Temple of Amon Karnak
“I was looking for something that was useful... These were works the likes of which had not been done since the time of our ancestors. What I was destined to create was great!”
The outstanding ancient Egyptian architect Ineni, to whom these lines belong, cannot but be reproached with pride: what he was destined to create really turned out to be great, the temple has survived a millennium, tourists still come here. At the very end of the 16th century. BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose I, Ineni founded the now famous temple of Amun in Karnak, on the banks of the Nile, which became the decoration of the new royal capital - the “hundred-gate” Thebes. That's what the Greeks called this city. In ancient Egyptian texts it is called “Lucky”, in the Bible - “But”.
The heyday of Thebes is the time of the 18th dynasty of the Egyptian pharaohs, the time of a new bright flowering of Egyptian culture. The pharaohs of the 18th dynasty, who expelled the Hyksos invaders from the country, made Thebes, their hometown, the capital of the country. Grandiose temples, magnificent palaces and houses quickly changed the appearance of Thebes. transforming them into the richest and most magnificent of Egyptian cities, the glory of which was preserved for many centuries.
The temples of the XVIII dynasty were an elongated rectangle in plan. Its façade faced the Nile, with which the temple was connected by a road framed by sphinxes. The entrance looked like a pylon, with high masts with flags attached to the outer wall. In front of the pylon there were usually obelisks and colossal statues of the king, and behind it there was an open courtyard with porticoes and the temple building itself, which contained columned halls, chapels, libraries, storerooms, etc. Columned halls usually had a higher middle passage, through top part which light penetrated into the hall.
The famous temple of Amun in Karnak also belongs to this type of temple. It was the main temple of the solar deity Amon-Ra and the supreme sanctuary of the country. Each king sought to expand and decorate Karnak, which became a silent witness to the history of Egypt. Chronicles, battle scenes, and the names of kings were carved on its walls and columns. Magnificent reliefs depicting pharaohs defeating their enemies before the god Amon have been preserved here. The hymns carved on the walls of the temple glorify the power of the king, who achieves victories thanks to his help " heavenly father" - Amon: “I have come and let you destroy the borders of all lands, and the entire universe is squeezed into your fist!"
The temple at Karnak was a real “city of the gods.” Its construction lasted two millennia: the first buildings appeared at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, the last - under the Ptolemies, the largest - under Thutmose III and Ramesses II. Even the Roman emperors contributed to its decoration. This huge complex included temples to Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu, as well as temples to the god Mont, the goddess Maat, the god Ptah and others.
The best architects and sculptors worked to create the sanctuary. One of its first builders was the famous Ineni, the court architect of Pharaoh Thutmose I. The second major stage in the history of the construction of Karnak was the work carried out here under Pharaoh Amenhotep III, when the architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, built a new huge pylon in front of the temple, from which to the Nile led by the alley of sphinxes. The entire sanctuary was surrounded by a massive wall. The result was a new temple of unprecedented proportions. Under the Libyan pharaoh Shoshenq and the Ethiopian pharaoh Taharqa, the last major additions were made: another huge courtyard with porticoes and a giant pylon resembling a fortress wall was built. Its height is 43.5 m, width - 113 m and thickness - 15 m. The entrance was decorated with a monumental colonnade with capitals in the shape of open papyrus flowers.
Built by the architect Ineni, the temple was built in the traditions of the 18th dynasty. Its facade faces the Nile, with which the temple was connected by a road framed by sphinxes. The entrance looked like a pylon, with high masts with flags attached to the outer wall. An alley of 24 sphinxes with ram heads leads to it; Once upon a time, two obelisks stood in front of the pylon, each 23 m high.
Behind the pylon there was a shallow but wide columned hall, then the next pylon; beyond it extends a porticoed courtyard with temples of Seti II and Ramesses III, colonnades, sphinxes and a colossal statue of Ramesses II in the guise of Osiris; and, finally, the temple building itself, which contained columned halls, chapels, libraries, storerooms, etc. The entire temple was designed in the strict style characteristic of the beginning of the 18th dynasty. However, this stylistic unity was later disrupted by numerous additions and alterations. Over time, numerous halls, chapels, and obelisks filled the courtyard; the columned hall of Ineni was heavy with the addition of columns and statues; A special large hall with four rows of columns was added to the eastern side.
