Akhet - The Horizon

Great Hypostyle Hall (7)
Through this portico we enter into the Great Hypostyle Hall which is one of the most impressive sites in Egypt and certainly the most reknown one in Karnak. It was begun by Amenhotep III, continued by Seti I and completed by Ramesses II. Wandering around these 134 huge columns is like walking in a veritable forest. Originally here were statues with gods and kings and a roof with small windows, some of which can be seen today. There is also original painting still remaining on the underside of many of the lintels. The walls bear reliefs depicting daily rituals and processions and the king is seen offering to various deities.

Looking up in the Hypostyle Hall reveals original color and remains of 'windows'. (Photo: K.M. Jonsson)

Into the Forest.... Columns in the Hypostyle Hall. (Photo: K M.Jonsson )

The Third Pylon(3)
was also begun by Amenhotep III. From here many of the building blocks were taken to the Open Air Museum. Passing through this pylon you come to the entrance of the original inner temple outside of where Thutmose I and III erected four obelisks. Only one of them is still standing. Here is also where the second axis bends off southward towards the Precinct of Mut.

The Fourth and Fifth Pylons(4,5) were erected by Thutmose I. This is the inner and oldest part of the temple still remaining. Of two obelisks erected by Hathsepsut, one is still standing, the other one lies broken on the ground. Here were also fourteen papyrus columns which once were gilded.


Photo: egyptarchive.co.uk
The Sixth Pylon (5)
built by Thutmose III, is mostly in ruins but leads to a court with two great granite pillars, each of them wearing respectively the emblem of Upper Egypt (a stylized lotus) and of Lower Egypt (a stylized papyrus). On the north side of this court are two statues of Amun and Amaunet, and a granite barque shrine, built by Philip Arrhidaeus, on an earlier shrine from the time of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. Past this lies the place of earliest known temple to Amun(26), now totally destroyed, plundered for its stone already in antiquity. All that remains now is a large alabaster stone on which the shrine was placed.

The Festival Temple of Thutmose III (6)
Passing a central court where nothing much is to be seen, we come to this fairly well preserved building, erected by Thutmose III as a small memorial for his own and his ancestral cult, called 'The Most splendid of Monuments'. Here are various rooms and magazines as well as a great hall with columns fo which those in the middle ends in so called 'tent poles'. There are also suites of rooms for the worship of Sokar and of Re in his morning manifestation and of Amun. One of the rooms here is called the 'Botanical Garden' as the walls have depictions of animals, birds and exotic plants, probably discovered on the many campaigns of Thutmose III.

The rear walls of the Festival Temple are broken down. Passing through them you come to a couple of niche shrines set up by Ramesses II and a 'Chapel of the Hearing Ear' (29) by Hatshepsut. Such were often erected for worshippers to come and bring petitions to the gods of the temples. Here were also two obelisks, now only the fundaments remain. By the rest of the mudbrick wall, a little to the north, may be seen what is left of a small temple from the time of Osorkon IV, dedicated to 'Osiris-Hekadjet' and other small shrines. Lastly, if you pass through the crumbled wall, you will come to the 'Gem-pa-aten', the temple Amenhotep IV built during his first five years in trying to establish his new religion, and shortly before he changed his name to Akhenaten. This concludes the main east-west axis of the temple of Karnak. Next we retrace our steps towards the south, the seventh to tenth pylons and the Sacred Lake.

The tent-pole shaped columns in Thutmose III´s Festival Temple.
(Photo: Egyptarchive.co.uk)