in keeping discord
at bay and maintaining the order called Ma'at. The best such
scenes of royal power are the battle scenes carved for Seti I on
the north outer wall of the Hypostyle Hall. Few traces of paint
are preserved, but the bare stone carving emphasizes the
technical skill of artisans who created what are some of the
most detailed and elegant examples of monumental art to be found in Egypt. Because the scenes
were cut in subtle and delicately modeled raised relief, they are
best seen in brilliant, raking light.
Ideally, they should be visited early on a crisp winter morning,
when the sun is low in the sky, but any early morning visit will
be worth trip. This wall originally stood over 25 meters high and
extended over 30 meters on each side of a central door. There
are over a thousand square meters of decoration. To see the
battle scenes, walk north through the Hypostyle Hall, exit
through the door in the middle of the wall, and turn to the right.
The left (east) half of the wall recounts the king's battles in Syria
and Palestine. At the far end, the king drives forward in his war
chariot firing arrows at enemy soldiers. Many men already lie
dead or dying on the battlefield. Egypt's border with Asia is
shown in the center of the wall, marked by a long, narrow pond
called the water of cutting.
It was located in the ancient border town of Tharu, near the
modern Suez Canal. The pond teems with crocodiles. A small
bridge runs across it, between two small buildings that are
perhaps the offices of border guards.
The building on the left (east) side is of Asiatic design, that on
the right (west) is purely Egyptian. On the east side of the lake,
Seti I drives bound captives across the Sinai Peninsula toward
the border. On the west side, in Egypt itself, crowds of priests
from the temple of Amun chant and play musical instruments
as they excitedly await the arrival of the prisoners. The captives
grimace in pain as they are driven forward. Note the contrast
between the discord and confusion on the Asiatic side of the
pond and the well-organized, well-mannered Egyptians on the
west.
Above the scene, Seti I described the moment, ”The heart of his
majesty was glad because of it. As for the good god, he joins to
begin battle, he is delighted to enter into it, his heart is satisfied
at seeing blood, he cuts off the heads of the rebellious-hearted, he loves an hour of battle more than a day of rejoicing. His
majesty slays them one at a time. He leaves not a limb among
them, and he that escapes his hand as a living captive is carried
off to Egypt. ” To the right, a colossal standing figure of the king
wields a mace and grasps prisoners by the hair. When the light
is good, the meticulous details of these beautifully carved faces
spring to life.Their race and nationality- Libyan, Syrian, and
Nubian- are shown in immediately recongnizable detail and so
too is their despair.
The name Amun means “The hidden One” and when lower
classes of preists and commoners were allowed into this part of
the temple compound the god's image had to be concealed
from the eyes of the impure. Just below and to the right of the
monumental figure of Seti I, near the wall's central doorway,
several small figures of the god Amun were carved about 1.5
meters above the ground. Each is no more than 40 centimeters
tall. Four small holes were drilled near the shoulders and feet of
each of the gods images. Into these holes wooden dowels were
inserted and a woven mat or a piece of linen attached to hide
the figure of the god from view. Similar but larger dowel holes
can be seen around the colossal figures of the god on this wall.
On the right (west) half of the Seti I wall, the king battles Libyans
and Hittites. One of the most beautifully executed of these
scenes can be seen in the uppermost register at the far right
end of the wall, just before the torus molding that marks the
corner of the second Pylon. Egyptian was chariots race at full
speed across the desert toward the site of Qadesh, a
fortification in the land of Amor. A tower stands on a hill and
soldiers fall from its battlements, killed by king's arrows. The
dead and wounded lay scattered across the battlefield. The
scene is vivid, one can imagine the dust, the noise, the blood,
the sweat, and the shaking earth as the Egyptian cavalry ponds
forward.Below the fortification, the hillside is forested and
terrified enemies try to hide among the trees. In a departure
from the standard practice of drawing faces in profile, here the
artist has shown the enemies faces frontally with their hands
on their head in a pose that emphasizes their look of utter
despair. A frightened herdsman tries to drive his cattle out of
harm's way behind the hill. He turns in panic as the Egyptian
chariotry gallops nearer and raises an arm in self-defense. It is
a futile gesture. In another moment, he too will be butchered
and his cattle taken. In the register below this scene, a small
male figure stands to the right of a large, east-facing war
chariot of Seti I.
There are five other representations of this figure on the Seti I
wall, and in each case ancient artisans plastered over the
original carved figure and replaced it with a figure of Ramesses
II. For many years, Egyptologists believed this was evidence that
Ramesses II had an elder brother who was the rightful heir to
Seti I's throne and who Ramesses II murdered in order to have
himself declared king. In fact, we now know that the original
figure was that of a Fan Bearer and Troop Leader named Mehy
(short for Horemohep or Amenemhep), a close confidant of the king. Removing Mehy's figure and
replacing it with Ramesses II's was not the result of palace
intrigue by an evil prince but simply a declaration that Ramesses
II had reached his majority and was now the heir apparent.
The third Pylon and the Court
The third pylon, which now forms the rear wall of the hypostyle
Hall, was built by Amenhotep III, in part from blocks taken from
earlier buildings. Archaeologists removed these blocks from the
pylon's core and found that many came from a shrine of
Senusert I, others from a shrine of Hatshepsut and over twelve
other buildings. The Senusert I and Hatshepsut shrines have
been reconstructed in the Open-Air museum. The pylon is in
poor condition. On the rear (east) face of the right (south) tower
an extensive list records tribute received by Amenhotep III from
Asiatic countries, but the text is damaged and difficult to read.
More interesting are scenes on the outer face of the left (north)
tower.