The pharaohs of the next, XIX, dynasty sought to add splendor and splendor to their capital, court and temples of the gods, which left a unique imprint on the architecture of this period. The main object of their attention was the temple of Amun at Karnak, the expansion of which had a double political significance: it was supposed to show the triumph of Amun and glorify the power of the new dynasty. The new buildings at Karnak are characterized by the desire for grand scale that became a defining feature of the temple architecture of the 19th dynasty. Never before have pylons, columns and monolithic colossal statues of kings reached such dimensions; never before has the decoration of temples been distinguished by such heavy pomp. Thus, the new pylon erected during these years surpassed all the previous ones: its length was 156 m, and the masts standing in front of it reached 40 m in height.
Behind this pylon opens a view that has no equal in the world - a view of the world's greatest columned hall, built by the 19th dynasty architects Iupa and Khatiai. It is 103 m wide and 52 m deep. On an area of approximately 5000 sq. m - it could accommodate 900 cars - there was a whole forest of gigantic sandstone columns, a total of 134 columns standing in 16 rows. The height of the twelve central columns reaches 23 m, each more than ½ in circumference, with capitals in the form of open papyrus flowers. The remaining 122 columns were 13 meters high and about 9 meters in circumference.
The floors of the hall, supported by the tops of the columns, weigh from 10 to 20 tons. They were placed there by dragging the blocks along an earthen embankment, after which the earth was removed. The columns and ceilings of the hall, partially preserved to this day, are striking in their scale. In the twilight that reigned between these stone giants, the subject of the pharaoh probably felt with particular strength the greatness and incomprehensibility of that divine principle, in whose glory the Karnak Temple was erected and by whose providence the Egyptian state was held in the minds of the Egyptians.
The columns are covered from top to bottom with hieroglyphic inscriptions, reliefs depicting religious ceremonies, and royal cartouches. The stone still retains faint traces of the once bright colors. Capitals, crossbars and roof slabs are decorated in the same way. When the construction of the hall was just completed, its multi-colored beauty was dazzling. The floor may have been covered with silver leaf. On holidays, many people crowded here, for the hall was erected to show the whole world the power of the pharaoh and his omnipotent father Amon-Ra, the solar god. For those who could not read hieroglyphs, the same story was told by the images on the walls. However, the Egyptian peasant easily managed without the art of reading. Oral interpretations of complex religion, magic, various beliefs, welded together by frenzied pagan superstition, were enough for him.
The colossal columns of the middle aisle, standing like sentry giants at the mysterious door of the sanctuary, with their rows were supposed to direct the viewer's eye precisely in its direction; even now, against our will, they lead our gaze to it. To point out the mysterious without revealing it was the goal of Egyptian religious art. But, in my opinion modern man, this is not a hall at all, it is a colossal mass of columns, an oppressive pile of architectural barriers, between which there is only a narrow space for free passage.
Under the pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, the appearance of other sanctuaries of Karnak also changed, of which the new building of the temple of the goddess Mut, located south of the temple of Amun and surrounded on three sides by a horseshoe-shaped lake, was especially noteworthy. The identical hall and lakes, like wings, covered the sides of the temple. The severity of the plan was especially emphasized by the fact that the central colonnade of the first hall continued along the entire courtyard. As if defining the path of the solemn processions, it merged with the avenue of sphinxes starting from the temple gates and served as an excellent embodiment of the idea of an endless line of the temple road, so characteristic of Egyptian architecture. In the porticoes that framed the temple, there were monumental statues of the goddess Mut in the form of a woman with the head of a lioness (one of them is now in the Hermitage). In total, according to the Harris papyrus, sacred Karnak There were once 86,000 statues.
Four gates framed by pylons lead from the southern side wall of the Temple of Amun-Ra to the alley of sphinxes leading to the Temple of Mut. The complex of secondary sanctuaries inside the main temple is located in exact accordance with the general rectangular plan and is oriented parallel to the axis of the sanctuary of Amon-Ra. Approaching the temple from the west, from the Nile, you see in front of you on both sides of the entrance giant pylons 43.3 m high. In total, there are 10 pylons on the territory of the complex, built in different eras, starting from the 15th century. BC. and ending with the 1st century. BC. In front of each and behind each there are sanctuaries with decorated gates and columned halls, alleys of sphinxes and even rows of statues, destroyed and unresolved walls with hieroglyphic inscriptions, individual signs of which are often more than a meter long - and there are more than 250,000 such signs here!
