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UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
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Karnak: Development of the Temple of Amun-Ra
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UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 1(1)
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Sullivan, Elaine
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2010-09-25
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KARNAK: DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF
AMUN-RA
‫ تطور معبد آمون رع‬:‫الكرنك‬
Elaine A. Sullivan
EDITORS
WILLEKE WENDRICH
Editor-in-Chief
Area Editor Geography
University of California, Los Angeles
JACCO DIELEMAN
Editor
University of California, Los Angeles
ELIZABETH FROOD
Editor
University of Oxford
JOHN BAINES
Senior Editorial Consultant
University of Oxford
Short Citation:
Sullivan 2010, Karnak: Development of the Temple of Amun-Ra. UEE.
Full Citation:
Sullivan, Elaine A., 2010, Karnak: Development of the Temple of Amun-Ra. In Willeke Wendrich
(ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles.
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002564qn
1132 Version 1, September 2010

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002564qn
KARNAK: DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF
AMUN-RA
‫ تطور معبد آمون رع‬:‫الكرنك‬
Elaine A. Sullivan
Karnak, die Baugeschichte des Amuntempels

Karnak, le développement du temple d’Amon-Ra
The temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor) experienced over 1,500 years of construction,
destruction, renovation, and expansion. Here we provide a detailed survey of the current
understanding of the temple’s chronological development, based primarily on published excavation
reports, as well as interpretive articles and recent discoveries at the site.
،‫ التدمير‬،‫ عام مر معبد آمون رع بالكرنك بمراحل من البناء‬1500 ‫على مدار أكثر من‬
‫ ھذه المقالة تعطي دراسة تفصيلية عن الفكر الحالي للتطور التاريخي‬.‫التجديد و التوسيع‬
‫للمعبد طبقا ً لما ورد بتقارير الحفائر و أيضا ً إستناداً إلى المقاالت التفسيرية و اإلكتشافات‬
.‫الجديدة‬
he ancient city of Thebes (or the Aten; north Karnak, the site of the temple
T Waset as it was known in
Egyptian) played an important
of the god Montu; and main/central Karnak,
with its temple to the god Amun-Ra.
role in Egyptian history, alternately serving as
a major political and religious center. The Origins of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak
city’s tombs, including those in the Valley of
The first incontrovertible evidence for the
the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, are
existence of a temple of Amun-Ra in the area
located on the west bank of the Nile, in the
of Karnak comes from the reign of Intef II in
area’s limestone cliffs. The mortuary temples
the First Intermediate Period. However,
of many of the New Kingdom kings edge the
Egyptologists initially suspected that a temple
flood plain of the Nile. The houses and
existed at the site as early as the Old
workshops of the ancient Thebans were
Kingdom. (This early temple would have been
primarily located on the river’s east bank.
dedicated to the individual god Amun rather
Little remains of the ancient settlement, as it is
than the syncretized deity “Amun-Ra,” as
covered by the modern city of Luxor. A series
existing texts refer to Amun-Ra only after the
of important temples, composing the religious
Old Kingdom.) The “chamber of ancestors”
heart of Thebes, constitutes most of what
in the Akhmenu “Festival Hall” contained a
remains today. To the south, close to the
series of reliefs (taken to the Louvre Museum
banks of the Nile, lies the Temple of Luxor.
in 1843) depicting Thutmose III offering to a
To the north, joined to Luxor by a sphinx-
select group of kings whom he honored as his
lined avenue, stand the temples of Karnak.
ancestors. Because the (destroyed) cartouche
Karnak can be divided into four sections:
of the first king in the series was followed by
south Karnak, with its temple of the goddess
that of Sneferu, the first king of the 4th
Mut; east Karnak, the location of a temple to
Karnak: Development of the Temple of Amun-Ra, Sullivan, UEE 2010 1

Dynasty, and the names of four subsequent inscription dedicated by that king. A stela
Old Kingdom kings (Sethe 1961 [Urk. IV]: from the Intef cemetery on the west bank that
608 - 610), some scholars interpreted this mentions the “Temple of Amun” also
modified king-list as a record of the rulers provides support for the contention that such
who contributed constructions to the temple, a cult place was operating prior to the Middle
thus pushing the temple’s existence back Kingdom (Gabolde 1998: 112 - 113; Ullmann
substantially to the late 3rd or early 4th Dynasty 2007: 4 - 6). Gabolde’s CFEETK excavations
(Lauffray 1979: 45). A statue of the Old since the late 1990s have refocused interest on
Kingdom king Niuserra Isi, found in Georges the earliest periods of the Amun-Ra Temple
Legrain’s excavations at Karnak in the early at Karnak. A series of small sandstone-block
1900s, seemed to denote a tie between the platforms, no larger than 10 × 10 m, were
Old Kingdom and a temple to Amun. examined. These platforms, located along the
However, the statue was not necessarily west side of the later “Middle Kingdom
dedicated to the god Amun, and whether it court,” lay below the levels of the thresholds
originally stood within a temple to this deity is of the Middle Kingdom temple of Senusret I
impossible to know (Ullmann 2007: 3 - 4). (discussed below). Gabolde dated one phase
Indeed, Luc Gabolde of the Centre Franco- of the reused sandstone in the series of
Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak platforms to the early Dynasty 11 kings based
(CFEETK) has recently identified a statue on a number of factors, including the
inscribed for Pepy I, “beloved of Amun-Ra, similarity of the stone to other constructions
Lord of Thebes,” as a Late Period votive of that period at Thebes. Other reused blocks,
offering probably found at Karnak (Gabolde a few with fragments of relief scenes, could be
2008). If the practice of depositing statues of dated to the later 11th and early 12th Dynasties.
kings from former times was common, the The platform therefore appeared to be the
presence of Old Kingdom statuary in the location of the original temple and portico of
Karnak “cachette” would not verify the Intef II, dismantled soon after his reign, and
existence of an Old Kingdom temple. replaced or rebuilt by the later 11th Dynasty
Gabolde, in his study of the Middle Kingdom kings and subsequently Amenemhat I at the
court, noted that Old Kingdom ceramics were same location (Gabolde 1999; Ullmann 2007:
completely lacking in that area, as well as in 6 - 7).
other areas of the temple investigated down to
Senusret I greatly elaborated the temple.
the presumed level of the Old Kingdom
Gabolde has recreated its form using blocks
(1999: 47). Unless new evidence is discovered,
excavated at Karnak in the early 1900s and
these findings suggest that a temple to Amun,
after. At the site of the platforms, Gabolde
or to Amun-Ra, did not exist at Karnak
visualized a limestone temple, punctuated by
before the First Intermediate Period.
four doorways with red granite thresholds. He
theorized that the new temple was much
Precinct of Amun-Ra at Karnak in the First larger than the earlier cult buildings on this
Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom location, with the core structure covering
With the ascendancy of the Intef family, the approximately 38 × 38 m (fig. 1), fronted by
first hard evidence for the presence of a an impressive portico of square pillars with
temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak appears. It was statues of the king in the pose of the god
during this period of royal ambition and Osiris (a number of these pillars are currently
display that Intef II is thought to have erected in the Cairo Museum). The building may have
a small mud-brick temple, probably with a had a rectangular, open peristyle court, leading
stone-columned portico, on the east bank for to a series of inner chambers via a central axis.
the god Amun-Ra. Evidence for this The “holy of holies” (innermost sanctuary)
construction comes from a sandstone column would have lain off-axis and could only have
found reused at Karnak that includes an been reached by making a ninety-degree turn
to the left from the central line of rooms

Senusret I added a number of small shrines
to Karnak, probably lining important
processional routes of the time. These
included a black granite naos, a limestone bark
shrine with side windows, and the famous
peripteral chapel, known as the “White
Chapel,” reconstructed in Karnak’s Open Air
Museum (Pillet 1923; Traunecker 1982;
Ullmann 2007: 10 - 12). The limestone White
Chapel, decorated with scenes of the king
interacting with Amun-Ra and other gods,
seems to have been a bark shine, constructed
to play a part in the king’s Sed Festival
Figure 1. 3D visualization of Middle Kingdom
celebrations (Lacau and Chevrier 1956).
temple with mud-brick enclosure walls and pillared
portico. Remains of mud-brick walls of the 11th or
12th Dynasty suggest that at least two
(Gabolde 1998: 18 - 21). A calcite altar, reused enclosures encircled the Middle Kingdom
and moved in the Ptolemaic Period, stood temple of Senusret I: a thick outer wall and a
inside the room and held a shrine for the thinner interior wall with attached magazines
statue of Amun-Ra (Gabolde 1995; Ullmann (Charloux 2007: pl. IV). The precinct can be
2007: 9). The later Akhmenu Festival Hall of imagined to have extended west at least to the
Thutmose III echoed the layout of this position of the present fourth pylon.
structure (Gabolde 1998; 1999: 34 - 35). Limestone doorjambs and lintels adorning the
Excavations in the court of the later sixth enclosure wall’s entrances have been
pylon have uncovered a series of mud-brick discovered at the site near the Middle
walls hypothesized to have served as a large Kingdom court, and remains of the wall itself
platform in the area. Although this platform were excavated around the temple’s perimeter
may be earlier than the temple of Senusret I, (Gabolde 1998: 114 - 115). Charles Van Siclen
the excavator suggests that the platform was has argued that a larger, bastioned mud-brick
retained and the temple’s central door opened wall (with sides of over 250 m in length)
out onto this terrace (Charloux 2007: 204). enclosed this entire temple complex, with its
western edge somewhere in front of the
François Larché recently offered an present third pylon, and its southern edge
alternative reconstruction of the Middle near the present eighth pylon. The Nile’s
Kingdom temple area. He suggests that the eastern bank would have run close by, limiting
blocks of Senusret I formed a small temple the westward expansion of the temple (Van
with a double portico, similar in appearance to Siclen 2005a: 29, 32, and fig. 4).
the contra-temple (see discussion of that
building below) of Thutmose III. He argues Van Siclen’s excavations in the court of the
that the decoration of the portico suggests an ninth pylon suggest that a small gated court
orientation eastward rather than westward, opened out from the southern edge of this
possibly towards a Nile channel located in east bastioned enclosure, outside of which stood
Karnak (Larché 2007: 409 - 421, 481). From the windowed limestone shrine of Senusret I
architectural elements found in the court and atop a brick platform (2005a: 32). These
towers of the fifth pylon, Larché also structures would be the earliest signs of a
documented the existence of a sandstone north-south processional route from Karnak,
colonnade of Senusret I. Its original location whose destination at this period can only be
is unknown, but it may have been located near speculative, as Middle Kingdom forms of the
its place of discovery (ibid.: 421 - 422). Luxor and Mut Temples have not yet been
identified (Bell 1997: 147 - 148 and note 61;