They show Amenhotep III sailing the Nile on Amen-Ra's huge
bark during the important Opet festival and the beautiful
festival of the valley. The barks fill the entire north half of the
north tower's east face. They are magnificent boats over 130
cubits (about 68 meters) long. Amenhotep III was so proud that
he described one on a stela erected in his memorial temple on
the west Bank. ” I made another monument for him who begat
me, Amen-Ra, lord of Thebes, who established me upon his
throne, making for him a great barge fir the beginning-of-theriver (named): Amen-Ra-in - the-Sacred-Barge, of new cedar
which his majesty cut in the countries of God's Land. It was
dragged over the mountain of Retained by the princes of All
countries.It was made very wide and large… adorned with silver,
wrought with gold throughout, the great shrine of electrum so
that it fills the land with its brightness. ”
Thutmoses I created a small
open court between the third
and fourth pylons. It is little
more than a patch of dirt and
modern paving stones today,
but in antiquity it housed four
massive obelisks, two each for
Thutmoses I and Thutmoses III.
Only the bases of three obelisks
remain, but the fourth, for
Thutmoses I, still stands. It is a
monolithic block of granite 22
meters tall, 1.8 meters square,
and weights over 140 tons.
The obelisk was quarried near the first Cataract at Asawn and
transported down the Nile on a huge barge. How such blocks
were moved, and more remarkably, how they were erected with
such precision, are matters still debated by scholars. Thutmoses
I's name appears on each side of the Obelisk, Ramesses IV
added his own name later.
A Detour To The Temple of Ptah
From the courtyard between pylons three and four, one can
walk north about 100 meters along a dusty path through a field
filled with inscribed blocks to the northern limit of the central
Enclosure. Here stands the Temple of Ptah, one of Egypt's
principal creator gods. With his consort, the lion-headed
goddess Sekhmet, Ptah played an important role in the
coronation of the king. His Temple is well designed, attractively
located, and worth a visit. Thutmoses III described it in a text
carved in the monument's central shrine, “I made it as a
monument to my father Ptah…. erecting for him the House of
Ptah anew of fine white sandstone, doors of new cedar of the
best of the terraces. It is more beautiful than it was before….My
majesty found this temple built of Mudbrick and wooden
columns, and its doorway of wood, beginning to go to ruin… I
overlaid for him (Ptah) his great seat with electrum of the best
of countries. All vessels were of gold and silver, and every
splendid, costly stone, clothing of fine linen, white linen,
ointments of divine ingredients, to perform his pleasing
ceremonies at the feasts of the beginnings of the seasons,
which occur in this temple….
The temple was built on the foundations of an earlier structure
and then further enlarged in the Late Period and Ptolemaic
times.
Five, mostly Ptolemaic, pylons were built along the temple's
east-west axis and decorated by various Ptolemaic kings (and
by Shabaka of dynasty 26). They lead to the original (Sixth) pylon
of Thutmoses III, rebuilt by Ramesses III. That pylon precedes a
vestibule housing three offering tables. The table on the right
(south) was cut by Amenemhat I in middle kingdom and moved
here by Thutmoses III. Three sanctuaries lie beyond, shrines to
Ptah on the left (north) and center, a shrine to Hathor on the
right (south). In the center shrine, Thutmoses III offers to Ptah
and Amun. A statue of Sekhmet in the right-hand chamber is
dramatically lie at certain times of day by a beam of light that
streams in through a small opening in the ceiling.It is worth
spending a few moments in this chamber to appreciate the
statue's dramatic setting. The Sekhmet statue has a beautifully
modeled woman's body but the head of a lion, and it so
frightened local villagers a century ago they claimed it was a
monster that came to life on moonless nights and wandered
village lanes devouring small children. Villagers were known to
attack the statue with clubs and stones.
From The Fourth Pylon to The Sixth
The Fourth pylon was built by King Thutmoses I, repaired by
Thutmoses IV, and altered by Seti II, Ptolemy VIII, and Alexander
the great. Behind it, Thutmoses I built a transvers hall
(sometimes called hypostyle hall or colonnade). Huge statues of
the king in the costume and pose of Osiris stand before the
east walls of the north and south towers. Originally, the hall had
a wooden roof supported by wooden columns. Wood was a
precious commodity in ancient Egypt, and pieces of the size
used here would have been especially valuable donations to
the temple. Thutmoses III later replaced the wood with fourteen
stone columns and a stone roof. The granite obelisk here is one
of a pair erected by Hatshepsut in the Sixteenth year of her
reign.
The other was broken up and scattered about Karnak. One
piece, with scenes of the queen's coronation, lies at the
northwestern corner of the sacred Lake. (No traces remain of
two other obelisk Hatshepsut erected at Karnak.) The standing
obelisk is 30 meters tall, 2.6 meters square, and weighs 323
tons. It was sheathed in electrum, a mixture of Silver and gold.
Hatshepsut and her engineers were proud of these huge
monuments and the story of the work involved is recounted in
scenes and texts in Hatshepsut's temple in Dair Al-Bahry and in
inscriptions on the obelisks themselves. With obvious pride the
queen explained why she ordered such a massive project to be
undertaken. On the standing obelisk's base she wrote. ”I have
done this with a loving heart for my father Amun…. There was
no sleep for me because of his temple…. I was sitting in the
palace and I remembered the one who created me, my heart
directed me to make for him to obelisks of electrum, so that
their pyramidions might mingle with the sky amid the august
pillared hall between the great pylons of Thutmoses I… . They
are each of one block of enduring granite without joint or flaw
therein. My majesty began work on them in regnal year, second
month of winter, day 1, continuing until year 16, fourth month
of summer, day 30, making 7 months in cutting them from the
mountain ….Let not anyone who hears this say it is boasting that
I have said, but rather say, “How like her it is, she who is truthful
to her father.” After Hatshepsut's death Thutmoses III had the
obelisks walled up in a futile attempt to obliterate her memory.