Everything here is colossal. The obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut, carved from red granite, is the largest in Egypt. The unusually harmonious forms of this granite monument (almost 30 m high, weighing about 350 tons) stand out clearly against the blue sky. All four of its faces are covered with hieroglyphs: “Oh, Pharaoh, you see your father Amon-Ra, the god of gods! Lord of the thrones of both Egypt, you behold your father every time he rises from Ipet Souta. Its rays fold together ahead, like the rays of the edge of the sky at dawn, illuminating the double door of the edge of the sky of the Lord of the Whole World... People are happy that his beauty has risen, and they rejoice..."
Ipet Sout was the name of the earliest temple at Karnak, built around 2000 BC. The golden barge of the Sun was once kept here. Amazingly, the temple of Amon itself, the “great temple of the Sun,” was not oriented towards the Sun. Moreover, from the founding of the temple to the present day, the rays of the Sun have never fallen parallel to its central axis. How so? Was the axis of the temple chosen by chance? Was it really possible that when it was laid, the first lines were drawn haphazardly?
It turns out not. The central axis of the temple at Karnak is oriented towards the sunrise point on the shortest day of the year. This day was special for the Egyptians. Plutarch says in “Isis and Osiris”: “On the day of the winter solstice they (the Egyptians) lead the cow seven times around the temple of the Sun... looking for Osiris, for the goddess thirsts for moisture in winter; and seven times they lead a cow because the Sun completes the transition from the winter solstice to the summer solstice on the seventh month... Horus, son of Isis. makes a sacrifice to the Sun... Every day they offer a triple sacrifice of incense to the Sun - a sacrifice of fragrant resin at dawn, myrrh at noon and the so-called kythix at sunset... They believe that with this they propitiate the Sun and serve him ... "
The Nile near Thebes forms a huge bend and flows from south-southwest to north-northeast - approximately at right angles to the direction of the sunrise point on the winter solstice. The Temple of Amun is oriented precisely in this direction - along at least, to the extent that it allows one to determine the accuracy of the measurement. Was the site for the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak, in ancient Thebes, chosen because of the bend that made the temple perpendicular to the Nile oriented along the line of sunrise? Or was this direction discovered after construction of the temple complex began?
Be that as it may, the winter solstice played a special role in the life of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. On this day, the Sun defeated the forces of darkness in the battle unfolding in the underworld, and in the moment of victory at dawn a new god was born: “The doors of the underworld are wide open, O Sokar. The sun is in the sky! O born again, you shine above the edge of the heavens, and you restore Egypt to its beauty whenever the heavens are pierced by rays, whenever you are born as a disk in the sky.”
Amun-Ra was the most important god of Egypt, remaining a national deity for many centuries. The ideas behind this cult were formed long before the era of the XVIII dynasty and persisted until the complete decline of Egyptian civilization under Cleopatra.
But as the prophecies said, the end of this temple has come. “The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will visit Ammon, which is in No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, and his gods and his kings, Pharaoh and those who trust in him; And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants; but after that it will be inhabited as in the former days, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 46:25,26)
The temple was destroyed by an earthquake.
Temple of Amon Ra (Egypt) - description, history, location. The exact address, phone, website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.
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The Temple of Amun Ra is the main religious building of Ancient Egypt, it is located near the city of Luxor, in the village of Karnak (about 270 km from Hurghada). This territory once housed the great Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt. Despite the fact that millennia have passed, the sacred complex has been more or less preserved and hospitably welcomes tourists from all over the world.
Each of the rulers who ascended the kingdom considered it an indispensable duty to make their contribution to the history of the temple of Amon Ra.
Now it is open to all visitors, but in the times of Ancient Egypt, according to historians, only a select few - pharaohs and great priests - could visit the temple of Amon Ra. And all because this place was a sanctuary of the Egyptians. The temple, as the name implies, was built in honor of the “king of all gods” - the sun god Amon Ra.
