ramses ii Archives

Karnak Temple Complex – Part 2

The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak Temple is characterized by its massive scale, featuring 134 columns that symbolize a primeval papyrus swamp linked to Egyptian creation myths.

In yesterday’s post about the Karnak Temple Complex, we focused on the walk into the Amun-Re precinct and the first courtyard. Today, we’ll explore the Great Hypostyle Hall, which easily could have its own series of posts.

The first thing that we notice about the Great Hypostyle Hall is the massive scale of this part of the structure. Here we’re walking towards the hall, as we’re crossing the 2nd Pylon…

The Great Hypostyle Hall consists of 134 columns in 16 rows with the middle rows being the tallest at 24m high and 10m circumference. These columns supported a roof and covered an area of 5,000m2 (54,000 sq.ft.).

Looking up to the sky along these columns, we can imagine what the impact on worshippers of Amun-Re might have been…

The 134 columns represent a primeval papyrus swamp from which Atum, the primordial God in Egyptian mythology, arose from the waters of Nun, the oceanic abyss. This is part of the ancient Egyptian creation myth. The hall itself was created during the height of Seti I.

Here, we get a sense of how small we are among the papyrus swamp…

Even though the hall was built during Seti I’s reign, a keen observer will notice that many of the cartouches are from Ramses II. This is due to decorations of the southern wing being completed during Ramses II’s time.

We can also see that there were windows up high in the transition from the taller center rows to the outer rows of columns…

The level of detail in the decorations is astonishing, as we can see here…

A project has been under way to restore the vibrance of the colors by removing the layers of soot and dirt that obscure the beauty of the decorations and hieroglyphs. Also in these images we see the new roof sections that have been placed to give a sense of what the original might have looked…

Looking at the immensity of scale and the exquisite skill of the architects and artisans, we can’t help but stand in awe of this hall that was built more than 3,000 years ago.

More to come and we’ll go into some of the finer details in future posts.

Karnak Temple Complex – Part 1

More from our trip to Egypt, focusing on the Karnak Temple Complex. This historical site contains temples spanning from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Era.

As I’m starting to go through the many photos from our trip to Egypt, I will write a series of blog posts to delve a bit deeper into each area. Today, I’m starting with the Karnak Temple Complex, also known as Karnak.

A couple of things to note both about Karnak, in general. The Karnak complex sees temples from many time periods extending from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1700 BCE) to the Ptolemaic Era (305 – 30 BCE). The area of the complex was named Ipet-isut in ancient Egyptian, meaning ‘The Most Select of Places’. The modern name Karnak comes from the nearby village of el-Karnak, which means ‘fortified village’.

Let’s start with the entrance toward the 1st Pylon…

In this approach, we look at the 1st pylon, large trapezoidal walls that form the entrance toward the courtyard. This pylon is 113m wide and 15m thick at its base. The entrance way is lined with a procession of ram-headed sphinx statues, representing Amun-Re, whose temple one enters. Construction of this pylon was started in the 30th dynasty and never completed.

As we enter the courtyard, let’s take a closer look at the rightmost of the 1st pylon trapezoids…

There are still ancient mud bricks piled up against the inside of the pylon, which would have been used as ramps during the construction phase.

As we enter the courtyard, we get a sense of the scale ahead of us…

Here we’re looking at the Kiosk of the pharaoh Taharqa, one of the Kushite rulers of Egypt. The columns of this kiosk were 21m tall, and the one remaining column on the right gives us a sense of that size.

Also in this courtyard we find a colossal statue of Ramses II…

Ramses II is one of the best known pharaohs due to the length of his reign and his volume of construction. In this statue we see Ramses II wearing the nemesis headdress with the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. At his feet is the Princess Bent’anta, holding a flower and wearing a Uraeus crown of rearing cobras. The princess’ name, Bet’anta, is Syrian, meaning Daughter of Anath (Anath is a Canaanite goddess).

In the next episode, we’ll go into the great hypostyle hall.

Magnificent Abu Simbel

A visit to Abu Simbel, known for its colossal Ramses II statues and temples. This place is truly amazing!

On the list of well-known sites to visit in Egypt, Abu Simbel is near the top, likely only surpassed by Giza and the temple complexes in Luxor. It has been at the top of my list for a long time, and I can tell you that it lives up to its well-earned reputation. The entire story of this complex and its rescue from the impact of the Aswan High Dam is spell-binding!

Here’s an interior view of the Ramses II temple at the site…

The scale and detail inside the temple are stunning! There is amazing detail to be found everywhere to speak of the great deeds of Ramses II.

Even more interesting to me is the temple dedicated to Ramses II’s favorite queen, Nefertari…

The scale is almost at that of Ramses’ temple, and the stories told inside this temple are even more interesting!

Overall, our visit here was enhanced by the fact that we nearly. had this amazing site to ourselves, so we could admire the incredible work done to save this temple complex from Lake Nasser.

Just a taste for today, as I’ll write some more detailed blog posts in future editions!