Bryan 2005: 181; Ullmann 2007: 11). It is Catherine Graindorge studied over eight
relevant to note, however, that Bryan recently hundred decorated limestone blocks and
reported finding an inscribed fragment fragments in the Karnak magazines, all of
possibly referencing a Middle Kingdom form which were excavated in various parts of the
of the Mut Temple (Bryan 2008: 37 - 38). site in the twentieth century. She then used
Ongoing work under the temple’s foundations this material to hypothesize Amenhotep I’s
may eventually produce conclusive evidence. modifications to the courts and walls
surrounding the Middle Kingdom temple.
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Second Intermediate Additions by the king included stone chapels
Period and storage rooms along the Middle Kingdom
forecourt’s north and south sides, a central
Little is known about activity in and around bark-chapel in the forecourt of the temple
the Temple of Amun-Ra during the Second bounded by two large screen walls, and a line
Intermediate Period. However, Polz’s recent of chapel niches dividing the forecourt into
study of the 17th Dynasty suggests that western and eastern halves. The inner Middle
interest in the temples of Karnak was renewed Kingdom mud-brick wall and door to the
under these Theban rulers. Statuary, stelae, forecourt, which she situates near the later
and small obelisks found at greater Karnak (or sixth pylon, were replaced by a high wall and
likely originating there) attest to a “revival” of gate with a two-columned portico. At the
cult activity at Karnak at the beginning of the temple’s main western door, the location of
dynasty (Polz 2007: 77 - 81, 374 - 375). the later fourth pylon, Graindorge argued that
Van Siclen’s work around the later eighth a new large gate was erected. The mud-brick
and ninth pylons provides evidence that enclosure wall immediately surrounding the
temple-building activity continued in the late north, east, and south walls of the Senusret I
Second Intermediate Period. According to his temple was replaced with a limestone
reconstruction, at the end of the 17th Dynasty enclosure (Graindorge 2002).
or the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, the Amenhotep I adorned Karnak with a
southern court along the Middle Kingdom number of new bark-shrines. Traditionally,
temple’s enclosure wall was renovated. A new scholars assumed that the king’s calcite chapel
pylon entrance was added to the south, and a served as Karnak’s central bark-shrine until
columned structure with a ramped entrance the reign of Hatshepsut (Blyth 2006: 35 - 36).
was added along the court’s east wall (Van Graindorge argues, more recently, that the
Siclen 2005a: 33 - 35, fig. 8). central bark-shrine was made of wood and
Excavations in the court of the tenth pylon that the calcite bark-chapel in fact lay further
demonstrate that the area south of the to the west within the temple complex. A
hypothesized temple enclosure of the Middle second shrine, an exact copy of Senusret I’s
Kingdom contained domestic remains from limestone White Chapel, probably remained
the Second Intermediate Period (Azim 1980: outside the temple’s western gate, along with
161). These findings support the contention its precursor (Graindorge 2002). The position
that this area was still part of the secular city of these shrines would have accentuated the
of Thebes until its inclusion in the temple north-south axis route of the temple, an area
precinct under Horemheb in the late 18th also attended to by the king. He seems to
Dynasty. have rebuilt part of the south mud-brick
precinct wall, enclosing the small Middle
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Early 18th Dynasty Kingdom court there within the larger temple
complex. A new pylon was added, and a
Recent work highlighting the changes at colossal statue of Amenhotep I was placed in
Karnak during the reign of Amenhotep I has front of what must have been at that time the
dramatically increased our knowledge of the temple’s principal southern entrance (Van
temple at the start of the 18th Dynasty. Siclen 2005a: 35 and fig. 10).

Figure 2. 3D visualization of fourth pylon with fasciculated columns and standing Osiride statues of
Thutmose I between the seated statues of the king.
The construction efforts of Thutmose I had use the temple as a means of demonstrating
a great impact on the arrangement of the their divinely ordained selection as king. The
temple for years to come. Scholars have enhancements of Thutmose I highlight this
generally attributed both the fourth and fifth change: among his contributions to the
pylons to the king, as well as a corresponding temple was the addition of a wadjet hall, where
stone enclosure wall, which together still form coronation rituals took place with the god
the core area of the temple (Björkman 1971: Amun-Ra sanctioning the choice (Golvin and
61). Thutmose I originally lined the court of Goyon 1987: 44).
the fifth pylon with a portico of 16
The wadjet hall was originally an open-air
fasciculated columns (Larché 2007: 446).
court between the new fourth and fifth pylons
By erecting the first pair of granite obelisks of the king. A number of reconstructions of
at Karnak in front of the fourth pylon (the the hall have been made, including Ludwig
temple’s main gate at the time), Thutmose Borchardt’s often-reproduced design: a single
began an association of obelisks with the god portico lining the east edge of the fifth pylon,
Amun-Ra that may have bolstered the ringing the entire new stone wall of the
divinity’s rising universality (Bell 2002: 18). temple (Carlotti and Gabolde 2003: 255).
His act was emulated and outperformed (with More recently, however, Jean-François
taller and larger obelisks) by a number of 18th Carlotti and Luc Gabolde have proposed,
and 19th Dynasty rulers. based on their excavations at Karnak, a new
interpretation of the phases of construction of
Politically, Karnak took on new importance
this hall, as well as its general form. In the
in the 18th Dynasty, as the pharaohs began to

reign of Thutmose I, Carlotti and Gabolde positioned in the new “festival court” of the
identified two major periods of construction. king. The chronology of its destruction is not
The first consisted only of the addition of defined, but modified inscriptions show it
rectangular niches in the east face of the must have been dismantled between the
fourth pylon for the placement of Osiride ascension of Hatshepsut to the kingship and
statues of the king. In the second phase (fig. her proscription at the end of the reign of
2), larger Osiride statues were placed lining Thutmose III (Gabolde 2005).
the wall between the niches. Fasciculated
A painted scene from the Theban tomb of
sandstone columns with inscriptions of the
Neferhotep (TT 49) implies that at some time
king were added to the four sides of the hall,
in the 18th Dynasty, a giant T-shaped basin
forming a covered peristyle to protect the
connected to the Nile by a canal was cut on
exposed statuary (Carlotti and Gabolde 2003:
the west side of the temple. A rectangular
284 - 286).
quay is depicted as flanking its eastern edge
Thutmose II added a new pylon to the west (Gitton 1974). If the basin was located in the
of the old temple entrance (later torn down vicinity of the later second pylon, as Michel
for the construction of the third pylon, so it Gitton suggested in his reconstruction of
does not figure in the pylon numbering Karnak in the reign of Hatshepsut (1974: fig.
system at Karnak), creating a large “festival 1), the Nile must have shifted westward from
court,” enclosing the obelisks of Thutmose I its location in the Middle Kingdom. It is
within the building, and establishing a new perhaps this shift that allowed the westward
western gate to Karnak. Along the hall’s south expansion of the temple in the New
side, a small pylon entrance led to the Kingdom. The presence of a canal and basin
constructions along the temple’s southern may equally have limited further movement of
axis. Gabolde has used blocks found in the the temple west at this time.
third pylon to reconstruct the appearance of
The wadjet hall would be dramatically
the inscribed doors, side walls, and small
changed during the reign of Hatshepsut. The
pylon of the court (Gabolde 1993).
queen removed her father’s numerous stone
Thutmose II commissioned a pair of red columns and replaced them with five gilded-
granite obelisks, inscribed fragments of which wood papyriform wadj-columns (wadj being
have been found at Karnak, presumably for the Egyptian term for papyrus). In the center
placement in his new hall. Gabolde has of the hall she erected two red granite obelisks
reconstructed (on paper) one of these (one remains standing today) with electrum
monoliths. The preserved inscriptions of the overlay (fig. 3). These tall monuments
king show that the monument originally prevented her from roofing the hall
belonged to him, but that he must have died completely, but she covered the side aisles of
before it could be completed and raised, as the hall with a wooden ceiling (Carlotti and
Hatshepsut added her own inscription, with a Gabolde 2003: 289 - 291). The queen’s
dedication to her father, Thutmose I. Two obelisks were dedicated to the celebration of
socles found subsumed by the third pylon and her Sed Festival in the 16th year of her reign
its gate likely mark the location of these (Bell 2002: 21 - 22).
obelisks (Gabolde 1987).
Hatshepsut transformed the very core of
Tura limestone blocks probably recovered Karnak, removing the Osiride portico of the
from the “cachette court” provide evidence Middle Kingdom temple and most of the
that Thutmose II had constructed a two- forecourt constructions of Amenhotep I,
roomed bark-shrine for the temple, similar in including his entrance gate and bark chapels
form to the later “Red Chapel” of Hatshepsut. (Carlotti 1995: pl. V). To the front of
The bark shrine may have stood in the future Senusret’s temple, she appended a suite of
location of the Red Chapel, in front of the rooms, her “Palace of Maat” (Gabolde 1998,
Senusret I temple, or it may have been 1999). The queen ordered a beautiful two-

