Amon-Re enclosure

The temple is directed towards an axis is/western. The entry was formerly a quay, now dry and far from the the Nile.

The alley of the Sphinges - the dromos

This quay, which in fact gave on a diversion canal of the Nile, was followed by a Dromos bordered of sphinx, which led to the 1st pylon. The quay was in fact reserved for the great annual ceremonies given starting from the large temple of Amon (the principal ones were the Fête of Opet and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley). It comprises two small obelisks going back to Séthi {{II}} from.

The recent excavations made it possible to put at the day the unloading docks which were next to this quay and were to be used for the landing of the boats and ships tug boats for the great ceremonies when the Large Boat of Amon, the Ousirhat , borrowed the Nile to join the temple of Louxor and thus to visit its Southernmost Harem with Louxor (festival of Opet).

The dromos is bordered on each side of criosphinx between the legs of which are osiriaques statuettes carrying the cartouche of Amenhotep {{III}} in the beginning. Commemorative steles are still between certain sphinges but there was to be much more, the alley thus formed being a sacred way borrowed exclusively by the divine boats and their procession of priests.

The unit formed a large square which comprised other vaults resting places of which one dating from the reign of Achôris from was restored and is currently worth visiting. These excavations also revealed the systems of irrigation which made it possible to feed out of fresh water the floors and thickets which pushed like a garden around the dromos.

First pylon and large Court

This pylon was probably never finished. It dates essentially from; broad, it 113 meters is thick of fifteen meters. It still comprises the vestiges of a raw brick scaffolding which was used then as slopes enclosing the southern solid mass. The lintel of the monumental door either disappeared or it was never installed.

There are many monuments between the 1st and the 2nd pylon. The court thus formed was bordered of gantries which were arranged under the aforementioned bubastite, of the name of the city of the delta, in which its sovereigns were originating. The place was emptied majority of the statues and ex-votos which had been deposited there during the centuries but one can still visit certain memorials which were built by the Pharaons. One can visit in particular there:

• the temple resting place of the Boats, built under Séthi {{II}};
• the Kiosk of Taharqa, which required for its construction the withdrawal of the dromos of the sphinges, which was moved and thus rejected each side of the court;
• the temple resting place of the Boats, built by Ramsès {{III}} like a true temple " miniature" with its pylon preceded by colossi in the name of the king, a court with gantry, a hypostyle room and its triple sanctuary to receive the three divine boats of the triad Thebaine.

Second pylon

This pylon started with Horemheb, was completed by Ramsès {{II}} and its decoration finished by Ramsès {{III}}. By a size equivalent to the precedent, it is preceded by two large colossi whose door the cartridges of Pinedjem, large priest become Pharaon with, but that one agrees from the time of Ramsès {{II}}.

Today, against the northern mole of this second pylon, were stored the vestiges of monuments ruined of other parts of the temple (while waiting for a future restoration or rebuilding) like in particular of the massive remainders of Obélisque S going back from Thoutmôsis {{III}} or to broken colossi. One sees even a piece of limestone there carrying the cartridges of Aton and which must come from one of the walls of the temple of Aton that Akhénaton made build in the east of the enclosure of Amon.

This second large gate of the temple of Amon was restored during the period Ptolémaïque, in particular the large axial door which gives on the Hypostyle Big room whose decoration was remade and supplemented.

Hypostyle big room

The Big room Hypostyle was started with Ramsès {{Ier}}, around a colonnade inaugurated under Amenhotep {{III}}. The construction of the room was completed by Séthi {{Ier}} which began decoration of it that his/her famous son Ramsès {{II}} completed. The northern wing of the hall is decorated in low-reliefs, work ordered mainly under Séthi 1st while the decorations of the southern wing were ordered by his/her son, Ramsès {{II}}.

In all the ceiling of the room (disappeared today) was supported by 134 massive columns papyriformes, opened or closed, all decorated, which give to the unit the aspect of a true historiées stone forest. They are aligned perfectly in room a 102 meters length and of 53 meters width, that is to say of a surface of 5406 m ². The columns of the median axis, high, 24 meters develop a circumference ranging between ten and fifteen meters, where the Chapiteau X open in corollas. The columns of the side aisles do not measure which 14 meters height for a circumference of 6,5 meters. The whole of the building was covered with a stone roof of which the central part, highest, allowed the opening of Claustra which exempted an abundant light in the central nave while the sides remained in the half-light, hardly lit by an emanating brush of light of the rare practiced openings.

The external walls describe scenes of battle, those of Séthi 1st in north and those of Ramsès in the south. These scenes, which can not have historical reality, had can be a ritual importance. The southern wing brings back the details of the peace treaty signed between Ramsès and the Hittites, during the 21e year of the reign. This text forms the first treaty of alliance between two formerly rival secular states, being committed more not to enter in conflict one against the other and mutually supporting whatever the danger. The text defines even the extradition of the prisoners of each camp and the duty of alliance against an enemy become common.

