KARNAK
Also called AL-KARNAK, village in Qina "muhafazah" (governorate), Upper
Egypt, which has given its name to the northern half of the ruins of Thebes
on the east bank of the Nile, with the ruins of the great temple of Amon.
Recent excavations have pushed the history of the site back to the Gerzean
period c. 3200 BC. when a small settlement was founded on the wide eastern
bank of the Nile floodplain. The northern part of the large ancient city of
Nowe, it contains the northern group of city temples, called in ancient
times Ipet-isut, or Eptesowe, "Chosen of Places." The ruins of Karnak cover a
considerable area and are still impressive, though nothing remains of the
houses, palaces, and gardens that must have surrounded the temple precinct
in ancient times. The temples are enclosed within three walls. The most
northerly is that of the temple of Mont, the war god, of which little now
remains but the foundations. The southern temple, which has a
horseshoe-shaped sacred lake, was devoted to the goddess Mut, wife of Amon;
this also is much ruined. It was built largely by Amenhotep III, whose
architect was commemorated by statues in the temple.
Between these two precincts lay the largest of all Egyptian temples, and one
of the largest in the world, the great metropolitan temple of the state god,
Amon-Re. It is in fact not one temple but a complex of temples, added to and
altered at many periods and lacking, on consequence, a coherent plan. It has
been called a great historical document in stone. In it are reflected the
fluctuating fortunes of the Egyptian Empire. There are no fewer than 10
pylons, separated by courts and halls and nowadays numbered for convenience
from west to east, number one being the latest. The seventh and eighth
pylons were erected by Thutmose 111 and Queen Hatshepsut; the ninth and
tenth, of Horemheb's reign, formed a series of processional gateways at
right angles to the main axis, linking the temple with that of Mut to the
south, and further, by way of the avenue of sphinxes, with the temple of
Luxor two miles away.
The history of the temple must be briefly sketched. The original Middle
Kingdom temple has left no trace save a small jubilee shrine of Sesostris
(Senusret) I, now reconstructed from fragments found inside the third pylon.
At the beginning of the 18th dynasty, Thutmos I enclosed the 12th- dynasty
temple and fronted it with two pylons, the fifth and fourth, with a pillared
hall of gilded cedar wood between. Hatshepsut pierced the roof with two tall
obelisks, one of which still stands. In the reign of Thutmos III the temple
was greatly enlarged; not only did he add to the existing structures, and
add a pylon and pillared courts containing halls in which he inscribed the
annals of his campaigns, but he also built to the east of the Middle Kingdom
area a transverse temple in the form of a jubilee pavilion. On the walls of
one of the rear rooms of this temple is carved a kind of pictorial catalogue
of the strange animals and plants he had brought home from Asia in the 25th
year of his reign. He was probably also the builder of the wall that runs
round the temple from the fourth pylon eastward and of the sacred lake to
the south of it, on which the bark of Amon floated. Small additions were
made by his successors, and Amenhoteb III added a pylon (number three) to
the west and greatly embellished the temple.
The most striking feature of the temple of Karnak is the hypostyle
(pillared) hall that occupies space between the third pylon and the second,
built by Ramses I. the area of this vast hall. one of the wonders of
antiquity, is 5,800 square yards. It was decorated by Seti 1 and Ramses II ,
to whom much of the construction must be due, though it may have been
planned and begun earlier. Fourteen enormous columns, 78 feet high, raised
the roofing slabs of the central nave above the level of the rest so that
light and air could enter through a clerestory. Seven lateral aisles on
either side brought the number of pillars to 140. Historical relief on the
outer walls show the victories of Seti in Palestine and Ramses II defeating
the Hittites at the battle of Kadesh.
Ramses III built a small temple to Amon outside the Ramesside pylon and at
right angles to it, confronting a triple shrine erected by Seti II. The
Bubastite kings of the 22nd dynasty, in adding a vast court to the front of
the temple, incorporated both these small temples. The Bubastite Gate at the
southeast corner of this court commemorates the victories won by Sheshonk I,
the biblical Shishak, in Palestine in the reign of Rehoboam. The Napatan
pharaoh Taharqa planned a tall colonnade, of which one pillar still stands,
and perhaps began the giant first pylon, 370 feet wide and 143 feet high,
which continued by King Nectanebos (Nekhtnebef) in the 4th century BC but
never completed. Beyond it an avenue of sphinxes dating from Ramses II's
reign leads to the quayside.
Within the enclosure of the great temple of Amon-Re are included a number of
other small shrines and temples. A temple to Ptah and Hathor, in the north
side of the enclosure, was built by Hatshepsut and Thutmose III and added to
by the Ptolemies, who also embellished the great temple by the addition of
granite shrines and gateways. To the south, Ramses III dedicated a temple
to Khons, the moon god, which merits attention. A small late temple to Opt,
the hippopotamus goddess, Adjoins it.
Karnak presents a continual problem to the architects who seek to preserve
it, for the foundations are inadequate and moisture from the Nile's annual
flood has disintegrated the sandstone at the base of walls and columns. The
work of repairing and strengthening goes on continuously, and in carrying
out this work new discoveries are constantly being made. In one of the
pylons, thousands of fragments were found from a temple built at Thebes by
Akhenaton to his god Aton; this temple was destroyed when the cult of Amon
was restored.