He only succeeded in protecting them from damage.
Little remains of the Fifth pylon. It was also the work of
Thutmoses I, with alterations made by Thutmoses III and
Amenhotep III. In the reign of Thutmoses III, the pylon served as
the entrance to another transverse hall.
That hall is badly ruined today, but in antiquity it contained
twenty sixteen-sided columns and a row of Osirid statues along
its eastern face. A statue of Amenhotep III sits before the left
pylon tower. Two columned courts lie on the north and south.
The sixth pylon was built by Thutmoses III and its west face was
inscribed with the names of 120 Syrian towns (on the left) and
Nubian towns (on the right) conquered by his army. The gate is
of red granite. Small chambers flanking the vestibule
immediately east of the sixth pylon are known as the hall of
records of Thutmoses III. Two huge heraldic pillars stand on the
north side of the temple axis, one carved with a lotus flower,
the symbol of Upper Egypt, the other with papyrus, symbol of
Lower Egypt. The red granite is of excellent quality and the
workmanship unsurpassed. Remains of statues of the god
Amun and the goddess Amenet, carved in the reign of
Tutankhamun and usurped by Horemoheb, stand nearby.
Amun's face is especially well modeled. Texts recounting events
in the reign of Thutmoses III are carved on the walls and
continue into other parts of the building that surround the pink
granite shrine of Philip Arrhidaeus a few meters to the east. In
the second Hall of Records, south of the shrine, these texts
describe the king's military activities and show him offering to
Amun-Ra.
SHRINES OF PHILIP ARRHIDAEUS AND HATSHEPSUI
The half-brother of Alexander the
Great, Philip Arthidaeus ruled
Egypt from 323 to 317 BC. Like
many non-Egyptians who assumed
control of the country, Philip
adopted Egyptian costume, titles,
and religious beliefs. Philip was
chosen to lead Egypt by Greek
military officers who considered
him the least threatening of a bad
lot of candidates.
He was dim-witted, epileptic, and
the illegitimate son of Philip II of
Macedonia and a dancing girl. Until
the army had him murdered after
six years of rule,
military officers or his wife, his first cousin, Eurydice, made most
of the government's decisions Among those was the decision to
build in the Karnak complex. The choice of location for Philip's
shrine was no accident: it was set in the very heart of the
Temple of Amen, precisely on its main axis, adjacent to the
earliest part of the temple, the Middle Kingdom court. Few sites
were more central to temple ceremonies. The shrine of
Thutmes III that stood here was torn down and replaced with
Philips shrine. The earlier shrine may have been damaged by
Assyrian or Persian invaders three centuries carlier, and Philip
claimed that he found it "fallen into ruin." His shrine, of identical
plan to the shrine it replaced, was made of pink granite with
carved figures painted yellow. It was 18 meters (58 feet) long, 6
meters (20 feet) wide and divided into two rooms, the first for offerings, the second
for the sacred bark. Some of the most interesting and bestpreserved scenes were carved on the outer face of the right
(south) wall: there are four registers, the uppermost of which
documents Philips ritual purification, coronation, and
enthronement before Amen. It is worth walking
counterclockwise around the shrine of Philip Arrhidaeus to its
northwest corner. North of the shrine, a large relief scene
shows Thutmes III dedicating olferings to Amen. Immediately in
front of the king, two obelisks that he erected at Karnak are
shown standing in front of the Seventh Pylon. Below the scene,
sixty-seven columns of text describe in detail the kings military
campaigns in western Asia A doorway through the western end
of this north wall leads to a chamber decorated with beautifully
painted reliefs of Hatshepsut, Thoth, and Horus. The figures of
the god Amen and the well- painted hieroglyphs are masterfully
sculpted, but the figures of the queen were erased by Thutmes
II, who replaced them with figures of himself.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM COURT
East of the shrine of Philip Arrhidaeus is the earliest part of the
Temple of Amen yet known, a large open court recently covered
over with gravel and stones. Senusret I built a shrine here in
Dynasty 12. Recent excavations have revealed traces of its
foundation walls and trenches. Attempts were made to rebuild
this Middle Kingdom temple in the fourth and fifth centuries BC
but were never completed.
Akh-Menou Temple of Thutmoses III
Most of the construction surrounding the Middle Kingdom
court was the work of Thutmosid rulers. Nearest the court are
pylons and enclosure walls of Thutmes I and Thutmes II; a few
meters beyond them stand buildings of Thutmes III. The most
elaborate of Thutmes III's monuments is the large and unusual
structure immediately east of the Middle Kingdom Court, in
ancient times called Akh- Menou, Brilliant of Monuments, and
today called his Festival Hall. The ceremonies conducted here
were closely associated with the king's Sed-festival, and the
building's architecture and decoration reflect this emphasis.
Thutmes II boasted how he carefully prepared the ground
before beginning work on the monument: he "exorcised its evil,
removed the debris which had mounted to the town quarter,"
and began his construction anew because he "would not work
upon the monument of another." Its western wall is broken and
many tourists enter the Akh-Menou along the east- west axis of
the Temple of Amen.
