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…)
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…)
The Temple of Luxor April 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Art Gallery, Memorial, Museum, The Nile , add a commentWe have stressed that Karnak is not a temple but a complex of temples ; certainly there are a great many constructions of every size within the boundary wall space. Moreover, other temples adorned the city of Thebes outside the boundaries of the temple of Amon, even if they can be considered “dependent” upon the Karnak sanctuary proper. Thus, to the north, an avenue of sphinxes leads to a temple dedicated to the god Montu, just as another to the south leads to the above-mentioned temple of Mut. A second avenue of sphinxes, roughly parallel to the preceding southern one, connected the boundary of Karnak to another temple, much smaller, less complex, and not nearly so rich in historical remains as Karnak. Nonetheless, for the originality of its plan, for the better state of its preservation in certain places, and for the suggestiveness of its reflection in the Nile waters, this temple is one of the most popular tourist attractions. This is the temple of Luxor. (more…)