Figure 3. 3D visualization of one of Hatshepsut’s obelisks in the wadjet hall during the queen’s reign.
roomed bark chapel of rose quartzite and identified by Gabolde as part of a multiple-
black diorite, the Red Chapel, as a showpiece roomed structure (named the Netjery-Menu)
for Amun-Ra (Burgos et al. 2006, 2008; Lacau dated to the early co-regency of the queen.
and Chevrier 1977: 23 - 25). In their recent Relief scenes and inscriptions depict
republication of the chapel, CFEETK Thutmose II, Hatshepsut, her daughter
scholars concluded that the chapel’s Neferura, and Thutmose III involved in the
placement was, as traditionally thought, within temple’s daily ritual. The original location of
the Palace of Maat (Burgos et al. 2006: 7 - 8, this structure remains unknown, but the reuse
418 - 419; 2008). As the insertion of the of a few of its dismantled blocks in
chapel into the Palace of Maat would only foundations for Hatshepsut’s eastern obelisks
have been possible if renovations to the and Thutmose III’s Akhmenu (discussed
palace’s original rooms (including the removal below) could suggest it was located in the
of a number of the walls on the northern side) eastern section of the temple and removed for
took place during the reign of the queen, it the construction of these later monuments
seems that Hatshepsut re-envisioned these (Gabolde 2005).
rooms expressly to expand the area for her
Another recently rediscovered monument of
Red Chapel, finished only sometime around
the queen’s was composed of a number of
year 17 of her reign (Carlotti 1995; Nims
limestone niches dedicated to the royal
1966).
statuary cult. These niches, also dated to the
Over 200 limestone blocks recovered early years of the queen’s co-regency, were
primarily from the “cachette court” have been seemingly removed before she ascended to

the throne as king. Similar in size to the line Karnak experienced another period of vast
of chapel niches constructed in front of the change during the reign of Thutmose III. The
Middle Kingdom temple by Amenhotep I, the greatest addition was a huge temple, the
Hatshepsut niches may have been located Akhmenu (“the most glorious of monuments”)
close by, although the orientation of the relief Festival Hall, placed behind Karnak’s east
scenes suggests they would have stood wall, built after the king’s 23rd year. The
perpendicular to (and not in line with) the structure consisted of a large pillared hall
earlier niches (Gabolde 2005). leading to a set of three shrines, a series of
rooms dedicated to the god Sokar, a hall
The queen may have ordered the
decorated with relief scenes of flora and fauna
construction of another chapel to Amun-Ra,
observed during the king’s foreign military
the location of which is also unknown, but
campaigns, a chamber with niched walls that
whose name, the set-djeseret, suggests it was
served as the main shrine of the divine image,
located in a “sacred place” (i.e, the central,
and an upper sun-court. The exact cultic
protected areas) of the temple (Gabolde
nature of the temple remains elusive, but it
2005).
may have held ceremonies for the
Hatshepsut placed another pair of obelisks regeneration of the king on earth (Bell 1997:
at the eastern edge of Karnak, outside the 158; Carlotti 2002; Pécoil 2000). A door along
stone enclosure walls of Thutmose I. the temple’s southwest corner had previously
Although now destroyed, the obelisks are been considered the primary entrance to the
mentioned in a quarry inscription at Aswan Akhmenu; however, recent work by CFEETK
and depicted in the queen’s temple at Deir el archaeologists has uncovered an axial
Bahri (Habachi 1984: 60 - 63, 68). Luc doorway in the temple’s eastern wall as well
Gabolde and scholars from the CFEETK (Larché 2007: 444 - 445).
have been working on documenting pieces
A new stone enclosure wall was constructed,
from these obelisks, and they have
enclosing the Akhmenu in the greater temple
reconstructed their appearance as displaying a
complex. The obelisks of Hatshepsut were
central line of hieroglyphs, flanked by scenes
incorporated into a small contra-temple along
of Hatshepsut (and sometimes her nephew)
the enclosure’s eastern wall. Contra-temples,
with the god Amun-Ra (Gabolde 2007).
usually appended to the rear wall of a temple
A large stone pylon, the eighth, was and opening outward, provided a location for
constructed by the queen to the south of the those not allowed within the temple proper
temple, along what appears to have been the (such as the public) to interact with the
established north-south processional route. divinities. Often statues of the king were
The calcite bark-shrine of Amenhotep I, located at these shrines, and people would
previously standing in the main or western petition the images to act as intermediaries
section of the Middle Kingdom temple, may with the gods on their behalf. At the center of
have been moved just north of her new pylon Karnak’s contra-temple stood a large calcite
along this route (Blyth 2006: 36). At present, naos with a dyad of Thutmose III and the god
the destination of the southern processional Amun-Ra (although it originally may have
way can positively be identified as the temples depicted Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, with
of Mut in south Karnak and Amenemope in the queen’s figure later recarved) (Bell 2002:
Luxor. Reused blocks from the queen’s 142 - 144; Brand 2007: 60 - 61; Varille 1950:
temple of Mut have recently been discovered 23, note 43).
during excavations at that site (Bryan 2005),
Thutmose III also added a stone pylon (the
and the Thutmoside temple and an
seventh) and connecting walls between the
accompanying triple bark-shrine at Luxor are
queen’s pylon and the temple wall along the
known to have played a role in the queen’s
southern processional route (fig. 4). In front
Opet Festival ceremonies (Bell 1997: 147 -
of the pylon, he raised red granite obelisks
149; Van Siclen 1987: 159 - 160, fig. 2).

To the north of the main precinct, the king
erected a small sandstone temple to the god
Ptah (possibly replacing an earlier one of
mud-brick). A hall with two columns fronted
the temple’s triple sanctuary (Barguet 1962: 13
- 14; PM 1972: 195 - 202).
Within the central core of Karnak,
Thutmose III ordered significant remodeling.
Behind the fifth pylon, he had a smaller pylon
erected, the sixth, creating a small pillared
court in front of the Palace of Maat. He
replaced the limestone chapels of Amenhotep
Figure 4. 3D visualization of seventh pylon with I along the sides of this court with sandstone
Thutmose III’s obelisks. replicas whose decoration commemorated the
earlier king (Björkman 1971: 77 - 78). Walls
(Habachi 1984: 73 - 77). Along the east wall were appended to the east faces of the fifth
of the eighth pylon’s forecourt, he placed a and sixth pylons and a granite gate was
calcite bark-shrine surrounded by peripteral erected between the pylons, creating a
pillars. This may have replaced the earlier corridor along the temple’s central axis to the
calcite shrine of Amenhotep I at the same Palace of Maat (Arnaudiès-Montélimard 2007;
location, as Thutmose III gave his shrine an Björkman 1971: 77 - 78). Although he appears
identical name (Björkman 1971: 58; Nims to have continued the decoration of
1955: 113). Hatshepsut’s unfinished Red Chapel, the king
A huge sacred lake was cut into the space eventually removed and dismantled the
southeast of the temple. This may have been chapel, with the front and rear doors reused in
an expansion of a pre-existing lake at the same an interior wall of the palace’s northern suite
location. To the east of the lake a large mud- of rooms and the new corridor behind the
brick enclosure wall with exterior bastions was sixth pylon (Burgos et al. 2006: 11, 103 - 105;
constructed, traditionally assigned to Dorman 1988: 54 - 65). Some of the palace’s
Thutmose III (although it may actually be interior walls were removed, either by the
older). The wall was enlarged and renovated king, or earlier, by Hatshepsut, to allow the
in at least three phases, the last of which may emplacement of the central bark-shrine. The
date to as late as the 25th Dynasty (Lauffray Red Chapel was replaced with a new granite
1995a). Recent excavations have uncovered shrine, of similar size and shape, and a new
the continuation of the wall to the south, entrance portico was designed for the Palace
demonstrating that it indeed extended of Maat (Carlotti 1995; Carlotti and Gabolde
southward to the area of the later Nectanebo 2004; Dorman 1988: 56 - 65; Legrain 1916: pl.
enclosure wall (Laroze and Arnaudiès 2007: VII: figs. 1 - 3).
99 [#80] and pl. 1; Lauffray 1995a: 259, 261, Possibly due to damage incurred in the
fig. 2). During work in the northeast part of wadjet hall from heavy rainstorms, Thutmose
the precinct (the “Osiris sector”), François III began a total reworking of the space (fig.
Leclère exposed part of a bastioned wall of 5). A stone gateway was erected around the
the 21st Dynasty (dated by stamped bricks) obelisks of Hatshepsut, completely
that he believed followed the northern line of encapsulating their lower portions. He
the earlier 18th Dynasty wall at the same ordered the removal of the wooden wadj-
location. This section of the wall exhibited columns, intending to replace them with six
later repairs as well (Grimal and Larché 2007: sandstone columns in the north half of the
29 - 30; Leclère 1996: 12). hall and eight in the south. The interior walls
of the court were covered with a skin of

Figure 5. 3D visualization of the wadjet hall after modifications of Thutmose III.
stone, obscuring the original statue recesses of recently proposed a radical new interpretation
Thutmose I. Before his death, it appears that of the construction chronology of the early
the king only had time to roof the northern 18th Dynasty (Burgos et al. 2008: 81 - 122, 332
part of the hall with sandstone slabs, - 341; Larché 2007). Contrary to the
supported by his network of pillars, gateway, traditional understanding of this period,
and court walls. Amenhotep II finished the Larché’s hypothesis advocates the following
work, raising the eight southern columns and main points: Amenhotep I was primarily
their roof (Carlotti and Gabolde 2003: 293 - responsible for the dismantling of the
295). Senusret I temple (presumably due to the
degradation of the stone); Amenhotep I built
Thutmose III raised his own pair of granite
a new temple for Amun-Ra oriented to the
obelisks between those of Thutmose I and II
west (possibly because of the loss of the
in the festival court before the fourth pylon.
branch of the Nile in east Karnak) in the so-
The bases of these obelisks have been
called “Middle Kingdom court”; the fourth
discovered bordering the east side of the third
pylon and its wadjet hall (traditionally assigned
pylon (Gabolde 1987: 151, pl. II). Study of
to Thutmose I), the first pair of obelisks
fragments of these obelisks show they were
before the fourth pylon (inscribed for
inscribed by a number of later kings (Gabolde
Thutmose I), and the precursor of the third
2007).
pylon and its festival court (both traditionally
We have so far described here the traditional assigned to Thutmose II) were all built or
view of the chronology of the core area of the completed by Hatshepsut; and the obelisks of
Amun-Ra temple. François Larché has the wadjet hall were encased with a gateway of

