The Temple of Karnak

The Temple of Karnak played a significant part in the Egypt of the Pharaohs. Situated in what used to be Thebes, the religious capital of Egypt, changing rulers competed in adding their own touch to the temple.

As with everything else of a religious nature, the design of the entrance is highly symbolic. It represents a cross-section of Egypt seen from the South: To the left the desert, in the middle the Nile (the entrance) and to the right the high plateau that dominates the East of Egypt. That's why the right side is higher than the left. Unlike our engineering approach of design today, symmetry was not a must - merely an option.

Inside the entrance you come to the first courtyard. It demonstrates through the mount of mud bricks against the outer wall that construction was still undergoing when the temple was finally abandoned. The bricks were used to transport the blocks of sandstone rock to their final positions - probably as a part of the outer wall.

After the outer yard you come to the hypostyle hall, which contains no less than 134 columns, 23 meters (75 feet) high, and a circumference of app. 15 meters (49 feet). This hall is a unique and an extremely beautiful work of art.

Looking up, you will see that in spite of the millennia gone by, some of the original coloring of the decorations in the hall still exist.

Through the hall, toward the holy of holies, you come to the two obelisks that are still standing. The one to the right was erected by Thutmosis I and made of pink granite. The other one was erected by Queen Hatshepsut and also made of pink granite. It is 30 meters high and weighs app. 200 tons.

Not even the portals between the different sections are without some kind of inscription. As every single pharaoh wanted to put his mark on this most important of temples, the creativity when finding places to leave marks was impressive.

Ramses II was no exception. In what is known as the Gate of Ramses II, he had his victory over the Nubians (Sudanese) depicted. Notice the very pointy beard of each prisoner? This is how one recognizes a Nubian when depicted in hieroglyphs. The chains they wear tell their own, more evident story. You find the exact same story at the Temple of Abu Simbel.

The Sacred Lake at Karnak is 120 meter (393 feet) by 77 meters (252 feet) wide. This is where the priests performed their ritual ablutions three times a day. It symbolizes the primeval sea of the Egyptian history of creation, from which all life sprang.

There were at one point nine obelisks at the Temple of Karnak - only two still stand. One of those that has fallen is today located next to the Sacred Lake.

This fallen obelisk was probably erected by Amenophis III, as it carries his cartouche (name tag).

Also next to the Sacred Lake is a giant scarab, dedicated by Amenophsis III to the God Khepri. The Egyptians believed that the Sun was pushed by a scarab on its daily crossing of the sky. It came to symbolize eternity. One unusual feature of this specific scarab: it is said that if you walk around the scarab seven times, you will never again have love problems. Consequently almost every visitor to the Temple of Karnak do the seven laps around the scarab. A personal note: It doesn't work....