But the proper entrance is located in the southeast corner of
the Middle Kingdom Court, behind two sixteen-sided columns
and a pair of Osirid statues. Another stands in the small foyer
sixteen-sided column the right, a corridor leads just beyond the
door. To nine small chambers used as storerooms for ritual
equipment and priestly costumes. The contents of each
chamber are shown in the reliefs carved on their walls: one held
bread, another held vases, a third wine, and so on. The
corridor's long north wall is decorated with scenes of th king's
Sed-festivals. Turning left (north) from the foyer, one enters the
vas: Festival Hall, 44 meters (143 feet) wide and 16 meters (52
feet) deep. Two rows of ten columns support the high roof of
the central aisle. These columns are unique in Egyptian
architecture. Each tapers toward the base and is topped with an
oddly- shaped capital. The columns are painted red, the color of
wood, and are said to imitate tent poles, either those used in
the kings battlefield tent, or more the celebration of Sed- likely,
in tents used during festivals. These are surrounded by 32
pillars, shorter than the central columns, to permit clerestory
lighting. Texts and figures on the columns depict the king with
various gods, nearly all of them erased by followers of
Akhenaten in Dynasty 18 or by Christian priests who used the
Festival Hall as a church. Traces of an elaborately painted
Christian saint can be seen at the top of the column in the
second row, fourth from the southern end. (On one column, the
first in the second row, the misspelled name "Champoleon" is a
weak nineteenth century joke.)
The column bases along the hall's central axis have been cut to
make the space between them nearly a meter wider. This was
done after the hall was completed, apparently when priests
introduced a new and wider bark than the one used in earlier
processions.
Until part of the bases had been cut away, there was concern
that priests carrying the sacred bark might stumble and drop
the statue of the god. Chapels at the north end of the hall
include scenes of royal statues brought to the temple (center
chapel, west wall) and offerings to various deities (west chapel,
east wall), The left (west) chapel houses a huge, damaged statue
of the king with Amen and Mut. A small doorway immediately at
the left leads to a corridor with a scene of the king offering to
an ithyphallic Amen. In the northeast corner of the hall, a stone
staircase leads to a room that held a clepsydra, a pot with a
hole through which water drained at a constant rate that was
used to measure the passage of time. Such information was
important for determining when the Karnak King List in the
liturgical services should be performed. Explorers in the
nineteenth century discovered an important stone inscription
known as southwest corner of the hall. Written in the reign of
Thutmes III, it lists sixty- one kings starting with Snefru of the
Old Kingdom. It is not a complete table of Egypt's rulers but a
selection of those who had played especially important roles in
the history of Thebes, and whose lineage demonstrated the
legitimacy of Thutmes IIl's royal line. The blocks inscribed with
the King List were dismantled one dark night in spring 1843 by
a Frenchman, Emile Prisse d'Avennes, who smuggled them out
of Egypt in boxes labeled "natural history specimens." They are
in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
Farther east, just south (right) of the main axis, small rooms of
Thutmes III were usurped in Ptolemaic times and decorated
with several well-painted scenes of Alexander the Great. The
most interesting room in the Akh Menou is the so-called
Botanical Garden, which lies immediately north of the main
temple axis east of the hall at the end of the temple. A set of
modern wooden stairs climb over a badly damaged wall into a
rectangular chamber with four papyriform columns down its
midline. The walls of the Botanical Garden are carved in very
low raised relief best seen in raking early morning light. The
room's south and north walls (15 meters or 49 feet long) and
east and west end walls (6 meters or 20 feer wide) display
remarkable drawings of plants and animals that Thutmes III
claims he collected on military campaigns in foreign countries,
especially in Syria, in regnal year 25. He writes, "I swear, as Ra (loves me), as my father, Amen, favors me, all
these things happened in truth- I have not written fiction about
that which really happened to my majesty." Thutmes III
apparently realized that he might be accused of making it all up,
that the drawings might raise a few eyebrows. For decades, the
drawings defied explanation and many scholars insisted that
they were flights of royal fancy. Recently, however, the figures
have been identified. It was discovered that the artist was not
always depicting whole organisms, but parts of plants and
animals. There are representations of rare birds, animals,
flowers, and trees from Asia and East Africa that had never
before been seen in Egypt. But also there are drawings of the
internal organs of animals, small parts of exotic flowers,
deformed creatures, and genetic sports.
They include strange seeds, misshapen
gourds, and cattle with three horns or
two tails. In the words of one scholar,
the Botanical Garden is a "cabinet of
curiosities." Why did Thutmes III collect
such oddities and devote a part of the
Akh- Menou to their description?
Perhaps it was a way of acknowledging
the enlargement of Amen's domain. As
Egypt conquered more and more of
western Asia and northeast Africa, they
proclaimed that as Egypt's frontiers
were expanding, so were Amen's.
Amen was the creator of things
Egyptians had never before imagined
and the acknowledgement of this was
recognition of the god's growing
power.
Amen was no longer a local Egyptian god but a universal god
whose powers extended far beyond Egypt's borders. Such a
view would have had major theological implications at a time
when most cultures accepted that the power of their gods was
limited to the people who made offerings to them and to the
land in which their temples were built.
THE EASTERN PART OF THE COMPLEX AND THE SACRED LAKE
Leaving the Botanical Garden from its northeast corner, a
wooden ramp leads over the broken wall of the Akh-Menou and
into the easternmost part of the Central Enclosure, behind the
Temple of Amen. The exterior walls, built by Thutmes III, were
mostly constructed by Thutmes II decorated by Rameses II. The
Chapel of the Hearing Ear was in the eastern wall of the Temple
of Amen and alabaster statues of the king and a goddess sit
inside it.
Here, ordinary people came to petition the god, seeking cures
for medical or social problems. Not having undergone ritual
purification and therefore barred from entering the main part of
the temple, this was as close as a commoner could get to the
god's abode.