stone by the queen herself (not Thutmose
III), for technical or cultic reasons. According
to Larché’s hypothesis, Thutmose I and
Hatshepsut destroyed most of the temple of
Amenhotep I, with Amenhotep III eventually
removing what remained in the western
section of the “Middle Kingdom court.”
Larché bases his argument on the results of
recent excavations at the temple, including
foundation deposits that suggest Hatshepsut
intended or began a number of renovations
ascribed to Thutmose III (Burgos et al. 2008:
84). Figure 6. A scene of Queen Hatshepsut in the
“Palace of Maat.” The queen’s figure, as well as her
The Proscription of Hatshepsut name in the yellow cartouches, has been carefully
chiseled away.
It is impossible to discuss the work of
Thutmose III at Karnak without mentioning under the new walls were carefully chiseled
the proscription of his aunt, Queen away, but the scenes were covered over before
Hatshepsut, which took place sometime after the entire program was recarved, suggesting
year 42 of the king’s reign (the reign includes the proscription had occurred quite recently
his more than 20 years of co-rule with the (fig. 6).
queen). A number of changes, such as the
bricking up of the queen’s obelisks, took place Thutmose III’s “annals” (also covering the
substantially before the proscription (Nims vestibule behind the sixth pylon) described
1966: 100). They appear to relate to military campaigns conducted during his 22nd
modifications in the temple’s form and do not through 42nd years on the throne, and their
necessarily reflect animosity towards the commemoration therefore could not have
king’s co-regent (recent work by Larché, happened prior to his 42nd year. The carving
mentioned above, suggests the queen may of the “annals” may have accompanied the
have been responsible herself for this placement of a new granite bark shrine, dated
modification). The alterations to Hatshepsut’s to year 45 of his reign (Dorman 2005: 268 -
monuments at Karnak from late in Thutmose 269). The chronology of these changes
III’s reign included the erasure of her name suggests that the proscription against
(the names of Thutmose I or II being carved Hatshepsut was not the cause of the
in its stead), the careful modification of modifications in the wadjet hall, nor the reason
images of the queen, and only the occasional for the removal of her bark shrine (Dorman
aggressive destruction of her monument or 1988: 56 - 65). One can instead view most of
image (Dorman 2005: 267 - 268). The obelisks Thutmose III’s alterations at Karnak as part
of the queen, then enclosed in a stone of a long tradition of temple transformation in
gateway, were left intact. The erased which Hatshepsut herself participated. It was
depictions of the queen on the eighth pylon only at the very end of his rule, after many of
were only recarved under Amenhotep II. his changes had been initiated or carried out,
Scenes on the Red Chapel were defaced after that her name and image were deemed worthy
it had been dismantled and its blocks left to of being eradicated.
sit unused within the temple precinct for an
unknown period of time (Dorman 2005: 268; Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Mid-18th Dynasty
Van Siclen 1989). Within the Palace of Maat, The renovations of later kings have obscured
the king added new sanctuary walls along the many of Amenhotep II’s contributions to
north side of the bark chapel inscribed with Karnak. Van Siclen, who has studied the so-
his famous “annals.” The figures of the queen

called “edifice of Amenhotep II” on the east
side of the court of the tenth pylon, has
demonstrated that the present structure is
composed of blocks from multiple
monuments of Amenhotep II originally
located south of the eighth pylon. These
included a pillared portico and a bark station
with a pillared façade. The buildings were
seemingly pulled down and the blocks reused
in a new structure when Horemheb appended
the ninth and tenth pylons and their courts
onto the southern processional route (2005a:
27, 39, fig. 14; Van Siclen 2005b: 187 - 189).
Amenhotep II originally adorned this new
court with a small pylon and a colossal statue
of himself, creating another new southern
entrance to the temple (Van Siclen 2005a: 39 -
41, figs. 14, 15). This pylon too would be
swept away by Horemheb during his erection Figure 7. The chapel of Amenhotep II
of the ninth pylon. reconstructed in Karnak’s Open Air Museum. The
faux pink-granite posts flanking the chapel show a
As mentioned above, Amenhotep II possible context for the chapel within the festival
finished the construction on the southern court.
section of Thutmose III’s wadjet hall. To the
east of this hall, along the narrow corridor Jean-François Carlotti. He suggests that the
leading to the Akhmenu, stood a small chapel stood between this wall and the
structure with a central shrine and southern entrance to Thutmose II’s festival
surrounding square piers. This likely court. It was paired with a second shrine of
functioned as a “station of the king,” a place the king, this one of red granite, each of
for the king or sacred bark to pause during which stood against the court’s outer walls
festival journeys. The building has not been (on opposite sides), opening inward. Short
firmly dated, but the decoration of the walls flanking the sides of the chapels and the
corridor was accomplished under Amenhotep northern and southern walls of the small court
II (Van Siclen 1986: 41). created two small rooms along the sides of
each chapel. Both areas would have been
The king also added an inscribed calcite
covered by a pillared portico (Carlotti 2008).
chapel to the festival court of Thutmose II.
An initial study of the structure’s original In the next reign, Thutmose IV added a
form and position suggested that it had stood vividly painted sandstone double peristyle to
within a surrounding colonnade, either within the festival court inscribed for Thutmose II
the court of the seventh pylon, or bisecting (Bryan 1991: 167 - 169; Letellier 1979, 1991).
one of the walls of the festival court (Van About one thousand blocks have been
Siclen 1986). However, details learned during recovered at Karnak and reassembled in the
the recent reconstruction of the chapel in Open Air Museum (fig. 8). The original
Karnak’s Open Air Museum led François position and layout of the columns is at least
Larché to believe it was instead wedged partly known from remains of the east side of
between the obelisks inscribed for Thutmose the peristyle that were left in situ (Larché and
I in that court, opening eastward (fig. 7) Grimal 1993: viii). The king placed a calcite
(Larché 2007: 477 - 480). The identification of bark-shrine, quite similar to the calcite shrine
a wall bisecting the court of the seventh pylon of Amenhotep I, within the renovated hall
has led to an alternative reconstruction by (Bryan 1980: 228).

Figure 8. The double peristyle of Thutmose IV reconstructed in Karnak’s Open Air Museum.
East of the Amun-Ra Temple proper, Red Chapel of Hatshepsut all fell victim to the
Thutmose IV erected an obelisk originally renovations (Lauffray 1979: 49).
decorated and transported to the temple by
Amenhotep III began construction on a
Thutmose III. The red granite monolith had
new pylon (the tenth) to the south of
apparently languished on the ground for many
Hatshepsut’s eighth pylon, extending the
years. He added lines of inscriptions around
southern processional route towards the Mut
those of his grandfather and raised the obelisk
Temple. While building was still at its
in the area of Karnak particularly focused on
beginning stages, he had two colossal statues
the worship of the sun. Unlike all the other
of himself placed flanking the pylon entrance.
obelisks at Karnak, this “unique” obelisk was
With only a few courses completed on the
intentionally placed alone (Bell 2002: 23 - 25;
pylon, the king must have died, as
Habachi 1984: 112 - 114).
construction halted and was not to be
Amenhotep III’s initial work at Karnak was resumed until the reign of Horemheb (Azim
a continuation of the activities of his father 1982).
centered on the festival court of Thutmose II.
Two other important structures built by
He finished the decoration on his father’s
Amenhotep III, both of whose exact location
shrine and likely added a northern door to the
within the precinct remains unknown, attest
mud-brick precinct wall aligned with the hall’s
to some of the less-documented aspects of the
north-south axis (Bickel 2006: 12 - 13). Later,
temple’s role in the city as a center of storage
he dramatically re-envisioned the temple,
and production. Sandstone blocks from the
tearing down the pylon erected by Thutmose
“granary of Amun” have been found reused
II and destroying most of the festival court
as fill in the towers of the second pylon.
west of the fourth pylon. He built a new pylon
Contemporary Theban tomb scenes portray
to the east, the third pylon, using stone blocks
the granary as a structure with multiple
of the removed structures in its foundation
rectangular rooms, each heaped high with
and fill. The western half of Thutmose IV’s
mounds of grain. A second building, a shena-
peristyle, his calcite bark-shrine, the limestone
wab, was the site of the preparation of temple
White Chapel of Senusret I, the calcite chapel
offerings. Parts of an inscribed stone door
of Amenhotep I, and the loose blocks of the

from this building were uncovered near the Karnak. Shortly after, the king decided to
ninth and tenth pylons, and the shena-wab may leave the city of Thebes and move the center
have been located in the southeast quarter of of cult, the royal residence, and his burial site
the precinct (Bickel 2006: 14 - 19, 22). to Middle Egypt, to a city he named
Akhetaten (modern day Tell el-Amarna). The
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Late 18th Dynasty wealth of the Amun-Ra Temple at Karnak
was diverted to building projects for the new
Amenhotep IV began his reign continuing his
city, and the temple itself was closed (Redford
father’s projects at Karnak and he either
1984: 137 - 142).
added or decorated a vestibule for the third
pylon (Sa'ad 1970). Quickly, however, the king After Akhenaten’s death, the boy king
shifted his focus to constructing a jubilee Tutankhamen reopened many temples and
complex in east Karnak. A number of major reinstituted construction and decoration
structures were built using the new projects at Thebes (Redford 1984: 205 - 211).
construction material of choice: small, easily A series of sphinxes originally inscribed by
portable sandstone (talatat) blocks (Redford this king and his successor, Aye, line the
1984: 64). The location of most of the processional way to the Mut Temple in the
structures remains unconfirmed, but the Gem- south. Initially anthropomorphic, the sphinx
pa-Aten was discovered east of the Amun-Ra heads were replaced by Tutankhamen with
precinct in the 1920s. The western part of the carved heads of rams, and set up in this
building, the only section so far substantially location. The male and female sphinxes seem
uncovered, formed a rectangular open court originally to have represented Amenhotep
lined by a covered colonnade with square IV/Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and they
piers. The temple was enclosed by its own presumably originated in east Karnak (Cabrol
mud-brick enclosure (Redford 1984: 102 - 2001: 24 - 25, 221 - 227; Murnane and Eaton-
105). Huge androgynous statues of the king Krauss 1991).
and his wife Nefertiti stood against each With the ascent of Horemheb to the throne,
column (Arnold, Dorothea 1996: 18 - 19). the Amarna Period officially ceased, and this
One of the king’s earliest temples, the “Great ruler’s modifications of Karnak show a
Benben of Ra-Horakhty,” and a second conscious attempt to eradicate the memory of
structure, the Hut-Benben (which, from its Akhenaten and his family. Horemheb
decoration, appears to have belonged solely to launched an assault against the Aten and
the queen), are posited to have stood near the within the first ten years of his reign he
“unique” obelisk of Thutmose IV (Arnold, ordered the Karnak structures pulled apart,
Dorothea 1996: 39; Redford 1984: 72 - 78; block by block, to be reused in the
Vergnieux 1992: 191 - 200, pls. 58 - 59, 67). foundations and fill of his own building
The Rud-Menu and the Teny-Menu (whose projects. The remains of these temples have
decoration suggests it included a royal since been found in Horemheb’s new
podium, a “window of appearance,” and a sandstone constructions, the second and ninth
series of gateways leading to an open-air pylons, as well as within the sandstone towers
platform for the worship of the Aten) may of the tenth pylon, which he completed atop
have bordered the Hut-Benben to the east the foundations of Amenhotep III (Azim
(Vergnieux 1992: 203 - 204, pl. 67). 1982; Lauffray 1979: 111, 147; Redford 1984:
Sometime in his fifth regnal year, 228). He also added an inscribed red granite
Amenhotep IV changed his name to gate to the tenth pylon entrance and a series
Akhenaten and launched a fervent attack on of walls connecting pylons eight, nine, and
the existence of gods other than the solar ten, forming a new southern processional
deity Aten (Allen 1996). Amun was a special (Barguet 1962: 243 - 248, 254).
target, and his name and figure were effaced The addition of the second pylon extended
from temples throughout Egypt, including at the Amun-Ra Temple farther west, and its

