In ancient Egypt, the largest city of that era of Thebes was located on the site of the current village of Karnak, located on the eastern bank of the Nile near the major administrative center of Luxor. For several centuries, it was the capital of the entire state. It was here that the construction of the largest temple complex, known today as the temple of the god Amon in Karnak, began four thousand years ago.
The greatest of the gods of Ancient Egypt
Before you begin the story about this unique building, you should at least briefly get acquainted with the sake of whom thousands of slaves built it for several centuries. Amon occupied a dominant position among the pantheon of numerous Egyptian gods. He personified the sun - that is, the force to which all life on the banks of the Nile was subordinated.
By the heat of its rays, it turned the grain into a full-fledged spike, but it could also drain the earth, leaving a dead desert in place of a flowering cornfield. Every morning it, young and burning, ascended to heaven and, having passed its daily path, grew old and impotent fell over the horizon, to start all over again tomorrow. It was also destined for people - in the eternal cycle of life to grow old, die and be reborn in their children.
Karnak Temple
This greatest of the gods was dedicated to the Karnak Temple and Luxor. The temple, which is our story, originally consisted of three parts. The first of them was dedicated to himself, that is, the great and mighty god Amon Ra, the second to his wife Mut, who patronized all the queens who were destined to make the earth happy with their appearance on it, and, finally, the third to their son, the moon god Khons. Thus, the plan of the temple complex in Karnak initially demonstrated a number of structures located on a common axis and intended to worship this sacred triad.
Four thousand years ago, Thebes, being the capital of Egypt, was its most populous city, in which nearly half a million people lived. Numerous and victorious wars provided him with tribute from the conquered peoples and innumerable crowds of slaves. It is not surprising that the pharaohs could afford the cost of construction, a whopping even by today's standards. Both money and working hands were in abundance.
Stone annals on the banks of the Nile
The temple of the god Amon was erected in Karnak during the period from the XVI to XI century BC. e., and all the pharaohs who ruled in these centuries, tried to perpetuate their names in it, preserving their memory. Thutmose I, for example, erected numerous obelisks and statues depicting him in the image of the god Osiris. His grandson Thutmose III, who built the so-called Annal Hall, on whose walls stories about his brilliant military victories were not too modest, did not suffer too modestly. He glorified his conquests in Asia, erecting the temple of the war goddess Sekhmet in the northern part of the complex.
Numerous columns adorning the Temple of Amun Ra in Karnak are covered with scenes from the life of the pharaohs. A history spanning many centuries of life in Ancient Egypt is preserved in these stone chronicles. In addition to the rulers of the country, priests occupy an important place in their plots, whose influence and importance in public life increased with the expansion of the complex.
About the benefits of education
In this regard, a local legend is very curious, telling about how a priest dared to fight for power with the pharaoh himself. He was so successful in his work that the lord had serious fears of losing the throne. Not wanting to take risks, he ordered the soldiers to seize the priest and, as a traitor, to bring death.
But by coincidence, the royal guard came to the temple on the very day and time when the solar eclipse was due, which the priest undoubtedly knew, since he, like all his colleagues, was an excellent astronomer. Having risen at the right moment to the wall of the temple, he raised his hands to heaven, and in front of everyone ordered the sun to hide, so that all his enemies would perish in the darkness. It is not difficult to imagine the reaction of those gathered when, following his words, darkness covered the earth. The result was that the enlightened priest took the place of the pharaoh, who was killed that day by the crowd at his command.
Pharaohs - builders of the temple
The temple of the god Amon in Karnak was significantly expanded in the 13th century BC. e. Its builders during this period were the pharaoh of Seti I and his son Ramses II, who by his deeds earned the title of Great. They erected on the territory of the temple complex the Hypostyle Hall, which was able to impress with its size not only the inhabitants of those ancient times, but our contemporaries. On an area of five thousand square meters, one hundred thirty-four columns, covered with gold plates, were installed in sixteen rows.
Proceedings of Queen Hatshepsut
In the XV century BC e. the temple of the god Amon in Karnak was significantly supplemented by a female pharaoh named Hatshepsut. Continuing the work of her father Thutmose II, she erected a series of pylons in it - a gate in the form of a truncated pyramid, enlarged the temple of the goddess Mut almost one and a half times, and built a separate sanctuary of the heavenly barge Amon Ra, later called the Red Chapel. On the walls of this building, erected from black and red granite, scenes of her coronation were carved by ancient masters.
However, this sanctuary was not destined to survive to this day. A century later, it was destroyed by another lord of Egypt - Amenhotep III. The granite blocks of which it consisted were used as building material for the construction of other structures. And only much later, during the so-called Hellenistic period under Alexander the Great, the sanctuary was recreated, but in a significantly altered form.
During the reign of Hatshepsut, the temple of Amon Ra in Karnak was decorated with four monolithic stone obelisks - the largest of those that existed in Egypt at that time. One of them has survived to the present day. Carved from red granite, it reaches a height of thirty meters.
In those same years, the queen was preparing to hit the world with an even larger structure. When it began the manufacture of another monolith, the highest in the history of ancient Egypt. According to the creators, he was supposed to rise forty-one meters above the ground and weigh at least one thousand two hundred tons. But this work was not completed for a number of reasons.
Further construction of the complex
At the junction of the XIV and XIII centuries BC. e., already under Pharaoh Horemheb, three more pylons were built and the famous Sphinx Alley appeared. The rulers of the next dynasty also worked hard. They connected the temple of the god Amon in Karnak with the bank of the Nile by a road, on which both sides the ram-headed sphinxes were installed. On the territory of the complex, they erected another colonnade, two new pylons, and to top it off, erected monumental statues for themselves.
New Year's prayer to Amon
Over time, the worship of Amon acquired the character of a nationwide religion. Every year in August, when the Nile spills, its statue was solemnly taken out of the temple and taken along the avenue of sphinxes to the Luxor procession, where the deity was renewed along with the earth, revived after many months of drought.
Here the pharaoh himself in prayer addressed to the gods, and first of all to the great Amon Ra, asked for their blessings in the new year. After completing the prayer, he went out to the people who filled the entire territory adjacent to the temple, and, facing the Nile, they all sang a song of praise to the river, so generously pouring its waters on the sun-dried Karnak.
Landmark of Egypt - Amon Ra Temple
But centuries passed, and the world changed its face. The gods of ancient Egypt are gone , but the monuments of that era carefully preserved by the descendants of their builders remained under the scorching African sun. In 1979, the Karnak Temple (Amon Ra) appeared on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The description, history and today of this unique building have come under the scrutiny of the world community, and annually attract hundreds of thousands of tourists. Not surprisingly, the revenue they bring to the state is an important part of the budget.
And although for many centuries, among the other antiquities of Egypt, the Temple of the god Amon in Karnak was destroyed, the reviews of those who visited it show that even in ruins it makes an indelible impression with its grandeur. On the sites of travel companies that conduct tours to Egypt, where people who visit this amazing country share their impressions, evidence of admiration caused by such a grandiose construction and the tremendous work that was spent on its construction invariably appears.
Is it any wonder that this temple complex is one of the most popular tourist routes of our day? Hardly anywhere in the world can be found, albeit in a large, but still limited space, such an abundance of historical monuments that are separated from each other by the time of their creation for tens of centuries. In addition, in recent years, grandiose shows have been held on its territory daily, including light and sound effects and telling about the history of the temple. All this makes his visit unusually interesting and memorable.