Third pylon

Built by Amenhotep {{III}}, it was stuffed using many former monuments which there were found and re-installed in the Museum in the open air of the site, in particular the court that his/her father Thoutmôsis {{IV}} had made arrange on this site.

It is thought that, as with Louxor, Amenhotep made build in front of this large pylon a monumental colonnade which thus forms today the central alley of the Hypostyle Big room, thus completing a monumental architectural program for the temples of Thèbes, inspired by its brilliant architect Amenhotep wire of Hapou.

One found besides with the foot of this pylon of many statues of the architect in the form of one scribe to the generous plumpness, signs characteristic of his high position near Pharaon.

Court with the Obelisks

In a narrow court, six were Obélisque S, of which one still upright date of Thoutmôsis {{Ier}}. High of 21,2 meters, this one weighs a few 150 tons. It was included thereafter in the construction industries which preceded what was then the first pylon of the temple, which consisted of a court bordered of gantries and closing by a gate which was replaced by the 3rd pylon.

This space formerly formed the square of the temple of Amon at the beginning of. The other obelisks were cut down to be transferred in the large cities from the Roman Empire, or broke following seisms.

It is of this court which begins the North-South axis which thus marked a ceremonial way borrowed by the boat crowned of Amon towards the temples of Khonsou and of Mout and more in the south still that of Louxor.

Fourth and fifth pylons

The fourth pylon, in the East-West axis, was built by Thoutmôsis {{III}} and leads to a hall in which the king made register his tributes. This space formed before this reign one second court with gantry or were the obelisks of Hatchepsout, tops of almost thirty meters, of which only one remainder still upright while the second to lie crashed to pieces on the ground close to the Crowned Lake. Kings, whose Thoutmôsis primarily, thereafter refitted the entry of this part of the temple and sealing the obelisks in a wall and thus forming a new covered room that one named then the Ouadjyt .

It is, right there before the rooms arranged for the Crowned Boat of Amon, which one finds the two pillars which carry the heraldic plants of High and Low-Egypt and which also dates from the reign of Thoutmôsis.

Sanctuary of the boat of Philippe Arrhidaeus

The sanctuary dates from the time of Philippe {{III}} of Macedonia, on the site of a preceding sanctuary built by Thoutmôsis. This sanctuary was built partly by taking again the stones of old, on which one can still read some inscriptions. That of Thoutmôsis was built instead of that which Hatchepsout made build; one found it dismounted in the moles of one of the pylons of the temple and rebuilt in the museum in the open air. It is famous the red Chapelle of Hatchepsout.

Court of the Average Empire and the zone of the sanctuary of Amon

It is beyond this sanctuary of the boat that the temple of the Moyen Empire was, that one names from now on the Court of the Average Empire, so much the fine limestone buildings and of sandstone were reduced to nothing.

Only three bases remain which mark the doors of various intimate spaces of the sanctuary or the Naos, the most secret place of the temple but which remains difficult to restore.

An assumption would like that the high part of the funerary temple of Hatchepsout to Deir el-Bahari, just opposite on other bank of the Nile, is a reversed reproduction, like the reflection of a mirror, sanctuary of the Average Empire and naos of Amon.

Akhmenou or the village hall of Thoutmôsis

Finally always in the axis is, behind the zone of the sanctuary, is an extension built by Thoutmôsis.

Indeed, the successor of Hatchepsout was one of the large manufacturers of Karnak. We saw it many monuments with its name remain starting from the 4th pylon and this extension would be a kind of temple jubilaire which it made build in the middle of the sanctuary of Amon, the dynastic god. It is in this second sanctuary, that of aucuns think that it was conceived on the plan of the naos which precedes it, that is a series of room that one names the Botanical garden because of the decorative program of these rooms which indexed a kind of corpus naturalia , inspired of the fauna and flora of the countries conquered by the large king.

The unit is in enough good state because a church was installed in the hypostyle room which introduces various rooms.

Against temple or temple of the Obelisk

Thoutmôsis continued the extension of the temple towards the east which Hatchepsout with the rise in two obelisks had started which were next to the enclosing wall of the temple. It thus made cut a monumental obelisk a height exceeding the thirty meters but did not have time to make it raise on its site. It is its grandson Thoutmôsis V who completed work and the testimony of this exploit left us on a stele engraved with the foot of the monolith. The obelisk was included thereafter in a small temple built by Ramsès.

The temple dedicated also to the popular form d'" Amon which listens to the prières" , opened directly in the enclosure which at the time delimited the field of the god then. Taharka of installed in front of the entry of the temple a kiosk with columns similar to those of the large court in front of the second pylon but of less important size.

Under the following dynasties a series of small vaults dedicated to Osiris were built in the vicinity by the divine adoratrices which reigned then on Thèbes while the city was bound against the enclosure of the New Empire.