Rameses II also built a temple here for similar purposes, and he
usurped the six Osirid statues that stand nearby. Farther east,
still largely unexcavated and covered with brush, two temples
were built by Thutmes IV IV also re-erected here an and
Rameses II. Thutmes obelisk originally commissioned by his
grandfather, Thutmes III. It stood 33 meters (107 feet) tall and
in AD 357 was removed to the Circus Maximus in Rome. In AD
1567 it was transferred to the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano.
Rameses II built temple in this area that extended east to the
enclosure's undulating mudbrick wall. The monumental
gateway there (19 meters, 62 feet tall) was built by Nectanebo I
in Dynasty 30. Beyond the eastern wall of the Central Enclosure
lie the partially excavated remains of a huge temple erected by
Amenhetep IV/Akhenaten.
South of the Thutmes III temple, past walls heavily decorated
with scenes of Rameses II offering to various deities, lies
Karnak's Sacred Lake, in its present form the work of Taharqa
(Dynasty 26). It meters (650 by 380 feet). measures 200 by 117
The lake is filled with seeping ground water and for much of the
year is a dirty and smelly algae color, in spite of recent altempts
to clean and aerate it. Locals call it the Saltwater Lake. Recent
tests indicate that it contains an extremely high level of the
parasite that causes schistosomiasis (Bilharzia) and one should
avoid any Three thousand years ago, contact with the water
temple priests also avoided the lake, but not because was
polluted.
Religious regulations demanded that they use fresh, flowing
water for their daily ablutions, but they did row small sacred
barks across the lake's surface on Luxor folktale predicts that
festival days, A modern gilded barks rowed by solid gold statues
will one day sail on the Sacred Lake-after the last liar and thief
have been banished from Egypt.
In the southern wall of the lake a stone-lincd tunnel, one meter
square, leads to l small stone building that of grese raised by
temple served as home to a flock priests. Geese were symbols
of Amen, and cach morning these representatives of the god
were driven through the tunnel to spend the day sacred waters.
Thutmes III Swimming in the lake's wrote, "My majesty formed
for him (Amen] flocks of Lake, for the offerings of geese, to fill
the Sacred every day Behold, my majesty gave to him two
lattened geese each day, as fixed dues, for my father Amen."
From the late New Kingdom onward, priests of Amen lived to
the cast and south of the lake. Several of their houses, some
with houschold goods and priestly accessories still lying on their
floors, were uncovered in the 1970s: when Sound and Light
(Son et Lumiere) built its bleachers there. In this religious
community within the sacred enclosure, away from the
impurities of normal life, priests led a segregated existence,
praying, meditating, and performing the tasks necessary for
proper temple operations. Inscriptions on walls of the village
and its gates. reminded the clergy of the importance of sound
moral behavior and ritual purification.
At the northwestern corner of the Sacred Lake, a refreshment
stand sells soft drinks and postcards. Immediately to its west,
large granite pedestal topped by a huge stone scarab, a model
of the dung beetle representing Atum-Khepri, a form of the sungod, is the only remaining scarab of four that Amenhetep III
installed in his memorial temple on the West Bank. It was
brought here in Dynasty 25 by Taharqa, whose temple to the
sun- god lies immediately to the north. (Do not believe tour
guides who will tell you with a straight face that ancient Egyptian
women walked seven times around this scarab to become
pregnant. There is no proof of this.) A few meters to the north
lies the top of one of the Hatshepsut obelisks that stood
between the Fourth and Fifth Pylons. The • THE NORTH-SOUTH
scenes on this fragment show the queen's coronation.
At the northwestern corner of the Sacred Lake, a refreshment
stand sells soft drinks and postcards. Immediately to its west,
large granite pedestal topped by a huge stone scarab, a model
of the dung beetle representing Atum-Khepri, a form of the sungod, is the only remaining scarab of four that Amenhetep III
installed in his memorial temple on the West Bank. It was
brought here in Dynasty 25 by Taharqa, whose temple to the
sun- god lies immediately to the north. (Do not believe tour
guides who will tell you with a straight face that ancient Egyptian
women walked seven times around this scarab to become
pregnant. There is no proof of this.) A few meters to the north
lies the top of one of the Hatshepsut obelisks that stood
between the Fourth and Fifth Pylons. The • THE NORTH-SOUTH
scenes on this fragment show the queen's coronation.
THE NORTH-SOUTH TEMPLE AXIS
A few meters west of the scarab and obelisk, a small doorway
leads through a north-south wall into a axis. That axis runs at
roughly a right angle to Pylon through the Tenth courtyard that
marks the start of the Temple of Amen's second building the
axis of the First through Sixth Pylons. It extends from the
Seventh and on to the Temple of Mut. The new axis was actually
established by Queen Hatshepsut when she erected the Eighth
Pylon, one of the earliest pylons to be built at Karnak. Earlier
New Kingdom temples and shrines already stood in the area
when Hatshepsut ordered work here, and the new axis was
intended to provide a processional connection between them,
the Temple of Amen, and the Temple of Mut. Shortly after
ascending the throne. Thutmes III built a Seventh Pylon in front
of the Eighth. The courtyard created between the Seventh
Pylon and the Great Hypostyle Hall is known by Egyptologists as
the Cour de la Cachette. It was the place where ancient priesis
buried temple paraphernalia they no longer required, a
repository similar to what in other religions is called a "lavissa"
or a "genizah.