Temple of Amon Ra
However, they were in no particular hurry to build a temple in ancient Egypt and it took several years and even more than one century to build it. Each of the rulers who ascended the kingdom considered it an indispensable duty to make their contribution to the history of the temple of Amon Ra. And what to hide: some of the pharaohs were so vain that they ordered the works of their predecessors to be completely destroyed and the temple rebuilt. Thus, Pharaoh Thutmose III, known from history textbooks, destroyed the obelisks of the previous queen Hatshepsut and ordered the construction of a new temple building with texts and scenes from his victorious military campaigns carved on the walls.
Today the Temple of Amun Ra at Karnak is a huge quadrangular complex with total area about 30 hectares. The road to the temple is “guarded” by sphinxes arranged in two rows.
To get inside the Temple of Amon Ra, you need to go through the giant pylon gates. There are only 10 of them, but the largest one has - attention - a length of 113 m, and reaches a height of almost two (!) nine-story buildings. After the pylons, visitors to the shrine will find an equally majestic columned hall.
The “heart” of the Temple of Amon Ra in Karnak is a hypostyle (in other words, supported by columns) hall with an area of more than 5 thousand square meters. m and height 24 m.
Another amazing figure: there were initially 134 columns in the hall, and to grasp at least one, you need to resort to the help of at least six people! That's where there were talented architects who managed perfectly well without computer and engineering technologies, wasn't it?!
Once upon a time, gold sparkled all over the columns and walls of the hypostyle hall; now tourists can also admire the ancient reliefs, but without the precious coating.
Another feature of the Temple of Amun Ra at Karnak is the Sacred Lake adjacent to it. The ancient Egyptians, according to tradition, sailed a boat with three statues across the lake every year: Amon Ra, his wife, the sky goddess Mut, and their son, the moon god Khonsu.
Price issue
A bus tour to Luxor costs around 760 EGP. This price includes admission to attractions including the Temple of Amun Ra, a guide and lunch (drinks not included).
Prices on the page are as of November 2018.
As for the architectural system, we see that vertical and horizontal lintels were used, that is, vertical ones were used as supports, on top of which were horizontal ones or a high ceiling that covered the internal and external terraces. Once again we see how architecture was influenced by the surrounding world; this was manifested not only in the use of stone, which was determined by the geography of the area, but also in establishing the relationship between the surrounding landscape and architectural buildings. Egypt is a country with a horizontal landscape, and its architecture is the same - flat, like the terraces on both banks of the Nile.
Thus, the Nile not only created the geographical framework that determined the life of the people, but also defined the existential space. There is a concept of a sacred street or path which says that this is why the temple is also located along the longitudinal axis; its axial symmetry and mirror image of objects on either side are striking, and liturgical processions followed the path of the Sun from east to west. The sun was associated with the ruler of all luminaries, who moves across the sky, illuminating the doors of the temple, making his way through the pylons that symbolized the sacred mountains.
Moreover, although the Egyptians never showed much interest in interior decoration (remember that many of the buildings in Djoser's funerary complex were fictitious), they had absolutely no interest in the arrangement of objects in space. Despite this, we ourselves help to create an internal space based on the external appearance, which becomes more and more clear as we approach the sanctuary or chamber of the god. So we move from space under open air- Alley of Sphinxes, accessible to people who do not belong to the cult. Entering the temple, we see that we find ourselves in a courtyard surrounded by porticoes. In this open hall, where the whole people also had access, the interaction of spaces is clearly visible. Already in the hypostyle hall, where only high-ranking figures were admitted, we see the predominance of internal space over external space, which is further emphasized by the lack of lighting, since light penetrated only through the latticework in the highest central nave. In the sanctuary, where only clergy could enter, there was no longer any relationship between spaces, and the room itself was illuminated only by the light of the flame. The internal space gradually gains superiority over the external: as you move deeper into the temple, the space narrows vertically due to the inclined rise of the floor and horizontally due to the narrowing of the distant rooms.
Temples of Karnak and Luxor
Karmak is the modern name of one of the largest temple complexes and religious centers of Ancient Egypt. For about two thousand years (until the turn of the new era, when the Roman period in ancient Egyptian history began), Karnak was essentially the center of the state religious cult, which determined the ideology and direction of the spiritual quest of the country's theologians on the Nile.
