Conclusion

As this is my final blog post on the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, I want to just discuss the temple as a whole and what I learned about it. While last semester I took a class about Ancient Egypt, we did not spend very much time talking about this temple, over this semester I have got the chance to take a long look at it and research every part of the temple. I learned a lot. In my Egypt class we really only discussed the importance of Amun-Re and never talked about the other precincts in the temple. I found the Amunhotep 4 and Mut areas to be very interesting. I never knew that Mut's importance level changed over time and she eventually joined the Enneud. It is also interesting to learn that they completely demolished Amunhotep 4 precinct and use the stones to build more in the main temple complex. It is also amazing to think that archeologists were able to find these pieces in the wall and recreate some of the walls from the Amunhotep temple. The amount of time spent excavating this temple is amazing, and they are still finding new things today, like how they recently discovered the two mile long row of sphinxes that form a road connecting the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple. The fact that just today they could find something as amazing as that is crazy and is the reason I am interested in archaeology. You never know what you mind find.

Amenhotep 4

In the midst of countless kings ruling while believing Amun-Re was the most powerful god, there was one king who believed differently. Amenhotep 4 believed that the god Aten was the most important God in Egypt and began building temples for him. Aten was shown in Egyptian art as the beams that came out from the sun. Amenhotep believed he was the living form of the god and built these temples for people to worship him in. He built one of these temples at Karnak. After his rule and his son's rule, order was restored and Amun-Re was the most powerful god again. When Amun came back to the top all temples and art and cities built in Aten's order were deliberately destroyed. This being the case, not much is known about the temple of Aten at the Karnak site.

What is known is that there were three separate parts to the temple. The first part had no roof and had offering tables, probably to offer things to the sun. The second room was devoted to a solar cult, and the third was believed to be used as either a royal residence or a large storage area. The building was demolished, but parts of the building were used in constructing other parts of the Temple of Amun. Some of these pieces have been put back together and are on display.

Mut

The Temple complex of Amun-Re was built facing east and west, to go along with the way the sun rose and set. To the south of this complex there is an area dedicated to the Godess Mut. Mut is the Mother Godess in Egypt because Mut translates to Mother in the ancient language. However, like all Gods and Godesses in Egypt, she evolved from Mut. As different Gods got absorbed into other Gods and other ones grew to prominience, the same can be said for the Godesses. After becoming Amun's wife, Amun and Ra unified creating Amen-Ra. As Amen-Ra became the most imporant God in Egypt, Mut's importantance too grew. She was absorbed by multiple Godesses and by the end became Isis, the most important Godess in all of Egypt. Isis is the mother of the Ennead. The Ennead are believed to be the first decendents of Amun-Ra after he rose from the abyss.

Not much is known about her temple complex. It has been badly damaged and vandalized. Recent excavations did discover six hundred granite statues in the courtyard of her complex. Besides these things, there is a sacred lake in a cresent shape. The only other things they have been able to discover about the area is a Porch of Drunkenness. This was built and used by Hatshepsut to symbolize the change of the Godess Sehkmet from a lioness warrior in a time of war to a peaceful godess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precinct_of_Mut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak#Precinct_of_Mut

Heb-Sed Temple

At the southern end of the Temple Complex stands the Heb-Sed Temple. This temple was used by Amunhotep 2 to celebrate his Heb-sed. A Heb-sed was a festival used to celebrate the renewal of a King. The first know festival took place in the 4th Dynasty of Egypt. It was a festival to show the renewal of the king and celebrate his 30 years of rule. As they continued to occur some of the kings began using them to transform themselves from a king to a living god.
The Heb- Sed Temple at Karnak is not a very large one, but still did the job. By Amunhotep's reign the use of the heb-sed had completely changed. He was in his second or third year of his reign, not his thirtieth like Doser. The overall concept was still the same. It solidified the rule of a king.
The temple at Karnak was nothing special. It does not compare to large and still mainly intact ones like the one at Saqqara, but it was an addition built onto the temple complex. Almost every king from its beginning until Alexander the Great added on to Karnak, so Amunhotep did his part  by building the temple.
I think that the heb-sed was a great idea that began getting over used. When it was actually used to celebrate a milestone in a rule and not just used as a celebration because a king wanted to celebrate, then it held real meaning. The things that kings did to demonstrate their rule and power was also very interesting. My favorite thing would be that they used to run around two small structures, one in the north and one in the south, to symbolize their rule over both upper and lower Egypt.