construction would have necessitated the Goyon 1987: 44). The pharaoh erected a
filling in of the existing T-shaped basin and massive hypostyle hall with 12 sandstone
canal fronting the temple. Perhaps this move columns supporting a central nave and 122
westward was prompted by the river’s sandstone columns filling the side aisles. It
continuing shift away from the temple. was roofed with sandstone, and light entered
the hall through clerestory stone window grills
Horemheb destroyed the court of
(Brand: The Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall
Amenhotep II during his reworking of the
Project). That Sety I—and not any of his
southern approach to the temple, but he
predecessors—originally constructed the
utilized many of the blocks to create a pillared
hypostyle hall is supported by examinations of
structure set on a platform within the eastern
the building. Peter Brand observed that the
wall of the court of the tenth pylon. The
earliest inscriptions on the clerestory windows
building, the “edifice of Amenhotep II,” was
and architraves of the central colonnade date
designed as a parallelogram, its axes adjusted
to this king’s reign. By studying the methods
to reflect the line of the processions passing
by which the hall was decorated (which for
before it (Lauffray 1979: 143; Van Siclen
these highest places was achieved before the
2005a: 42).
mud-brick construction ramps were
Despite the fact that Tutankhamen had removed), Brand has shown that the original
dedicated his statuary and reliefs throughout carving of the area must have been done
the country to the traditional gods, Horemheb immediately following the placement of the
recarved many of the works of that king in his roof and clerestory blocks, thus during Sety I’s
own name. At Karnak, this included the reign (Brand 2000: 201 - 219, plans 2 - 3).
cartouches of Tutankhamen (and Aye) on the
During his lifetime, Sety’s artisans inscribed
socles of the sphinxes along the avenue from
the northern half of the interior of the hall
the tenth pylon to the Mut Temple (Barguet
with beautifully carved relief scenes depicting
1962: 242; Cabrol 2001: 226; Murnane and
cult activity (Brand 2000: 193, plan 1). The
Eaton-Krauss 1991).
vestibule of the third pylon, now enclosed
within the hall, was altered. The smiting
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the 19th Dynasty scenes of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten on its
During his short reign, it seems that Ramesses north wall were covered over with stone
I only had time to complete a few small blocks (Sa'ad 1970). On the north exterior
projects and decorate the works of wall, the king’s battles against numerous
Horemheb, including the second pylon foreign foes were memorialized in a series of
(Golvin and Goyon 1987: 44; Seele 1940: 12 - monumental relief scenes (Epigraphic Survey
22). On the interior of the court created by 1986; Schwaller de Lubicz 1999: 553 - 562).
the completed pylon, Ramesses I added a
Ramesses II completed and altered Sety I’s
small “station of the king.” This narrow kiosk,
unfinished decorative program on the walls
with doors opening into the hall, offered the
and columns of the hypostyle hall (Brand
king a place to stand during cult activities. Its
2000: 52 - 53; Seele 1940: 50). Battle scenes of
floor was ornamented with the “nine bows”
the king were added to the hall’s southern
of Egypt, allowing the king to literally
exterior wall, paralleling the military
“trample” his enemies during rituals in the
decoration of his father on the north wall
court when standing inside the kiosk (Van
(Murnane and al. 2004: 86 - 88, 103 - 104).
Siclen 1986: 41 - 42).
The girdle wall enclosing the temple on its
Sety I exploited the huge space created southern and eastern ends, built by Thutmose
between the second and third pylons to III, was now adorned with deeply carved
establish a new locus for the celebration of relief scenes and inscriptions (Brand 2007:
important rituals and festivals (previously 57).
observed in the wadjet hall) (Golvin and

during festival journeys outside the temple
(Chevrier 1940; Legrain 1929: 75 - 83).
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the 20th Dynasty

Building activity at Karnak at the start of the
20th Dynasty showed no signs of slowing
down. Ramesses III added his own bark
shrine to the area in front of the temple,
opposite that of Sety II. This shrine took the
shape and size of a small temple, including a
small pylon, a court with colossal statue
pillars, a hypostyle hall, and a sanctuary
Figure 9. 3D visualization of east Karnak, (Epigraphic Survey 1936a, 1936b; Legrain
Ramesses II’s reign. Temple of “Amun-Ra, 1929: 85 - 123). Immediately north of the
Ramesses, who hears prayers” fronts the “unique” Amun-Ra Temple proper, Ramesses III
obelisk. Outside the temple walls, two obelisks of renewed the inscribed stone gate of
Ramesses II with sphinx statues. Amenhotep III in the mud-brick enclosure
wall just north of the third pylon (Barguet
In the eastern section of Karnak, the king 1962: 35 - 36 and plan 1). To the south,
added a small shrine to the “unique” obelisk Ramesses III built a temple to the child-god
of Thutmose IV (fig. 9). The shrine, called Khons. Study of the temple’s foundations
“the temple of Amun-Ra, Ramesses, who showed that its design and construction began
hears prayers,” consisted of a gateway and under Ramesses III, although some of the
pillared hall with a central false door. Two building elements may have been completed
lateral doors led to the object of veneration, by later kings (Laroche-Traunecker 1982: 330
the “unique” obelisk. A number of the - 333). The date and form of the earlier
column drums used for the hall were clearly temple of Khons on this location is unknown,
taken from an earlier Thutmoside structure, although reused blocks in the bark sanctuary
and there is some evidence that there had suggest to some scholars that such a cult
been a shrine in this location previously building was present at least by the reign of
(Barguet 1962: 223 - 240; Gallet 2007). The Amenhotep III (Lauffray 1979: 214).
chapel seems to have functioned similarly to a However, these blocks, as well as the sphinxes
contra-temple, as it was accessible to the of Amenhotep III creating an avenue to the
public who visited for oracular judgments. south of the temple, may instead have been
Further east, along the temple’s east-west axis, quarried from the mortuary temple of that
Ramesses II added an entrance to eastern king on the west bank of the river (Arnold,
Karnak, marked by two red granite obelisks Dieter 1999: 30; Epigraphic Survey 1979: xvi).
and a pair of red granite sphinxes (Barguet
1962: 223 - 224; Bell 2002: 23; Cabrol 2001: Ramesses IV continued construction on the
186). Khons Temple, additionally inserting his own
cartouches and decoration to the innermost
Sety II was the next pharaoh to add areas (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 25; PM 1972: 235
significant structures to Karnak. In front of - 241). Within the Amun-Ra Temple proper,
the second pylon (the west gate of the temple he drastically altered the appearance of the
at the time), he placed a three-roomed hypostyle hall by appending his cartouches to
quartzite and sandstone bark-shrine oriented the columns, as well as carving new relief
perpendicularly to the north of the scenes on most of the shafts (Brand 2007: 53).
processional route. Its sanctuaries were
dedicated to Amun, Mut, and Khons, and the But the later Ramesside kings could not
barks of these gods would have paused here maintain the feverish pace of construction
sponsored by the wealthier New Kingdom

rulers, and building activity tapered off 208). The exact length and terminus of this
sharply. Ramesses IX built the only significant avenue remain unknown, as it was later
structure, gracing the door to the southern reorganized when new constructions changed
processional route with a monumental the front of the temple in the 25th Dynasty
inscribed gateway (Amer 1999). The most (Cabrol 1995: 2), but it likely extended up to
substantial contributions of the last king of the (later) first pylon, or to a quay beyond.
the dynasty, Ramesses XI, and Herihor, his
The first king of the 22nd Dynasty, the
“High Priest of Amun,” were the scenes and
Libyan ruler Shoshenq I, reinstated the grand
inscriptions in the Khons Temple’s forecourt
tradition of New Kingdom temple expansion
and hypostyle hall (Epigraphic Survey 1979;
and again moved Karnak’s entrance further
PM 1972: 229 - 235).
west. He constructed a huge columned court
(the “Bubastite Court”) before the second
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Early Third pylon of Horemheb, encompassing the Sety II
Intermediate Period (Dynasties 21 - 24) shrine and the front section of the Ramesses
Pinedjem, a “High Priest of Amun” and de III shrine/temple (fig. 10). The north and
facto ruler of Thebes for a period during the south walls of the court were lined by a
21st Dynasty, occupied himself with further colonnade of sandstone columns with
work at the Khons Temple, adding decoration papyrus-bud capitals (Legrain 1929: 45 - 50).
to the temple’s entrance pylon (he may also On the western side, an entrance with a
have completed construction on this pylon) monumental central gate would have fronted
and likely moving criosphinxes (ram-headed the court. An inscription at Gebel el-Silsila of
sphinxes) of Amenhotep III from another the priest Haremsaf mentions this entrance,
cult precinct to the front of the temple later destroyed by Nectanebo I’s construction
(Cabrol 2001: 26 - 27, 239 - 255; Laroche- of the huge first pylon. The central stone gate
Traunecker 1982: 317 - 318, 332; PM 1972: (left unfinished) probably was reused in
224, 228 - 229). The sphinx-lined avenue led Nectanebo’s later construction. It is
south from the Khons Temple toward Luxor, anepigraphic and cannot be dated, but the
but it appears that it did not join up with the gate appears to be older than the Nectanebo
processional route to the latter temple, instead pylons and may therefore be a vestige of the
terminating in a basin connected to the Nile incomplete Shoshenq I project (Arnold,
by a canal (El-Molla et al. 1993: 246 - 247). Dieter 1999: 35 - 36; Epigraphic Survey 1954:
vii).
To the west of the Amun-Ra Temple’s main
gate, the second pylon, Pinedjem may have In the southeast corner of the new court,
placed a line of 100 or more criosphinxes on Shoshenq I built an entrance gateway (the
stone pedestals. This sphinx avenue is “Bubastite Portal”) flanked by two of the
traditionally assigned to Ramesses II, whose court’s pillars, forming a type of portico. On
titles are inscribed on the small statuettes the south (exterior) wall of the gate, the king
between the animals’ paws. A new theory, inscribed a text recounting his military
however, argues that the sphinxes, which campaigns in Palestine, listing the names of
stylistically appear to have been carved under many of the towns or cities he conquered. A
Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, stood at contemporary account of Shoshenq’s
Luxor Temple in the 18th and 19th Dynasties. incursion into one of these cities, Jerusalem,
When Ramesses II modified that temple, he appears in the Hebrew Bible (I Kings 14:25, II
usurped the statues and rearranged them Chronicles 12:2, with the king’s name written
before his new court at Luxor. According to “Shishak”) (Epigraphic Survey 1954: vii - viii).
the theory, they were only moved to Karnak The formation of the court must have
in the 21st Dynasty, when Pinedjem added his enclosed many of the sphinxes along the
own name and inscriptions to the socles western avenue within its walls. Presumably, it
(Cabrol 1995: 25 - 27; Cabrol 2001: 193, 206 - was at this time (or possibly later, when the

