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February 13, 2012

Temple of karnak at Luxor Facts

The Temple of Karnak 
The temple of Amon is located 3km, north of Etap Hotel, near Luxor temple, here we will deal with only one subject, namely temple of Karnak, which are considered among the greatest buildings constructed by man all over the world, they include a lot of temple, chapels and huge pylons that were erected by the kings of Egypt from the middle kingdom, when Amon became the state god as Amon-Ra, for about two thousand years until 30 B.C.

Temple of karnak egypt
The main element of Karnak temples is the great temple of "Amon" which is the erected a more than sixty feddan area , the temples include some other smaller temples for worshiping Khonsu (God of the Moon) and Montu (God of Wars), and it is surrounded by a 20 m thick wall, beside the great temple of Amon the central enclosure (550 by 250m) contains a temple of Khonsu, the third member of the Triad of Thebes, just within enclosure wall at the south-west.

There is also a temple of Ramses III, and a small way-station of Seti II , and numerous other structures ,even Akhenaton built here, the site of his temple has recently been discovered just outside the main temples beyond the east wall, there is a temple to Ptah and Sekhmet on the north side of the area; a Festival hall of Tuthmosis III to the east of the original buildings; a mall temple of Amenhotep Ii between pylons 9 and 10 and chapel of Tuthmosis III between pylons 7 and 8 , as well as temple to Osiris and Apet.

The entrance to the temple of Karnak

The entrance to the temple of Karnak
Although the main axis of the great temple is from west to east. it also has a north-south extension m a large number of blocks of earlier temples, chapels and other structures have been recovered from the ruins and from within the pylons, including a chapel of Senusert I . An alabaster chapel of Amenhotep I and the talatat of Akhnaton's destroyed temples.

To follow the chronological order of the Great temple of Amon would necessitate beginning at the east however, today, to make sense of the temple it is necessary to enter at the west end, first is an Avenue of Ram-headed S Sphinxes probably erected by Amenhotep III or Horemheb but latter usurped by Ramses II, this leads to the incomplete first pylon (130m wide( .

Te first forecourt (103 by 84m) seems originally to have been planned by the 22 Dynasty, rules through never completed, on the kit on the entry is the small shrine of Seti II, really a way-station of the sacred barks with chapels of Amon, Mut and Khonsu. it was cleared by Legrain in 1912, previously only the top courses being visible , the structure is of quartzite sandstone and originally stood in isolation in front of the temple, the facade shows Seti II making offerings to different deities and above is a friz of car-touches and crowned uraei alternating with red and white crowns, surmounting this is the winged disk of Horus with the inscription. He of Bhdt, lord of the sky, Great god bight of plumage, interior scenes show the barks of the gods.

Ram Headed Sphinx

Ram headed sphinx - Philae

In the center of the first court are ten columns of Taharwa , part of a Kiosk . Some 26.5m high, of which only one is standing.

On the south side of courtyard is the temple of Ramses III, beside which is the temple of Ramses III, beside which is the Bubastite Portal of the 22 dynasty whose kings originally planned the whole courtyard, it has scenes of Shesonq's victories over the Palestinians while to the north of the gate are scenes celebrating Pnnce Osorkon's work as high priest of Amon, the second pylon and the vestibule were built by Horemheb.

To the left is a Colossal Standing statue of Ramses II ((15m) with his daughter in front of his legs, it was usurped by Panijem in the 21 dynasty, the interior was filled with blocks from a temple of Akhenaton.

The small temple of Ramses III on the south side of the courtyard s dedicated to Amon in two forms in which he appears most frequently, Amon-Ra. King of the gods and lord of Karnak the name if this temple, the house of Ramses Ruler of Heliopolis in the house if Amon, it consists like other state temples of Pylon, flanked each side by a colossus of the king, a court decorated square pillars with ossified figures of the king , leading to a portico with four columns, hypo-style hall and a series of sanctuaries dedicated of the Triad of Thebes ( Amon- Mut and Khonsu).

Temple of karnak at Luxor
Temple of karnak at Luxor Facts
Temple of karnak at Luxor Facts Part 2
Temple of karnak at Luxor Facts Part 3

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found this helpful... especially for my Egypt project.

Anonymous said...

Yeah...me too... Egypt Project...

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