Egypt Ancient Thebes & its Necropolis continue… August 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Egypt, Flight Schedule, Memorial, Museum, Restaurant, The Nile, Tour, Trip , 6commentsHawkins crossed the Nile to the necropolis. This complex of mortuary temples and tombs hewn out of the living rock served many periods of ancient Egypt and covers a large area. The whole landscape is dominated by a remarkably regular pyramidical mountain. Atop it are the remains of a prehistoric mound, predating dynastic Egypt. It is difficult for a geomantic researcher not to consider that the shape of this peak was an important factor determining the Egyptians’ initial choice of this area as a major necropolis. (more…)
Egypt Ancient Thebes & its Necropolis August 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cairo, Destination, Egypt, Hotels, Library, Memorial, Museum, The Nile , 5commentsThebes is the Greek name given to what was an ancient capital of Egypt, now most simply identified as Luxor, on the east side of the Nile about 370 miles (600km) south of Cairo. On the opposite side of the river is the great necropolis that includes the famed Valley of the Kings. (more…)
Relations Between State and Clergy April 20, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Hotels, Memorial, Museum, Travellers Cheque , add a commentWe have been aware that the temples and religious monuments ofancient Egypt were all the exclusive works of the pharaohs. There isa precise reason for this. Actually, there was only one true priest, one depositary of the divine will, one guarantor of the well-being of the god’s land, the nation: this was the pharaoh. Thus it was that all those connected with worship practices were really subalterns. Even the high priest, the only person who could enter the god’s sanctuary, was merely the pharaoh’s substitute. And just as the state functionary class grew up because the king alone found it impossible to govern a nation with such complex administrative structures, so the priesthood developed because the pharaoh could not attend to the ceremonies of all the nation’s temples. (more…)
Later Additions to the Temple of Karnak April 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, China, Egypt, Library, Lodges, Malaysia, Museum, South Africa, Thailand, The Nile, Travel Clinic , add a commentThis is a singular monument, perhaps unique among all those preserved in Egypt. Its general orientation is not east-west like the Amon sanctuary, but north-south. It is in rectangular form, divided into two parts that go along the entire length of the structure. The western part includes a colonnaded room whose minor axis is aligned with the axis of the sanctuary of Amon ; north of this room there are three chapels. The eastern section is subdivided into three parts: the southern part includes a colonnaded room surrounded by smaller rooms; the central part consists basically of three rooms aligned on their axis but oriented east-west; finally, the northern part includes a series of rooms that culminated to the north in a solar sanctuary (the same kind as we have seen in Hatshepsut’s funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri). (more…)
Egypt Temple of Karnak April 17, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cairo, Credit Card, Egypt , 5commentsIn fact, Karnak is not a temple; it is a complex of temples. Today’s visitor arrives there easily from Luxor, only a couple of miles away. We have already referred to Luxor as the modern town that grew up where Thebes was; in reality the true ancient center, the heart of the New Kingdom’s political and religious life, must have been Karnak. The first impression one has when crossing the threshold of the first pylon (there are many pylons at Karnak), and finding himself amid the ruins of what was the greatest ancient Egyptian sanctuary, is that he will not be able to make any sense out of it. Even the Giza pyramids, although mysterious looking, have an internal logic; they are closed up in themselves and one intuitively experiences them, even when we don’t understand them. Karnak does not offer this possibility. Walking along the courtyards, rooms, columns, obelisks, statues, and miles of hieroglyphic inscriptions, the visitor soon loses any capacity to link one element or monument with another. Therefore one must return to Karnak again and again. Even then, as we have warned, he must avoid searching among the monuments with aesthetic or rational criteria — in short, modern, Western standards. And we have also said that the true temple of Amon was always the sanctuary that formed the central nucleus. All the various additions made over the course of centuries have their own value per se; they are separate nuclei whose presence is independently justified by ceremonial needs, by new ideological lines, or by new links between the various divinities. (more…)