Figure 10. 3D visualization of columned “Bubastite Court” in front of second pylon in the reign of
Shoshenq I. The gateway was never finished, so model depicts incomplete upper section in transparency.
Taharqo kiosk was added) that these sphinxes show that the line of the wall continued
were moved to line the north and south walls similarly in that direction (Lauffray 1979: 92;
of the court (Cabrol 2001: 209). Lauffray et al. 1975: fig. 3).
Some time around the reign of Shoshenq I, Small chapels dedicated to the funerary god
the construction of a new temple quay and a Osiris appear at Karnak during the Third
huge revetment wall began. The position of Intermediate Period. Generally, these were
the stone revetment shows that the Nile of located to the north and northeast of the
that time must have flowed right up to the Amun-Ra Temple in small clusters. The
edge of the quay, in front of the new entrance chapel of Osiris-Heqa-Djet (Osiris, “Lord of
built by Shoshenq. A team of Supreme Eternity”) was a two-roomed structure
Council of Antiquities (SCA) archaeologists, decorated with scenes of the important
led by Mansour Boraik, recently uncovered priestess known as the “God’s Wife of
the line of the wall some 50 meters south of Amun,” Shepenwepet I (Redford 1973: 20).
the present quay. The preserved section This was one of a series of structures that
measures 3.5 meters in height. Inscriptional would be bestowed by the “god’s wives”
evidence from the embankment suggests that during the succeeding dynasties.
it was originally constructed in the 22nd
Six quarters for priests were excavated from
Dynasty, with construction and repairs
inside (to the west of) the buttressed
continuing through the fourth century BCE
enclosure wall of Thutmose III. The best
(El-Aref 2008). Previously excavated sections
preserved of these houses show that they
of the revetment 40 meters north of the quay
were small mud-brick dwellings with open

Figure 11. 3D visualization of the Khons Temple Figure 12. 3D visualization of the kiosk of
with the porch of Taharqo. Taharqo in the court fronting second pylon. Only
one of the pillars stands to full height today,
courtyards, three to four interior rooms, and although the bases of all six remain.
staircases leading to upper terraces (Lauffray
1979: 201 - 201; Lauffray et al. 1969; Lauffray columns (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 46 - 47;
et al. 1975). Although the excavators Leclant 1965: 19 - 23, 36 - 41; PM 1972: 192 -
acknowledged that the area could not be 197). Between the Amun-Ra Temple and the
dated with precision, the houses were sacred lake, the king possibly built an earlier
eventually assigned to the early Third version of his “edifice” (discussed below), as
Intermediate Period (21st - 22nd Dynasties) blocks inscribed for Shabaqo were reused in
because of inscriptional material found within the structure (Parker et al. 1979: 5 - 6).
the buildings. However, recent excavation of a It was Taharqo, however, who would make
seventh house (directly south of the line of six the biggest mark on Karnak, with a series of
habitations) and advancements in the constructions rivaling those of the New
understanding of Third Intermediate Period Kingdom pharaohs. Dramatic columned
ceramics suggest the priestly quarters may entrance porches were appended to the front
have been primarily occupied much later, in of the Khons Temple (fig. 11) and the eastern
Dynasties 26 and 27 (Masson 2007). temple of “Amun-Ra who hears prayers.”
These both consisted of four rows of five
Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Late Third columns, possibly roofed with wooden beams,
Intermediate Period (Dynasty 25) the latter example also including low screen
While the focus on temple construction had walls (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 57, 282; Leclant
shifted to the northern areas of Egypt in the 1965: 56 - 57, 84).
21st to 24th Dynasties, Karnak again took the Taharqo commissioned a giant kiosk for the
spotlight under the Kushite kings. Shabaqo court of Shoshenq I, positioned before and
added two gateways before the small temple on axis with the second pylon. It was formed
to Ptah (in the northern part of the precinct), of two rows of five papyriform columns,
as well as a colonnade and a columned porch topped by square abaci (fig. 12). Scholars
in areas north of the Amun-Ra Temple. generally agree that the north-south span of
North of the Akhmenu, his colonnaded hall the kiosk (over 16 meters) could not have
consisted of at least twelve limestone columns been bridged with a roof, but it is possible
in two rows, originally decorated with blue- that the east-west lines were connected by
painted inscriptions. The entrance porch to architraves. Low screen walls connect the
the court of the third pylon, built of columns, with the exception of the areas left
cylindrical columns with lines of inscribed as gates on each of the sides. These walls were
texts, may have consisted of four rows of five inscribed under the Ptolemies and may be

later additions or repairs. Between the the chapel of Osiris Wennefer “in the persea
columns stood an alabaster socle, possibly for (tree),” built by the God’s Wife of Amun,
an altar upon which to rest the divine bark, Shepenwepet II, and a new hall fronting the
seemingly older than the kiosk itself. chapel of Osiris-Heqa-Djet, both to the
Excavations in the area show that an earlier northeast of the Amun-Ra Temple (Leclant
structure with wooden poles originally stood 1965: 41 - 54). In the reign of Taharqo, new
here, and perhaps Taharqo’s monument chapels were installed north of the third pylon
therefore replaced an earlier kiosk or a group (a chapel to Osiris Neb-Ankh) and southeast
of standards topped with figures of deities of the tenth pylon (a chapel to Osiris Ptah-
(Arnold, Dieter 1999: 51; Lauffray 1970, 1975; Neb-Ankh) (Coulon and Defernez 2004: 138;
1979: 102 - 107). Leclant 1965: 23 - 36, 110 - 113).
Possibly replacing an earlier structure of The 25th Dynasty ended with the sacking of
Shabaqo, Taharqo erected his sandstone Egypt by the Assyrian king Assurbanipal, and
“edifice” to the north of Karnak’s sacred lake. the temples of Thebes were reportedly
The structure had two levels, with the lower, plundered. Damage to the Amun-Ra Temple
subterranean level the only one preserved. itself seems to have been only minimal,
Study of the monument suggested that it was however, as little evidence of this event has
approached via a ramp on the east, which led been identified at the temple precinct.
to an open court on the upper story. A mud-
brick courtyard fronted the building on its Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Late Period
east side, cut through by a deep stone well.
The 26th Dynasty saw only limited building at
Often labeled a “Nilometer” (a place to
Karnak. The God’s Wife of Amun
measure the height of the Nile’s inundation),
Ankhnesneferibra erected two new chapels
it seems instead to have functioned as a well
north of the hypostyle hall: the chapel of
connecting to the primeval waters of Nun
Osiris Neb-Neheh and the chapel of Osiris
(Parker et al. 1979).
Wennefer “Lord of Sustenance.” These were
Taharqo began alterations on the temple of complemented by a series of other chapels to
the goddess Opet to the southwest (the the north, closer to the temple of Montu
original structure, completely destroyed by (Coulon and Defernez 2004).
later rebuilding, possibly dated to Amenhotep
In the area southeast of the eastern gate and
II or Thutmose III). A study of the
obelisks of Ramesses II, a mud-brick podium,
construction methods of the temple’s pylon
now called the Kom el-Ahmar was built. Dating
demonstrated that it was built prior to the 30th
to the Saite or Persian Period, the function of
Dynasty, probably in Dynasty 25. Blocks
the platform remains unknown (Redford
inscribed for Taharqo at the temple show that
1994: xi, 2 - 10).
this king sponsored building work there, and
he was most likely behind the erection of the After the first period of Persian domination,
pylon and a kiosk in the temple’s first court construction resumed under the 29th Dynasty
(Azim 1987). kings. Nepherites I and Psammuthis both
likely funded the addition of a new storehouse
South of the quay, a paved stone ramp of
and aviary located south of Karnak’s sacred
Taharqo was built, descending into the
lake. The mud-brick and stone building
bordering Nile. Inscriptions on the interior
contained ramps for the birds to access the
walls of the ramp show that it was utilized for
lake, as well as areas for animal butchery.
rituals related to water, including the festival
Inscriptions on the building describe it as a
of the New Year (Lauffray 1979: 94 - 95;
shena-wab, a place for the preparation of the
Traunecker 1972).
god’s daily meals. The structure appears to
Constructions for Osiris continued at have replaced earlier such structures on the
Karnak in the 25th Dynasty. These included