Such house cleanings may have taken place regularly as old
statues and Turniture were discarded to make way for the
scores of new statues and shrines constantly being produced in
temple workshops. (These workshops were overseen by such
officials as Neferrenpet, whose Theban tomb, TT 178, yi jo
saua3N sujuos many crafts projects they undertook.) Between
1902 and 1909, the French archacologist Georges Legrain
cleared a huge pit that had been dug. in the Cour de la Cachette
in the Ptolemaic Period. Using thirty-two shadufs- local Egyptian
water-lifting devices with a bucket on counter-balanced pole-he
was able to dig 14 meters (46 feet) into the ancient pit before
ground water forced him to stop. In the pit. Legrain uncovered
780 larger-than-life-size stone statues, 17,000 bronze
statuettes, and hundreds architectural fragments that had been
buried here by temple priests around 300 BC. It is one of the
largest caches of statuary ever discovered The objects are now
in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Legrain could not recover all of
the statues buried here, and undoubtedly many more will one
day be found.
The north wall of the First Court, which is also the south wall of
the Great Hypostyle Hall, was decorated for Rameses II in the
hasty manner typical of his reign, but its texts have considerable
historical interest. They include a copy of the peace treaty Egypt
signed with the Hittite ruler, Hatusilis III, in regnal year 21.
Among its clauses, it declares that, "The Great Ruler of Hatti
shall never trespass against the land of Egypt, to take anything
from it. And [Ramses II], the Great Ruler of Egypt, shall never
trespass against the land [of Hatti, to take anything from it.]"
Then it quaintly states that the signing of the treaty was
witnessed by "thousands of gods, male and female," and by "the
mountains and the rivers of the land of Egypt; the sky. the earth,
the great sea, the winds, and the clouds." The lawyers had
thought of everything. The Seventh Pylon has seven statues in
front of it four of Thutmes III (at left). two of Second
Intermediate Period kings (on the right), and one of Amenhetep
II. They are not in their original positions. There is also a
fragment of an obelisk carved for Thutmes III; its twin, which
originally stood before the pylon's west (right) tower, is now in
Istanbul. Between the Seventh and Eighth Pylons, in the left
(east) wall of the Second Court, an alabaster shrine was built by
Thutmes III. Hatshepsut's Eighth Pylon is carved with a text
written by her, but which she falsely attributed to Thutmes I,
that offers a justification for her ascendancy to the throne of
Egypt. The pylon was re- inscribed by Thutmes III, defaced by
Amenhetep IV/ Akhenaten, and restored by Sety I. On the north face of its left (east) tower,
Sety I offers to the gods. In an earlier scene here, Thutmes II
walked forward with the lion-headed goddess Werethekau and
the goddess Hathor. On the right (west) tower, Sety I walks with
the falcon- headed god Montu and priests who carry a sacred
bark. On the rear (south) face of the pylon, Amenhetep II grasps
foreign captives in the presence of Amen. It is rare that such
prisoners are depicted standing, as they are here, instead of
kneeling. On the Ninth Pylon, Horemheb is shown in procession
with a sacred bark. The Ninth Pylon currently being restored
after sixty thousand blocks, taken by Horemheb from buildings
of Amenhetep IV, (Akhenaten) and used as archaeologists. fill,
were removed by archaeologists.
A Sed-festival temple for Amenhetep II was built on the left
(east) side of the Fourth Court between the Ninth and Tenth
Pylons, and scenes of Rameses II and Horemheb cover its walls
and the faces of the pylons. Sety I undertook extensive
restoration in this part of the Central Enclosure. Beyond the
Tenth Pylon, an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes continues to
the Temple of Mut.
THE TEMPLE OF KHONSU
The Temple of Khonsu, moon god and third member of the
Theban Triad, lies in the Nouthwestern corner of the Central
Enclosure One walks from the Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of
Amen south along a stone path through a great field of
decorated temple blocks that await re-installation in various
Karnak monuments A spectacularly old and gnarled tamarisk
tree stands just east of the temple. It has figured in artists'
paintings of the area for well over a century and offers a
delightful spot to take a brief rest. The Temple of Khonsu lies
immediately north of the monumental gateway built by Ptolemy
II Euergetes, called the Bab al-Amara. The gate stands 21 meters
(68 feet) high and is one of the best- decorated examples of
Prolemaic architecture to be found at Thebes.
A text on the gate mentions that a law coun, A Site for Giving
Ma'at, stood just outside it in Piolemaic times The gate also
leads to the avenue of sphinxes, perhaps established by
Amenhetep III but here built by Nectanebo I in Dynasty 30,
which extends nearly three kilometers (18 miles) southward to
Luxor Temple. At this end of the avenue; the sphinxes are in
poor condition; they have served for centuries as playthings for
nearby village children.
A shorter row of sphinxes and pillars extends inside the
enclosure from the gateway to the temple. Like the Shrine of
Rameses III in the Great Court of the Temple of Amen and his
West Bank and ceiling still intact. All temple at Madinat Habu,
the Temple of Khonsu is also a well-preserved monument with
its walls of these monuments were in large part the work of
Rameses II1, although the Temple of Khonsu probably was
begun in Dynasty 18 by Amenhetep I11, then enlarged and
extensively decorated by later rulers, especially Rameside
rulers, Herihor (the High Priest of Amen), and Pinedjem. The last
two were responsible for building the temple pylon and its
peristyle court. The Temple of Khonsu is an important
monument for Egyptologists because it is one of the few that
makes contemporary reference to the serious changes Egypt
underwent at the end of the New Kingdom. Rameses XI was the
last king of Dynasty 20 and his reign witnessed the collapse of
Egypt's fortunes. Foreign relations were at a low, trade was nonexistent, and the government was faced with economic
depression and civil war. Rameses XI, who resided in the north,
could barely control Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt was in the hands
of the High Priest of Amen, a former military officer named
Herihor, who had adopted several senior titles including that of
vizier. Herihor proclaimed that he was re-establishing "divine
rule" in Thebes and would restore Egypt's former glory.