In the perception of the Egyptians, Karnak was special place among other shrines of Egypt. Its name itself speaks to this: in ancient Egyptian the temple complex was called Ipet-Sut, which, according to the famous Russian Egyptologist O.I. Pavlova, can be translated as “chosen by places (of stay).” The reason for his election is clear: although many people revered Carmack egyptian gods, starting from the era of the Middle Kingdom (more precisely, from the XII dynasty), it is the main sanctuary of the god Amon, who later, in Greco-Roman antiquity, was not accidentally identified with the supreme god Zeus (Jupiter). The name Amon is translated as “hidden”, “invisible”. This definition is, in principle, applicable to any deity of Ancient Egypt, but Amun in the Egyptian pantheon had rare functions: he was the god of air, or wind (the Greek word “pneuma”, denoting this element, became in Christianity a designation of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time creator god. Presumably, Amon was especially revered in Hermopolis, in the middle reaches of the Nile. When, under the pharaohs of the 11th dynasty, the struggle for the unification of Egypt under the rule of Thebes, the future capital city in Upper Egypt, began to take shape, the cult of Amun of Thebes began to take shape, sanctifying royal power and the unity of the state .
The influence of the religion of Amun increased noticeably during the XII dynasty (XX-XVIII centuries BC). It was then that Pharaoh Senusret I erected a small elegant temple “of beautiful white stone” in Karnak, where the sacred barge of Amon, made of the famous Lebanese cedar (which, by the way, was also used in the construction of the Jerusalem Temple) was placed during the festivities. In the White Temple, as Egyptologists call it, the Heb-Sed holiday was held, during which the sacrament of rebirth was performed physical strength the aging pharaoh, after which he seemed to be crowned king again, thereby symbolizing inexhaustible prosperity for all of Egypt. The White Temple was dismantled in ancient times during one of the reconstructions of Karnak, but a significant part of the blocks from which it was built was preserved as part of other structures, thanks to which in the 20th century. the temple was recreated.
Dismantling old buildings and using their stones to build new ones was common in Ancient Egypt. Therefore, the history of Karnak is not known in detail. However, it is clear that its heyday dates back to the era of the New Kingdom, when the main shrine of Karnak became a colossal (600 x 550 m in size) temple complex dedicated to Amun.
In ancient times, the temple ensemble was surrounded by a wall and included many large rooms, courtyards, halls, passage alleys, obelisks, pylons, and statues. Now, not everything from the grandiose architectural masterpiece has survived, but even what has survived amazes with its grandeur. The remaining temple buildings, according to some travelers, pale in comparison to the impressive remains of the Karnak Temple. This is truly the brightest example of the temple architecture of Ancient Egypt over the last two millennia of its existence.
The building has survived to this day approximately in the form it had in the 14th-11th centuries. before i. e. From the west, an alley of sphinxes that has partially survived to this day leads to it. Egyptian sphinxes, as a rule, have the body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh, but those in front of the temple of Amun have the head of a ram - the sacred animal of this god. Sphinxes symbolize royal power, patronizing good and merciless towards evil, therefore the mythical creatures, located in two rows in front of the entrance to the temple, were designed to greatly increase its protection from evil forces.
The alley ends in front of giant pylons, their compositional design goes back to the architecture of earlier burial structures of the Old Kingdom era. Behind the pylons is a vast courtyard, and behind it is the famous hypostyle (a closed room with several rows of columns) of the Karnak Temple. All of its 134 columns (up to 20 m in height and about 3.5 m in diameter), arranged in 16 rows, were once crowned with capitals in the form of lotus flowers and papyrus bundles, characteristic of Egypt during the New Kingdom. And the columns themselves reproduced the shape of bundles of stems of these plants sacred to the Egyptians: the lotus has been associated since ancient times with the cradle of the Sun at the dawn of creation - with that “great lotus” that “rose from the primordial waters.” Papyrus, whose symbolism is as polysemantic as the lotus, in the design of temples, apparently developed its theme and meant growth and prosperity. After all, the Egyptian temple itself (at least since the time of the New Kingdom) was perceived as a place of daily mystical renewal of the Universe.