same site (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 101 - 102;
Traunecker 1987).
Outside the temple’s west gate (the site of
the later first pylon), a small chapel for the
god’s bark was erected. The chapel, built by
Hakoris, possessed an extra-wide western
door so that the god’s bark could be removed
from the Nile with its bow and stern parallel
to the river and brought directly inside (fig.
13). The bark could be rested on the interior
altar, then removed and taken to the temple
gate via a narrower northern door, all without
shifting its direction. Kushite Period blocks Figure 13. 3D visualization of the Hakoris bark
reused in the construction of the chapel shrine. Unusual wooden architrave supports the
suggest that it replaced an earlier, 25th Dynasty stone cavetto molding.
building on the same spot (Lauffray 1995c: 22
- 23, 59). sphinxes to the entire two-kilometer
processional route to Luxor Temple. The road
At the onset of the 30th Dynasty, Nectanebo was enclosed by a mud-brick wall along its
I launched a mammoth construction program eastern and western sides and lined with trees
at greater Karnak. The king completely and plants. Only some of the sphinxes have
reshaped the sacred landscape, enclosing the been excavated, but based on their spacing,
temples of Amun-Ra, Mut (to the south), and some 700 total would have lined the alleyway
Montu (to the north) in huge mud-brick (Abd El-Raziq 1968; Arnold, Dieter 1999:
enclosures. Probably at this time, the west 118; Cabrol 2001: 283 - 287). Ongoing
wall of Sheshonq I’s court was removed and excavations by the Supreme Council of
construction of the first pylon—the largest Antiquities (SCA) within the present-day city
pylon in Egypt—was begun as a monumental of Luxor continue to expose the sphinxes and
entrance to the temple. The unfinished central stone plinths along this route (Mansour
stone gate of the 22nd Dynasty was retained Boraik of the SCA: personal communication
and the pylon built around it. The wall around 2009).
the Amun-Ra Temple, over 20 meters high,
was punctuated with a number of access Nectanebo II may have expanded the
gates. These stood on the north wall (next to sanctuary of Khons-pa-Khered, a small triple
the temple of Ptah), the east wall (across from shrine to the southeast of the newly built
the chapel of “Amun-Ra who hears prayers”), enclosure wall. Recently, one scholar has
and the west wall’s south section (facing the questioned whether the renovations of central
temple of Opet) (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 115 - Karnak ascribed to Philip Arrhidaeus (see
118). below) were in fact changes sponsored by
Nectanebo II, later inscribed under the
In the southwest corner of the new precinct Macedonian king (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 131 -
wall, Nectanebo added a gateway leading to a 132).
temple for the deity Opet (Arnold, Dieter
1999: 118; Azim 1987). The CFEETK is Precinct of Amun-Ra in the Ptolemaic and
presently studying the architecture of the Roman Periods
temple; the extent of Nectanebo’s work here
may therefore soon be clarified. The red granite bark-shrine of Thutmose III,
situated in the heart of Karnak within the
As part of his total redesign of the sacred Palace of Maat, had likely been damaged by
precincts, Nectanebo I added a sandstone fires during the invasions of Egypt by the
pavement and a series of human-headed Assyrians or Persians in the seventh and sixth

centuries BCE. Amun-Ra’s shrine was included hundreds of small niches for the
replaced with a similarly sized and shaped placement of statuettes of the deity (fig. 14).
granite replica, inscribed with scenes depicting Located in an area of the precinct focused on
Philip Arrhidaeus (the brother of Alexander the commemoration of this god since the
the Great) as pharaoh. It may have been Third Intermediate Period (and possibly even
during the installation of the new bark-shrine the New Kingdom), these catacombs display a
that the temple of Senusret I was razed, in continuity of religious practice through the
anticipation of the construction of a new Ptolemaic era (Leclère 1996, 2002; Leclère and
building at a higher level (Arnold, Dieter Coulon 1998).
1999: 131; Barguet 1962: 136 - 141).
Under the Ptolemies, Thebes lost her status
as the most important Upper Egyptian city, as
the new dynasty transferred the major
administration of the south to the newly
founded city Ptolemais (to the north, near
present-day Sohag) (Vandorpe 1995: 210).
Nevertheless, the Ptolemaic kings were careful
to patronize the traditional Theban temples.
At Karnak, Ptolemy III added a huge stone
gate in the enclosure wall south of the Khons
Temple. Known today by its Arabic name,
Bab el-Amara, the huge portal was covered
Figure 14. 3D visualization of interior of Osiris
with inscribed relief scenes and texts of that
catacombs. The small niches on the left were for
king. Details of the construction of this gate the placement of statuettes of the deity.
suggest that it was indeed built in the
Ptolemaic Period and not earlier, in the 30th The Temple of Ptah received two additional
Dynasty, when the wall itself was erected gateways, extending its entrance to the west
(Golvin and Hegazy 1993: 146, note 2; under Ptolemy VI and XII (Arnold, Dieter
Zignani 2003). Flanking the door, CFEETK 1999: 216, pl. VIII).
archaeologists discovered the stone
foundations of a pair of pylon towers Within the Amun-Ra Temple, the gate of
(Lauffray et al. 1975: 23 - 26, fig. 11). These the second pylon (damaged by fire) was
may have been part of Ptolemy’s plan for the restored. No later than the reign of Ptolemy
new entrance to the Temple of Khons, but IV a new stone facing and series of reliefs
they were never completed. The mud-brick were added to the entrance’s interior west
enclosure wall was later rebuilt over the façade. Texts and relief scenes dedicated to
foundations to connect with the Bab el-Amara this king, as well as Ptolemy VI and VIII,
gateway (Laroche-Traunecker 1982: 329; adorn the door and the western section of the
Zignani 2003). passage, thus dating the changes. In the reign
of Ptolemy VI, damaged Ramesside scenes on
Ptolemy III also may have continued the eastern part of the passage (caused by
construction on the Opet Temple, possibly falling stone-roofing slabs when the abacus on
begun previously by Nectanebo I (Arnold, one of the westernmost columns of the nave
Dieter 1999: 164). failed) were repaired and recarved in imitation
In the northeast sector of the precinct, of the originals (Brand 2001; Golvin and
Karnak received a new hypogeum, the “Osiris Goyon 1987: 14; Murnane and al. 2004: 98 -
catacombs,” under Ptolemy IV. Composed of 102; Rondot and Golvin 1989). Repairs were
a series of vaulted mud-brick corridors with made to the architraves, abaci, and column
painted plaster decoration, this structure shafts damaged by this incident, and the small,

smoothed stones shoring up the shattered the “unique” obelisk in the precinct’s eastern
columns are easily seen today in the hall section (Barguet 1962: 242, note 1), retained
(Brand 2001). The date of these repairs traces of a scene of “Horus on the crocodiles”
cannot be precisely identified, but they likely (Horus cippus) and part of an inscribed text.
were contemporary with the reworking of the The chapel, whose original location cannot be
second pylon’s gate (Rondot and Golvin determined, dates to the Ptolemaic Period
1989). (Kákosy 1999: 14; Traunecker et al. 1983: 66 -
75). Two additional possible examples (of
Repairs of the passageway and vestibule of
unknown date) were situated in the Amun-Ra
the third pylon also took place sometime in
Temple’s first court and in the kiosk of the
the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. These
court of the Temple of Opet (Lauffray 1980:
areas, as well as two of the neighboring
fig. 21; Lauffray et al. 1975; Traunecker et al.
columns, were probably damaged by fire.
1983: 75).
Similar patches can be seen on the east side of
the columns, although in this case, the small New discoveries at the site have reshaped
stones were not smoothed but left undressed. our understanding of Karnak’s environs under
A renovation of the vestibule included its the Ptolemies, suggesting that urban areas
extension to the west, joining up with the extended up to the temple enclosure wall.
easternmost columns of the nave (Brand Recently, a team of SCA archaeologists under
2001). the direction of Mansour Boraik discovered a
bath complex to the northwest of the first
The Opet Temple was substantially rebuilt
pylon. The circular structure was composed of
and decorated under Ptolemy VIII. The
baked and plastered mud-brick, tiled with a
renovations included the replacement of the
mosaic stone floor. It contained low,
Thutmoside sanctuary, the substitution of
individual seats for sixteen people. Around
brick walls with stone, and possibly the
this structure, the excavators identified a
rebuilding of the porch and kiosk. Entered via
series of water tanks and drains (El-Aref
the Nectanebo gate on the east, the temple at
2008).
this time consisted of a small pylon, an
entrance court with a pillared kiosk, a ramp Some time near the end of the Ptolemaic
leading into the raised temple hypostyle and Period or the beginning of Roman rule in
sanctuary, and a series of crypts and a small Egypt, a huge pit was dug into the court of
rear chapel within the two-meter high the seventh pylon and filled with more than
platform base (Arnold, Dieter 1999: 197; 17,000 statues, stelae, and other cultural
Azim 1987; Lauffray 1979: 218). objects. Georges Legrain discovered this pit in
1903. During five seasons of excavation, he
Ptolemy VIII also modified the eastern
and his team removed a vast quantity of
temple of “Amun-Ra who hears prayers.” The
objects within (although the work was
rear colonnade and base of the “unique”
abandoned before completion due to difficult
obelisk were enclosed. The central false door
excavation conditions). Why the ancient
of Ramesses II was removed and a new
priesthood ordered the mass clearing out of
doorway inserted into the western wall of the
the temple remains unknown, but it is
pillared court (Barguet 1962: 228 - 240).
apparent from the Legrain excavations that
Ptolemy XII began reconstruction of the the pit was dug out in a single event, and that
small chapel to “Osiris the Coptite,” located statuary and stelae were placed inside rather
perpendicular to Taharqo’s entrance porch in unsystematically (Azim and Réveillac 2004;
the eastern section of the precinct (Barguet De Meulenaere 1999; Goyon et al. 2004).
1962: 15 - 16).
The Karnak precinct continued to house the
Small stone “magical” or “healing chapels” domiciles of temple priests during the
appeared at greater Karnak in the Late Period. Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. To the east of
A fragment from one such chapel, found near the sacred lake, next to the Third Intermediate

Figure 15. 3D visualization of the Temple of Amun-Ra by the Roman Period.
Period priests’ dwellings, archaeologists (De Meulenaere 1978). Reliefs and texts
uncovered a number of mud-brick houses. inscribed for the emperor on the chapel of
The squarish buildings had interior courts and “Osiris the Coptite” and on the fourth gate of
stairways leading to a roof or second floor the small Temple of Ptah show that Tiberius
(Lauffray 1995b: 301 - 306). Ostraca from the did in fact participate in reconstruction or
periods of both Ptolemaic and Roman rule renewal at the Karnak complex (Barguet 1962:
were found associated with these dwellings 14 - 16; PM 1972: 197).
(Vandorpe 1995: 214).
A larger renovation under the Roman rulers
The work of the Roman emperors at the consisted of a major reorganization of the
Amun-Ra precinct generally consisted of the western entranceway to the Temple of Amun-
renovation, decoration, or renewal of existing Ra. The quay and processional paving were
buildings. Augustus added relief scenes to a repaired and repaved. The sphinxes before the
number of temples, including the exterior of first pylon were rearranged and placed in their
the Opet Temple and one of the rear rooms present location (fig. 15). Re-employed blocks
of the Khons Temple (PM 1972: 239 - 240, dating from the Third Intermediate Period
252). Stelae dated to the reign of the emperor through the Ptolemaic Period were used in
Tiberius record additions this ruler made to the quay’s pavement and in the foundations
the Karnak temples. Although the mention of and pedestals of the renovated sphinx
his work is vague, the texts dealing with the dromos. Multiple floor-layers under the
Temple of Mut explain that he added to that present paving included material dating to the
temple’s huge mud-brick enclosure wall