Khonsu, in his form as Khonsu-in-Thebes- Neferhetep was an
especially popular deity at this time, perhaps more popular
even than Amen, and Herihor chose Khonsu's temple as the
place in which to commemorate this change in administration.
Here, Herihor confidently represented himself at the same size
as Rameses XI and wore costumes usually restricted to the king.
With the wealth and backing of the priesthood of Amen,
Herihor had in fact become the ruler of Upper Egypt.
The temples first pylon is 17 meters (53 feet) high, 32 meters
(104 feet) wide, and 10 meters (33 feet) thick. Its face is carved
with scenes of Pinedjem I of Dynasty 21 and his wife Henuttawi,
offering to Amen, Mut, and Khonsu. In later scenes on the
jambs of the doorway, Alexander the Great offers to the triad.
The peristyle court has double rows of columns on three sides.
It was the Dynasty 21 work of Herihor, who is shown with the
goddess Hathor offering to the Theban Triad on the right (east)
wall. To the right of this scene the Temple of Khonsu itself is
shown, and one can identify the façade of the first pylon with
flagpoles standing in its four niches. Other offering scenes can
be seen on the rear wall of the portico. Beyond the peristyle
court, a doorway inscribed with the name of Ptolemy IV leads to
the hypostyle hall. It has eight columns with papyrus capitals
standing over 7 meters (22 feet) tall, cach carved with figures of
Ramses XI and Herihor. As usual in such halls, the four columns
along the main axis are higher than those on the sides. form of
a baboon has been A statue of Khonsu in the placed here. The
sacred bark of the god was housed in the next chamber,
originally made by Amenhetep Il and then usurped by Rameses
IV.
Its walls are decorated with scenes of Rameses IV and various
deities. Holes in the floor may have held posts that supported a
woven reed mat hiding an altar or shrine from view Chapels on
either side of this sanctuary have well- preserved color in
scenes that show the king and various deities. One of the most
interesting scenes, in the right (eastern) chapel, includes a rare
figure of an ithyphallic lion-god on the left (west) wall. Most lion
deities were female. Behind the sanctuary, a small chamber for
the god Khonsu has four sixteen- sided columns and reliefs that
show Rameses III in some scenes, the Roman Emperor
Augustus Caesar in others. To its northeast, another chamber is
decorated with figures of the dead Osiris, lying on his bier with
Isis and Nephthys in attendance.
TEMPLE OF OSIRIS AND OPET
Immediately west of the Temple of Khonsu stands the small
Temple of Osiris and Opet. Opet was a hippopotamus goddess
of childbirth whom Egyptians considered to be Osiris's mother.
Ptolemaic Egyptian religious beliefs held that when Amen died
he took the form of Osiris, entered the body of his mother,
Opet-Nut, and was reborn as Khonsu. Thus, the birthplace of
Khonsu stood adjacent to Khonsu's temple. The Ptolemaic Opet
temple follows an unusual plan. It stands on a 2 meter (6.5 foot)
high platform with a cavetto cornice along its top edge. This
podium represents the primordial mound of creation, but also
provides space for a pair of chambers cut below the temple
floor that served as a crypt and chapel for Osiris. Surrounding a
two- columned hall, nine small, dark chambers have well- cut
texts and scenes of Ptolemy 11 in adoration before Opet, Osiris,
Horus, and other deities.
The Open air museum
When archacologists working at Karnak have found stones from
carlier buildings re-used in later walls and pylons, they have
removed and catalogued the blocks and stored them in open
fields within the central enclosure. A few decades ago, a
number of these blocks were gathered together and the
buildings from which they came were reconstructed. They were
placed in what is now called the Open-Air Museum in the
northwest corner of the Karnak's central enclosure. The OpenAir Museum is a lovely and tranquil place, filled with mature
trees, stone footpaths, and some of the most beautiful
monuments ever to come from the Temple of Amen. The
number of monuments displayed here is growing rapidly: in
1999, there were only three structures and a small collection of
statues and loose blocks; today, there are four way-stations,
several huge temple walls, storage chambers, statues, and
hundreds of blocks from still-unreconstructed and many other
buildings. These monuments are of such interest that the
muscum should be visited by every tourist who comes to
Thebes.
THE WHITE CHAPEL OF SENUSRET I
In the autumn of 1927, French archaeologists working to
restore the Third Pylon of the Temple of Amen found a large,
beautifully inseribed limestone architrave reused in the pylon's
interior fill. Over the next ten years, blocks were uncovered, all
hundreds more inscribed from the same Middle Kingdom
building of Senusret I. Egyptologist Pierre Lacau and architect
Henri Chevrier began in 1937 to reconstruct the building, which
they called the White Chapel.
It was the first monument to be installed in the Open-Air
Museum. Originally, it probably stood on the west side of the
Middle Kingdom courtyard. That courtyard was called "The High
Lookout of Senusret 1. and the shrine itsell was called "The
Throne of Horus." It was built by Senusret I for the celebration of
his first Sed- Festival. At the time of its discovery, the White
Chapel was unique. No examples of such a building had ever
come to light. Thanks to almost perfect preservation, it was
possible to rebuild what many consider the finest example of
relief carving to come down from the Middle Kingdom. The White
Chapel was but one of the many way stations erected at Karnak,
small buildings where priests could set down the divine bark and
the god's statue while they briefly rested and recited prayers
during the many religious processions that took place each year.