Behind the hypostyle are the pylons of more and more gates, once covered with gold, silver, copper and bronze. They are lined up along the axis of the complex and lead to other rooms of the temple, which are darker. The Holy of Holies of Karnak is a relatively small room, immersed in darkness, symbolizing the shroud of mystery surrounding the deity, or the primordial gloomy chaos in which the radiant dawn of creation rises.
Thus, the composition of the temple of Amun unfolded horizontally and not vertically; in accordance with this architectural solution, the “degree of sacredness” of the temple premises also increased along the horizontal axis. An almost Gothic aspiration to the sky in an Egyptian temple was characteristic only of the obelisks at the entrance.
They correlated only with the “gates of the sacrament”, and not with the very place where it was performed - this is the difference between the Egyptian (and in general the most ancient Eastern Mediterranean) temple from those forms that developed later in Christianity and Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Of course, there is a deeply sacred horizontal axis in both churches and mosques (it points to the altar and the mihrab, respectively), but the vertical aspiration here is constantly emphasized by theological understanding of the structural elements of the building. It can be said that the Egyptian temple expressed in its visible forms, first of all, not the idea of “burning to heaven,” but the idea of mystery - the sequential passage through the gates of various stages of initiation into the mysteries.
The temple complex at Karnak was rebuilt more than once during the XXII and XXV dynasties, under the Ptolemies. Almost every pharaoh believed | ^ it is our duty to bring something to the main religious building of the country. Gradually, smaller temples of other deities were erected, the sacred lake of Amun measuring 110 x 70 m was created (sacred lakes during the New Kingdom became an obligatory part of temple complexes), and several canals were dug. The buildings were surrounded by sacred gardens with a clear, regular layout. At the Temple of Amun, the “House of Life” appeared - a library where sacred papyrus scrolls were stored and copied, and mathematics and medicine were studied. The reconstruction, fortunately, did not affect the basic layout and architectural design of Karnak, as well as its magnificent interiors. In the Temple of Amun outside Some reliefs illustrating the military exploits of Ramses II are still visible on the walls of the hypostyle; on the inside there are reliefs of religious subjects. Previously, they were all painted, often blue and yellow, and inlaid with gold, and the ceiling of the temple was sky blue, studded with golden stars.
About 3 km from Karnak, during the New Kingdom era, another magnificent temple complex dedicated to Amun was erected - Luxor. The Alley of Sphinxes connected both religious centers, and every year a festive procession went along it from Karnak to Luxor. So, in essence, they represented the only complex that was part of the grandiose cult center that Thebes was then.
The architectural design of the Lecture Complex is in many ways similar to that of Karnak. Its main part, created mainly in the XV-XIII centuries. BC BC, also includes mighty gate pylons, courtyards and hypostyle. The walls of the Luxor Temple are covered with numerous reliefs, including those telling about the life of the pharaohs and historical events distant past.
For a long time, Karnak and Luxor remained the stronghold of ancient Egyptian traditions. But during the period of Akhenaten’s religious reform (1368-1351 BC), the Theban temples of Amun suffered greatly: while establishing a single cult of the god Aten, by order of the pharaoh, first of all, images of the universally revered Amon were destroyed, and his name was confused in the inscriptions. However, after the death of Akhenaten, the veneration of Amun in Karnak, Luxor, and throughout Egypt was very quickly restored: the ancient Theban religion of Amun was, apparently, no less sublime than the veneration of Aten (the solar disk that gives life), and penetrated deeper into the worldview Egyptians
In the 1st millennium BC. e. The cult of Amon spread outside Egypt, primarily in the kingdom of Kush (Ancient Nubia). The Oracle of Amun in the Libyan oasis of Siwa (west of Egypt), according to legend, was visited
even such royalty as Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. At the turn of the new era, Karnak, the center of the cult of Amon, fell into oblivion for almost two millennia. And they began to study it systematically only from the middle of the 19th century.
Images of Karnak Temple
The images captured in the Karnaa temple become completely understandable only through familiarity with the theological understanding of the ancient Egyptians. During the New Kingdom, Amon ancient god revered not only as the creator god of the pan-Egyptian level, but also identified with the sun god Ra. The remaining gods are now perceived as various manifestations who acquired the features of a universal deity - in this it is easy to see similarities with the biblical understanding of God. Theban theological texts testify to the same thing (in addition to the well-known reform of Akhenaten, the monotheism of which was repeatedly compared with biblical theology).
