Luxor temple
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Ipet-reset Jpt-rst Southern Harem |
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The Luxor Temple ( ancient Egyptian Ipet-reset ) is a temple complex in what is now Luxor in Egypt . It was established at the time of the New Kingdom and was called the southern harem of Amun of Karnak . It was dedicated to the god Amun , his wife Mut and their son, the moon god Chons .
The temple stands since 1979 along with the Karnak Temple and the Theban necropolis on the World Heritage List of UNESCO .
Building history
From reused building material it is concluded that a sanctuary was built here as early as the 12th dynasty . Under Pharaoh Thutmose III. the station chapel was built in the first courtyard.
At the supposed location of a sanctuary from the 12th dynasty, Amenophis III. build by his master builder Amenophis (son of Hapu) what is today the southern part of the temple with the sanctuary , pillared hall and the second courtyard. The portico was also started during his reign. Under Amenophis IV ( Akhenaten ) the temple was closed, the name of the god Amun was erased and the king built a shrine at Aton nearby . Tutankhamun continued to build the pillared hall, which was completed by Haremhab .
Ramses II had the first court complete with the mighty pylon , statues and obelisks . Nectanebo I designed the forecourt.
Alexander the Great had the sanctuary rebuilt. Instead of the four pillars that supported the roof, a chapel was built. In Roman times , the temple complex was integrated into a fortress. In the first centuries AD, four churches were built on the site.
Construction of the temple
Sphinx avenue
The temple grounds are entered from the Nile promenade ( Sharia el-Bahr el-Nil ) and first come to the forecourt of Nectanebo I. From here, an avenue flanked by sphinxes on both sides leads to the northeast. In ancient times, the avenue connected the Luxor Temple with the Karnak Temple, 2.5 kilometers away . In 2004, a large part of the avenue was still covered by the modern Luxor and a project to completely excavate it was underway. At the time of Nectanebo I, trees and flowers were planted between the sphinxes.
Courtyard of Nectanebo I.
Little has been preserved of the wall surrounding the forecourt. A Serapis chapel in the northern part of the courtyard is remarkable . It is built from dried Nile mud bricks.
Statues and obelisks of Ramses II.
In the southwest the courtyard is bordered by a large pylon . In the ancient world, two seated figures, four standing statues and two obelisks of Ramses II were placed in front of this . Of these, the two seated figures, a standing statue and an obelisk still exist today. The second obelisk has stood on the Place de la Concorde in Paris as a gift from Sultan Muhammad Ali to the King of France since 1836 . In exchange, Muhammad Ali received a tower clock for the alabaster mosque in Cairo .
pylon
The pylon is made up of two thick, high walls on either side of the entrance, the so-called towers. On the outside of the two towers, scenes from the battle of Ramses II with the Hittites are depicted in sunk relief . On the right tower is shown Ramses II during the council of war and the onslaught of the Hittites on the Egyptian camp. On the left, Ramses II pursues the Hittites who are fleeing towards the city of Kadesh . There used to be four flagpoles in the four recessed niches of the pylon.
First yard
If you pass the pylon, you enter the courtyard of Ramses II. The courtyard is surrounded by a double colonnade . It consists of papyrus bundle columns with a closed capital . In the western part there is a so-called " three-aisled station chapel " belonging to Queen Hatshepsut . The three rooms are intended for the gods Mut, Amun and Chons. The walls of the courtyard are decorated with sacrificial scenes and the procession of the sons of Ramses II. In the rear part there are statues that carry the name Ramses II, but some of Amenhotep III. originate and only changed in name.
The eastern part of the courtyard is built over with the Abu el-Haggag mosque . Below her, in a former Coptic church, is the grave of the local saint of Luxor Abu el-Haggag . The mosque stands about five meters above the temple level, as the temple was buried to this level at the time of its construction.
colonnade
If you cross the courtyard, you reach a column colonnade with 7 by 2 papyrus bundle columns with an open umbel capital . Immediately behind the entrance there is a pharaoh statue and a seating group on the left and right, representing Amun and Mut. Although they are named Ramses II, they are stylistically assigned to the 18th dynasty and thus to an earlier pharaoh . The walls of the courtyard are decorated with scenes from the Opet festival .
Second yard
At the end of the portico is the court of Amenhotep III. It is also surrounded on three sides by a double row of papyrus bundle columns with closed capital. In 1989 various statues of pharaohs, gods and sphinxes were found here during restoration work at a depth of three meters . They are exhibited in the Museum of Luxor.
Portico
In the south there is a columned hall with 4 by 8 columns identical to those in the courtyard before. The reliefs show Amenhotep III. before the gods of Thebes and his coronation. Left and right are two small chapels for the goddess Mut and the god Chons.
Imperial cult room and Holy of Holies
The door in the middle leads to a room that was converted into a tetrarch shrine in Roman times. To the left and right of the apse are two Corinthian columns . In the apse there is a passage through which one reaches a small columned hall with 2 by 2 columns. Behind it is the sanctuary, which was intended for the barque Amun. The pictures show Alexander the great before various gods. The other rooms can be reached through the room in the east.
Birthing room
From this room you go through the northern door into the so-called birth room. The reliefs on the west wall show the genesis of Amenhotep III. - from the conception of Queen Mutemwia by Amun, through pregnancy to childbirth. His accession to the throne is shown opposite . Of the rooms that adjoin in the south, only the chapel of the ithyphallic Amun-Re-Kamutef is worth mentioning.
Purpose of the temple
The temple of Luxor essentially fulfilled two functions. Once a year - on Egyptian New Year's Day - the Opet festival was celebrated. The statues of the gods Amun, Mut and Chons were brought here in portable barges from the Karnak Temple, 2.5 kilometers away. The celebration initially lasted 11 days, but was later extended to 27 days. A break was taken at the so-called station stamps and the boats parked. The destination of the Bark der Mut and the Chons were the chapels directly behind the portico. Only the amunbark was brought to sanctuary.
The second function was the union of the king with his divine Ka . It was the annual repetition - also on New Year's Day - of the deification of the king, as it was already carried out for the first time at his accession to the throne.
literature
- Dieter Arnold : The temples of Egypt. Apartments for gods, monuments, places of worship. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-215-1 .
- Ludwig Borchardt : To the history of the Luqsortempels . In: Adolf Erman , Georg Steindorff (Hrsg.): Journal for Egyptian language and antiquity . Thirty-fourth volume. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1896, p. 122-138 ( digitized version [accessed April 11, 2016]).
- Max Burchardt : The taking of Satuna . In: Georg Steindorff (Hrsg.): Journal for Egyptian language and antiquity . Fifty-first volume. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1914, p. 106-109 ( digitized version [accessed April 12, 2016]).
- Johannes G. Deckers: The wall paintings in the imperial cult room of Luxor. In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute. (JDAI). 94, 1979, pp. 600-652.
- Gabriele Höber-Kamel (ed.): Luxor Temple (= Kemet issue 1/2007 ). Kemet Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISSN 0943-5972 .
- William J. Murnane: Luxor, temple of. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 449-53.
- Richard H. Wilkinson: The world of temples in ancient Egypt. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 38062-1975-3 , pp. 166-171.
Web links
- Luxor temple. www.nefershapiland.de, April 17, 2010, accessed December 1, 2011 .
- Luxor temple in late antiquity. www.faszinierendes-aeggypt.de, accessed on May 31, 2012 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis.
- ↑ Johannes G. Deckers: The wall paintings in the imperial cult room of Luxor. Pp. 600-652.
Coordinates: 25 ° 42 ′ 4 " N , 32 ° 38 ′ 25" E