It is a small monument: 6.75 meters (22 feet) square, with ramp and stairway combinations at either end that lead to
the chapel floor, 1.8 (nearly 6 leet) meters above ground The
shrine has four rows of lour pillars each 2.5 meters (75 feet) tall,
supporting architraves and a comice above There are
waterspouts to collect the rare rain that falls on the tool, water
that was used in puriication ceremonies The plan and section of
the bailding are simple and even a bit heay But this is more
than made up for by the relief carving that covers nearly every
vertical surface. It is certainly the most elaborately decorated of
all the chapels at Karnak. On the pillars, Senusret I stands with
Amen, sometimes shown in his ithyphallic form, and with other
gods and goddesses including Anubis, Thoth, Ptah, Horus,
Anum, Montu and Amenet. The accompanying texts give titles
and epithets of the king and deities. The detail in these figures is
truly astonishing: kilts and unusual capes are meticulously
pleated; every bead in a necklace or collar is carefully
delineated. The hieroglyphs are even more hird's wing: the
musculature of a bull: the curls on the hr-sign (a human head),
the twisted strands in a ope cartouche, the ransparent wings of
a bee, the patterm of a woven hasket-all are shown with the
minutest attention to dletail. There is very linle paint preserved.
but cach hieroglyph is a fully formed work of art, a tìny
masterpicce cut in finest limestone But the inscriptions are of
more than just aesthetic interest There is a list of nomes, the
ancient administrative districts into which Egypt was divided, on
the outer walls, carved in a series of rectangles just below the
shrines windows. On the right (north) side are the nomes of
Lower Egypt,
on the left (south) those of Upper Egypt. For example, at the
right (east) end of the south wall appears the name Ta-Sety, the
first nome of Upper Egypt, called Elephantine or Aswan.
Below its name another rectangle gives the name of the nomes
principal deity, in this case Horus. Below that, a string lengsh of
the nomes Nile of nunbers indicates thie shoreline, in this case,
10 itru, 2 kha, 7 setjat, which is 112.061 kilometers. (One itrw is
10.5 kilometers hha and setjat are fractions thereof.) At the left
(cast) end of the north wall, a rectangle encloses the name of
the first Lower Egyptian nome, Memphis, inbu hedj, which
extends 4 itru. 1 kha, or 42.523 kilometers along the Nile.
Twenty-two Lipper Egyptian and fourteen Lower Egyptian
nomes are listed. Also on the outer north wall of the chapel,
flood levels at several sites along the Nile are given in cubits.
This is extremely important information for reconstructing the
geography and politics of ancient Egypt.
THE ALABASTER SHRINE OF AMENHETEP I
Amenhetep I erected several buildings in and around the
Middle Kingdom Court, several of which were dismantled and
used as fill in the Third Pylon and to create the court before the
Seventh Pylon. One of these, from the Third Pylon, is a
remarkable alabaster bark- shrine, recently reconstructed in the
Open- Air Museum. Called the Menmenu, it originally stood in
the Middle Kingdom precinct as a repository for the sacred bark
of Amen. Amenhetep I said that, "Never since the first primeval
time of the carth has the like of this been made in the land." Its
name was found in an inscription in the Red Chapel of Queen
Hatshepsut, which now stands nearby. The shrine was the work
of a prominent architect of the early New Kingdom, Ineni, who
also was responsible for many works of Amenhetep I's
successor, Thutmes 1. Amenhetep I's shrine measures only 9
meters (29 feet) long and consists of a single chamber, built of
huge blocks of alabaster. Alabaster was a valuable material
rarely found in such large pieces. The alabaster, probably from
the Hatnub quarries, has mottled shades of caramel and honey
running through it, and is pockmarked with pits, gashes, and
impurities that give it the appcarance of pulled taffy.
These imperfections so overpower the delicate relief that the
carved figures completely disappear in all but the sharpest
raking light. Originally, the scenes must have been painted, for
that is the only way the figures could have been easily seen. But
painting the surface would have concealed the fact that the
shrine was built of such costly material. Why use blocks of
precious alabaster if it could not be seen? Perhaps the magical
and religious associations of alabaster were more important
than its ostentatious display. Scenes on the outer north wall of
the Menmenu show Amenhetep I mystically joined with the god
Amen, dedicating offerings of food, oils, and water as part of his
coronation ceremony. The outer face of the south wall is
decorated with figures of Thutmes 1, and some scholars think
this proves that the shrine was built late in the reign of
Amenhetep I as a joint venture with his successor The interior
faces of the two walls show Amenhetep 1 and Amen standing
before offerings and a divine bark.
THE RED CHAPEL OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT
This large and elegant building was re-erected in 2000, making it
one of the most recent additions to the museum, although the
recovery of blocks in 1898 makes it one of the first have been
discovered. Like all the shrines here, the building goes by
several names and descriptive terms: Chapelle Rouge, Red
Chapel shrine, bark- shrine, chapel or way station. Like the
others, the Red Chapel functioned as a temporary resting- place
for divine barks during religious processions. The monument,
found re-used Philip Arrhidaeus, west of the Middle Kingdom
court, It is larger than the other shrines, 15 meters (50 feet) long
and 5.77 meters (18.5 feet) tall. The shrine is a fascinating piece
of architecture. It is built of red quartzite on a base of black
granite that is inscribed with lists of Upper and Lower Egyptian
nomes. There is a torus molding at each corner and a cornice
across the top. The courses of stone are laid horizontally with
vertical joints between the blocks. Each register is one block in
height, and there are six registers on the exterior wall, seven on
the interior. Each block is of a slightly different length so that it
can accommodate a single scene or part of a scene. This must
mean that each block was custom-cut and decorated at the
quarry, then installed in a predetermined place in the structure.
This implies that its builders had a detailed architectural plan for
the monument. The floor of the shrine has several channels cut
into it to direct the flow of water used in ceremonies of
purification.