King Doser demonstrating his rule over the north and south at a heb-sed.


Work Cited: http://www.philae.nu/akhet/HebSed.html

Obelisk at Karnak

Beyond the Hypostyle Hall and a few pillars once stood two obelisks. Obelisks are tall, thin pillars that stand on their own. A good example of a modern obelisk would be the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. Egyptians were the first to create obelisks. Their reason for creating obelisks is the same reason they do anything, to honor the god Amun-Re. Originally Egyptians built pyramids to symbolize a ben-ben stone, and to put the ben-ben stone at the top closer to the gods, so when they died they could go out of the ben-ben stone and ride their boats into the sky where the gods were. After they quit building pyramids they began building sun temples, which were similar to pyramids, only kings were not buried in them. After sun temples, they began building obelisks. Obelisks did the best job of putting the obelisk into the sky and really presented best.
Originally there were two obelisks in the temple, but one of them fell. Another one was under production, but never went up. This was an important find by archaeologists because it showed them how the obelisks were built.
In my opinion, this is just another example of how smart these Egyptians were. They were always finding better ways to express what they wanted to. Everything they did was also very detailed. The obelisks are full of artwork that at the time it was built was fully painted and beautifully crafted. I am always amazed at how well thought everything they do is and how much time they dedicate to their God's.

Work Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak

Hypostyle Hall

One of the largest features in the Temple of Amun at Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall. A Hypostyle Hall is a hall full of columns. However, in ancient they held much deeper meaning than that. To understand the meaning of the Hypostyle Hall you must understand Egyptian religion and creation mythology to an extent. In the eyes of the Egyptian royalty, Amun was the most important God. He was the creator God. The one who was responsible fore creating their land. The story of creation is that Amun rose from a muddy abyss in the middle of a swamp onto a mound, known as a ben-ben stone. As he rose, he created life. Inside temples of Amun you would always find a mound, that represented the mound in which he created the world, but that is not what is important to the Hypostyle Hall. The importance of the Hypostyle Hall to the Temple of Amun is that it represents the field of reeds he came out of the ground in. These columns were designed to look like the papyrus.
To get to the creation mound in the Temple, you had to go through the Hypostyle Hall. This held much religious meaning behind it to the Egyptians. The God Amun was so important to the Egyptians, that at this particular temple, only the Chief Priest was allowed back into the room holding the mound to see the statue of the God.
I believe that the Egyptians views on their creation and the way they worshiped their Gods was really incredible. The amount of detail and time spent to create this temple alone is astonishing, especially since this temple was not a temple for the Egyptian people to go to. This temple was specifically made as a temple for the god. Only priests of Amun and Egyptian royalty were even permitted to entering the temple.
 One of many rows of columns. At one time, these were all fully painted and much more of the detail in each was prevalent.
 As you can see, upon passing through the main entrance, the Hypostyle Hall is the second large area you enter.

Work Cited

http://www.bible-history.com/past/images/temple_of_amun_karnak9.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hypostyle_Hall

http://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/egyptian/columns-with-papyrus-shaf.html

Introduction

The Temple of Amun at Karnak was a giant temple dedicated to the creator God. The temple was under continuous construction for over 2000 years as almost every King in Egyptian history from the twelfth dynasty on built on it. There are many levels to the temple that are separated by pylons.
The amount added to the temple differed from king to king, but Rameses II built more than anyone there. He added the most popular part of the temple, which is the Hypostyle Hall. Other famous features are the pylons, the open air sun temple, the obelisks and the giant statues at the front of the temple of Rameses and his Queen.
While most of this giant temple discovered, there is still more being unearthed by archaeologists. One of the more interesting things that they have recently discovered is road of over two miles connecting the Temple at Karnak and the Temple at Luxor. This road is lined with criosphinxes on both sides.


More information can be found at: http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/egypt/karnak/karnak.html