Roman, Ptolemaic, and Pharaonic Periods the Byzantine era (Lauffray 1971: 121 - 128,
(Lauffray 1971: 53 - 56; Lauffray et al. 1971). figs. 2, 33). Byzantine mud-brick walls have
been identified west of the quay (Lauffray et
A small, sandstone Roman chapel was added
al. 1975: 6 - 8), in an area that the recent
just outside the temple’s first pylon. It was
discovery of the stone revetment wall shows
placed perpendicular to the central gateway,
would have been submerged during the Third
opening onto the processional avenue (not
Intermediate Period.
shown in Figure 15). A portico of Corinthian
columns fronted its single room. This chapel Instead of benefiting from continued
was dedicated to the imperial cult, and imperial patronage, by the fourth century CE,
inscriptions dedicated to Roman emperors monuments at Karnak were being torn down
were identified on statue bases found within rather than constructed. Two obelisks, the
(Lauffray 1971: 118 - 121, fig. 31). “unique” obelisk of Thutmose IV in east
Karnak and the western obelisk of Thutmose
By the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt, the
III in front of the seventh pylon, were
Nile had shifted further to the west, and the
removed from the temple precinct and
area around the temple’s quay and revetment
shipped to Alexandria. They were later sent to
wall had silted up. Small mud-brick structures
Constantinople and Rome, to stand in the
have been uncovered around the river ramps
imperial capitals (Habachi 1984: 115 - 116,
and the chapel of Hakoris. A large rectangular
145 - 150). The other remaining obelisks were
cistern made of mud-brick was positioned just
eventually used as granite building material—
south of the quay. Next to the Roman temple,
broken into pieces and re-purposed for use as
a circular pool for collecting water probably
door thresholds and millstones (Gabolde
functioned to irrigate the plants lining the
2007).
sphinx avenue. The layers of Roman
occupation were followed by levels dating to
Bibliographic Notes
The literature on the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak is vast and cannot be adequately
summarized here. The history of excavation and clearance at Karnak in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries has not been included in this article, but those interested in the results of the
early investigations of the “Direction des Travaux de Karnak”—the official commission for the
study and conservation of Karnak Temple created in 1895—can see both Georges Legrain (1929)
and the more recent summary of his work in Azim and Réveillac (2004). The excavation reports
of a later director of that commission, Henri Chevrier, were published in the journal Annales du
service des antiquités de l’Égypte in the 1940s and 1950s. Excavation and study efforts since 1967 by
the Centre Franco-Égyptien d'Étude des Temples de Karnak (CFEETK) are published frequently
in the journal Les Cahiers de Karnak, the initial four volumes of which were published as volumes
18 - 21 of the journal Kêmi. Numerous individual studies on the architecture and decoration of
individual buildings at the temple have emerged in the past thirty years, many of which are cited
in the references for this article. There are also a number of more synthetic studies, reviewing the
site as a whole. Paul Barguet’s overview of the Amun-Ra precinct contains a discussion of both
the decorative scenes and texts of many of the temple’s structures; it remains an indispensable
work for understanding the function of the temple (Barguet 1962). Other informative reviews of
the site include Lauffray (1979), Traunecker and Golvin (1984), Golvin and Goyon (1987), and
Schwaller de Lubicz (1999). A recent book on the chronological phases of the temple’s
development by Blyth (2006) synthesizes in detail many of the French-language publications to
render the conclusions of the CFEETK at Karnak accessible to the English-speaking readership.
The References below focus on the major publications of the buildings and features mentioned, as

well as the most current discussions or re-evaluations of their form and function. In most cases,
the quantity of material prevents the present overview from documenting the changing
interpretation of buildings and features since their discovery. Additionally, descriptions of the
individual structures (including their chronology or appearance) in ancient texts or artwork have
only been mentioned in limited cases. Readers should look to individual articles on specific
buildings for this information.
References
Abd El-Raziq, Mahmud
1968 Study on Nectanebo Ist in Luxor Temple and Karnak. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen
Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 23, pp. 156 - 159.
Allen, James
1996 The religion of Amarna. In The royal women of Amarna: Images of beauty from ancient Egypt, ed.
Dorothea Arnold, pp. 3 - 5. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Amer, Amin
1999 The gateway of Ramesses IX in the Temple of Amun at Karnak. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Arnaudiès-Montélimard, Emmanuelle
2007 L'arche en granit de Thoutmosis III et l'avant-porte du VIe pylône. Les Cahiers de Karnak 12, pp.
107 - 190.
Arnold, Dieter
1999 Temples of the last pharaohs. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Arnold, Dorothea
1996 The royal women of Amarna: Images of beauty from ancient Egypt. New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art. (With contributions by James P. Allen and Lyn Green.)
Azim, Michel
1980 La fouille de la cour du Xe pylône: Rapport préliminaire. Les Cahiers de Karnak 6, pp. 153 - 165.
1982 La structure des pylônes d'Horemheb à Karnak. Les Cahiers de Karnak 7, pp. 127 - 166.
1987 À propos du pylône du temple d'Opet à Karnak. Les Cahiers de Karnak 8, pp. 51 - 80.
Azim, Michel, and Gérard Réveillac
2004 Karnak dans l'objectif de Georges Legrain: Catalogue raisonné des archives photographiques du premier directeur
des travaux de Karnak de 1895 à 1917. 2 volumes. CRA Monographies. Paris: CNRS éditions.
Barguet, Paul
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21. Cairo: Institut français d'archéologie orientale. (2006 edition by Paul Barguet and Alain
Arnaudiès.)
Bell, Lanny
1997 The New Kingdom "divine temple": The example of Luxor. In Temples of ancient Egypt, ed. Byron
Shafer, pp. 127 - 184. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
2002 Divine kingship and the theology of the obelisk cult in the temples of Thebes. In Ägyptologische
Tempeltagung: Würzburg, 23. - 26. September 1999, Vol. 5, Ägypten und Altes Testament 33, ed. Horst
Beinlich, pp. 17 - 46. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
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Björkman, Gun
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Blyth, Elizabeth
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External Links
Brand, Peter
The Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project. The University of Memphis. (Internet resource:
http://history.memphis.edu/hypostyle/. Accession date: 1/2008.)
Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak
Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak. (Internet resource: http://www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/.
Accession date: 5/2010.)
Digital Karnak Project
Digital Karnak Project. University of California, Los Angeles. (Internet resource:
http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/. Accession date: 5/2010.)
El-Aref, Nevine
2008 How pharaoh sailed to Karnak. Al-Ahram Weekly Online 879, January 10 - 16, 2008. (Internet
resource: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/879/he2.htm.)
Image Credits
Figure 1. 3D visualization of Middle Kingdom temple with mud-brick enclosure walls and pillared
portico. Based on drawings of Gabolde (1998, 1999). Model image courtesy of the Digital
Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/. Copyright of the Regents of the
University of California.
Figure 2. 3D visualization of fourth pylon with fasciculated columns and standing Osiride statues of
Thutmose I between the seated statues of the king. Standing statues based on photographs of
the extant colossi. Model image courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project:
http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/. Copyright of the Regents of the University of
California.

Figure 3. 3D visualization of one of Hatshepsut’s obelisks in the wadjet hall during the queen’s reign.
Wooden ceiling (rear) and papyriform columns based on the drawings of Carlotti and Gabolde
(2003: figs. 10 a and b). Model image courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project:
California.
Figure 4. 3D visualization of seventh pylon with Thutmose III’s obelisks. The imagery on left (west)
obelisk has been reconstructed using photographs of remaining section in Istanbul, Turkey. The
pylon’s imagery reflects the relief extant at Karnak today. Model image courtesy of the Digital
Figure 5. 3D visualization of the wadjet hall after the modifications of Thutmose III. Pillar decoration
based on the remaining column bases at the temple today. Reconstruction based on the
drawings and plans of Carlotti and Gabolde (2003: figs. 11 - 12 a and b). Location and size of
clerestory windows based on the reconstructions by Larché (2007: pl. LXXIX). Model image
courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/. Copyright of
the Regents of the University of California.
Figure 6. A scene of Queen Hatshepsut in the “Palace of Maat.” The queen’s figure, as well as her name
in the yellow cartouches, has been carefully chiseled away. Photograph courtesy of the Digital
Figure 7. The chapel of Amenhotep II reconstructed in Karnak’s Open Air Museum. The faux pink-
granite posts flanking the chapel show a possible context for the chapel within the festival court.
Photograph courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/.
Copyright of the Regents of the University of California.
Figure 8. The double peristyle of Thutmose IV reconstructed in Karnak’s Open Air Museum. Photograph
Figure 9. 3D visualization of east Karnak, Ramesses II’s reign. Temple of “Amun-Ra, Ramesses, who
hears prayers” fronts the “unique” obelisk. Outside the temple walls, two obelisks of Ramesses
II with sphinx statues. Reconstruction based on the published plan by Carlotti (2002: pl. 1).
Model image courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/.
Figure 10. 3D visualization of columned “Bubastite Court” in front of second pylon in the reign of
Shoshenq I. The gateway was never finished, so model depicts incomplete upper section in
transparency. Reconstruction based on the hypotheses of Dieter Arnold (1999: fig. 6). Basic
layout of courtyard developed from overall plan of temple by Carlotti (2002: pl. 1). Model image
Figure 11. 3D visualization of the Khons Temple with the porch of Taharqo. Reconstruction of position of
pillars based on the plans of Laroche-Traunecker (1982: fig. 4). Appearance of pillars based on
the standing columns of the Taharqo porch at the temple of Ramesses II, east Karnak. Model
image courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/.
Figure 12. 3D visualization of the kiosk of Taharqo in the court fronting second pylon. Only one of the
pillars stands to full height today, although the bases of all six remain. Reconstruction based on
the drawings of Lauffray (1970: figs. 2, 26 - 33) and Carlotti (1995: pl. XV). Model image

Figure 13. 3D visualization of the Hakoris bark shrine. Unusual wooden architrave supports the stone
cavetto molding. Reconstruction based on the drawings of Lauffray (1995c: figs. 5, 11, 33).
Model image courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/.
Figure 14. 3D visualization of interior of Osiris catacombs. The small niches on the left were for the
placement of statuettes of the deity. Reconstruction based on the plans of Coulon (1995: pls. III,
IV, VII, VIII). Model image courtesy of the Digital Karnak Project:
California.
Figure 15. 3D visualization of the Temple of Amun-Ra by the Roman Period. Model image courtesy of the
Digital Karnak Project: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/. Copyright of the Regents of
the University of California.

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1132 Version 1, September 2010

Karnak, die Baugeschichte des Amuntempels

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