It is at the time of its enlarging by the Nectanébo of, that the temple and the whole of the vaults which were next to it found included completely in the perimeter of the temple of Amon-Re of Karnak. They built the large Eastern door then but could never complete its decoration.

Under the reign of Auguste, in the first years of the Roman Empire, the obelisk was cut down and transported to Rome to decorate the spina of Circus Maximus. It there was found broken in two pieces at the 17th century and was rectified; it is from now on visible on the place Saint Jean of Lateran.

NORTH-SOUTH axis

This axis, with its massive pylons, point towards the Enceinte Must. The major part of this site is of a restricted access, because in the course of rebuilding (a giant crane is besides places since many years and is used from there for the reassembly of the blocks of each pylon).

Pylons of Thoutmôsis & Hatchepsout

The axis was inaugurated by Hatchepsout and Thoutmôsis {{III}}. The queen indeed built a pylon, currently 8th, in front of which it set up colossi sitted which probably represented it like his/her father Thoutmôsis {{Ier}}. Like many monuments of its time, the unit was altered by its nephew and successor, large Thoutmôsis, then by its heirs later. It made build upstream pylon of his aunt to him, another large gate, the 7th pylon, in front of which it set up large colossi of which only today the feet remain, and two obelisks, which within sight of their bases which still remain in place were to be impressive. One of the two obelisks, that which was more in the west, was cut down under Constantin at the 4th century of our era and was then transported in the new capital which it founded with Byzance, in order to still decorate there the spina large circus of the city, imitating in that and repeating the gesture of Auguste, four hundred years earlier.

The pylon of Thoutmôsis thus added a monumental stage on this processional way, thus creating two courses with open sky which can accommodate the faithful ones for the ceremonies. It also made build a kiosk resting place for the boat, giving on the Crowned Lake, in the court formed by the two pylons, while the other court gave access to what was then still the square of the large temple of Amon.

It is in this court that was found at the beginning of the 20th century famous the " cachette" by Georges Legrain, then archeologist excavating and restoring the site. It comprised an incredible quantity of statues and ex-votos garaged there at the end of the period lagide thus transmitting the popular enthusiasm to us which then surrounded the sanctuaries of Karnak. For example, one discovered there close to: 17000 bronzes of various sizes and times.

Amenhotep {{II}} wire and successor of Thoutmôsis built to him also a temple resting place, one of the many stations of the boat at the time of the ceremonies but which was moved thereafter when the enclosure of the temple had a new extension more towards the south.

9th and 10th pylons

Indeed, after the period amarnienne, the Pharaons increased the space devoted to the field of Amon. The unit was completed by Horemheb at the end of then completed by the Ramsès. The various spaces ranging between these pylons thus created large course, punctuated of obelisks and royal colossi, high pylons with the chechmates decorated with streamers, the whole thus forming a monumental processional way which moved towards the southernmost temples of Thèbes.

The large door of the 10th pylon was ordered and decorated by Horemheb, although it is thought that this part was already conceived as of Amenhotep {{III}}, but that the reign of his/her son did not make it possible to continue. At all events, Horemheb finishes it during its reign and makes set up steles commemorative of its work of restorer and large colossi in front of the 10th pylon, which then becomes the southern entry of the field of Amon-Re. Since these courses one reached on the one hand the east with the districts of the priests and the stores of the temple which bordered the Crowned Lake, on the other hand the west with the temple of Khonsou and Opet.

It is in this zone that are stored, indexed and sorted, the whole of the blocks which formed the walls of the pylons as those which were discovered in their center following the example 3rd famous pylon the such Talatate S, vestiges of the monuments dedicated to Aton which were systematically dismantled by Horemheb and Ramsès with its continuation. A wall thus reconstituted partially can be admired with the Musée of Louxor.

Museum in sport

Several of the pylons of the temple of Amon downstream, indeed re-used preceding structures in particular in their filling. In the Museum in sport, located in the north-western wing of the complex, one can see rebuildings of these older structures, in particular the red Chapelle of Hatchepsout and the white Chapelle of Sésostris {{Ier}} which are the two most famous examples. But one can see an alabaster vault also there of Amenhotep {{Ier}}, a court with gantry which preceded the 4th pylon going back to Thoutmôsis {{IV}} and dismounted then hidden in the 3rd pylon that his/her son Amenhotep {{III}} built in the place. Part of a pylon that Akhénaton, then still Amemhotep V made build in the honor of Horakhty, in a still orthodoxe style, and thus going back to its first years of reign or a probable corégence with his/her father. There are also stored elements of the Average Empire coming from Karnak but also of the temple of Montou of Médamoud. One can see also there a series of blocks aligned and indexed for a future restitution of a new monument and that for the moment the archeologists restore.

This small museum, paying, a little with the variation, is visited little by the groups of tourists afférés to cross to the step of race the large Amon-Re temple. It however represents an invaluable and new testimony pious buildings which decorated the large temple at various times.

See too

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