Certain fragments from the hymns to Amun, which were probably heard in the Karnak Temple, speak of his “beginninglessness” and the impossibility of complete comprehension. Similar images found both in the Bible and in patristic Christian literature.
Is there a contradiction here? Even the gods do not know the “real form” of Amun, but images of him existed in Ancient Egypt (and, of course, in the Karnak Temple) - mainly in the form of a man with the head of a ram (ram). This is how this discrepancy is explained in one ancient Egyptian text about Amon, given in the book of I.G. Frank-Kamenetsky “Monuments of Egyptian religion in the Theban period”: “His face is like a ram, he hides himself with mysterious images so that no one knows his secrets.”
In the ancient city of Thebes, the Karnak Temple stretches over more than 80 hectares. It is often called a temple, without realizing that this term means anything in the singular. The Karnak Temple is actually a complex of monumental religious buildings located near the Nile River in the territory of the modern city of Luxor, built on the site of ancient Thebes.
Myths and facts
Legend has it that the Temple of Amun at Karnak was the home of a sacred statue of the chief deity. In August, during the flood of the Nile, a magnificent festive ceremony began: the statue of Amun was taken out of the temple and carried along the alley of sphinxes to renew the God-king, along with the renewal of the earth after a long drought. There Pharaoh prayed to the gods, asking for blessings on New Year. Then he went out to the people, everyone stood facing the Nile and sang praises to the river. Jubilant Egyptians in boats waved palm branches and burning torches. The statue of Amun was then carried in a golden barge across the sacred lake back to the Karnak inner chambers, hidden from uninitiated eyes.
Unlike many, Karnak was not built by one pharaoh or even during the reign of one dynasty. Construction began in the 16th century BC. and lasted more than 1300 years. About 30 pharaohs contributed to the creation of the complex, adding pylons, chapels and obelisks dedicated to the gods of Thebes.
The Karnak Temple is unique not only among Egyptian temples. This is the largest ancient religious building in the world, which is also considered the largest open-air museum. Never before have sacred temples reached such dimensions, and the decoration has never been so splendid. Only the hypostyle hall of Karnak, measuring 103 by 52 meters, contained 144 columns up to 20 meters high, which could not be grasped by five people! The huge pylon at the entrance surpassed all previous ones in its scope: 156 meters in length and 40 meters in height!
What to see
Behind the avenue of sphinxes and the first pylon is the temple of the Theban triad: Amun - the sun god, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu - the moon god. At the entrance to the hypostyle hall stands the colossus of Ramses II, at whose feet one of his daughters is depicted. The bas-reliefs in the hall tell the story of the life and exploits of the pharaoh.
In the depths of the Karnak complex rises a huge 39-meter obelisk made of red granite. The second obelisk did not stand the test of time and its fragments are scattered around.
To the left of the southern courtyard there is a sacred lake, in the waters of which the priests washed themselves before performing rituals. On the shore stands a huge granite scarab beetle, installed by Amenhotep III. The Egyptians believe that if you walk around this statue seven times and touch it with your hand, your wish will certainly come true.
The Temple of Karnak hosts a light and sound show every evening, depicting the history of Thebes as the religious center of Egypt. The show is performed in several languages. Check the schedule for when the performance will be in Russian. Most of the buildings are outdoors, including the museum, so be prepared for the sun, wear sunscreen and don't forget to bring water.
On the opposite bank of the Nile is the second largest temple complex in Egypt. Also located nearby. And if you have any strength left, I recommend visiting - the gate to the underworld, guarding the most mysterious secrets pharaohs.
Karnak Temple is open from 6.00 to 18.00 summer time and from 6.30 to 17.30 in winter.
Cost: 80 LE (about 8.3 €), students - 40 LE.
How to get there: located 2 km from Luxor, from where you can get there by taxi. Luxor can be reached by bus from Hurghada, Makadi Bay, Safaga, El Gouna, El Quseir (4-5 hours). From Cairo there are many river cruises on the Nile with a stop in Karnak.
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