Architecture in New Kingdom Temples April 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Egypt , add a commentWe have sketched these rather detailed “blueprints” of the great New Kingdom temples so that we can now proceed to set these monuments within their broader framework. The architecture of the sanctuary embodies the rulers’ philosophy. From this, too, we see how important archaeology is for the historical reconstruction of the past, and how important a historical perspective is to archaeological research. Karnak’s complexity shows us how many different policies and patterns of behavior can be reflected in a series of construction. Each remodeling was a new expression of power and of the relationship with the gods, with the ruling class, or with the clergy. The fact that practically every sovereign, from the Middle Kingdom pharaohs to the Roman emperors, left testimony of himself at Karnak confirms the constant preoccupation with the “house” of the national god, Amon. (more…)
Tuthmosis III’s New Policies and Karnak April 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, Memorial, Museum , add a commentOn the contrary, the three rooms preceded by the hall formed the same pattern as the Twelfth Dynasty temple. In this way, Tuthmosis III reaffirmed the traditional relationship with Amon. Looking at the new temple from south to north, we see that the colonnaded hall forms a pavilion in which the royal jubilee took place. The eastern part of the temple — with the rooms of Sokaris (the funerary god) and of Amon, as well as the solar rooms — symbolically represented the fate of the king, who rises to the sun from the world of the dead. Osiris the king becomes Horus, but only through the mediation of Amon. (more…)
The Roots of the Nineteenth Dynasty April 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Destination, Egypt, Memorial, Museum, Round The World , add a commentWe must conclude our exploration of the monuments of the first of the New Kingdom’s dynasties, the Eighteenth, as well as our interpretation of how the policies of that dynasty’s rulers are embodied in those monuments. But before we move on to the monuments of the Nineteenth Dynasty, we must review one other phenomenon that will help to explain how the Nineteenth Dynasty evolved from its predecessors. This phenomenon was the presence of commoners who reached the top of the administrative hierarchy, and found themselves at the king’s side as ministers, counselors, or in some such invaluable role. We have discussed Senmut, who held such a position with Queen Hatshepsut, and we related him to his counterpart, Imhotep, King Djoser’s chief assistant back in the Third Dynasty. There were others during the Eighteenth Dynasty, perhaps none more important than the commoner Amenhotep, Son of Hapu, who held the same position in relation to Amenhotep III. (more…)
The Significance of Nineteenth Dynasty Temples April 11, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cairo, Egypt , add a commentWhat can we learn from such a brief examination of the plans of the Nineteenth Dynasty temples? If we focus on the works of Ramesses II at Karnak and Luxor, the two greatest national sanctuaries, we will note one fact above all. Despite the grandiose nature of the constructions, they do not really impinge upon or modify the basic nucleus of the temple. We have already seen how the courtyard and the hypo- style hall constitute the least secret parts of the sanctuary, those open to the public. It is thus clear that the ruler’s interest did not lie in the cult itself, but rather in developing those features that allowed for wider contact with many levels of the population. Obviously, in doing this, the pharaoh had to choose a means of expression that would be much more immediately accessible for the spectators. (more…)
Egypt’s Monuments Usurped by Foreigners April 7, 2008
Posted by dodo in : The Nile , add a commentAmong the many treasures from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods — specifically, in the form of papyrus letters and receipts a large number have survived from the Theban zone. We are thus especially well informed about the situation of the monuments of this area, especially West Thebes. We have already noted that this was a unique case of a concentration of people who worked in connection with the local funerary activities. Political motives must have been the reason for such a concentration. Amenhotep III had already had a palace built near his mortuary temple (of which only the Colossi of Memnon remain), and we have seen how this was the place where the king met his people.
West Thebes thus developed into more than a “city of the dead” ; it became a meeting ground between the king and his people. This is also demonstrated by the palaces annexed to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty royal mortuary temples. Given these conditions, it is obvious to expect West Thebes to become the center of the unofficial religion of the country, the one not connected with Amon. We may recall the local cults at Deir el-Medinet, the workers’ village. Likewise, Amenhotep, Son of Hapu, prime minister of Amenhotep III, was granted the privilege of having his mortuary ten erected in this area. (more…)
