The Temple of Luxor: Plan
Introduction
The temple of Luxor
is in more than one way unique. It is the home of a special form of
Amun: the ithyphallic form. And it stands in a special relation to both
Amun of Karnak, and the king. Once a year, during the Festival of
Opet, the god Amun of Karnak, together with his wife Mut and their son
Khons, came to visit the god Amun of Luxor. During the New Kingdom, this
was the most opulent festival of the land. Amun of Karnak travelled in
great style, with the king and all of his court, and with thousands of
priests, singers, dancers, acrobats and soldiers, and all the people
celebrated. And when the king and the god had arrived in Amun’s
“southern Harim”, as the Luxor temple was called, they went into the
temple for profound and powerful rites – the meaning of which is not
entirely clear.
What is clear, is
that the Luxor temple stood in a special relation to the temple of
Karnak. The most eloquent testimony for that comes from the procession
way that once connected both temples. It was 2.5 km long, and it was
fitted with a double row of stone sphinxes. Their number is now
estimated to have been 2 x 365: one pair for every 7 meters.
The temple
The temple, as it
presents itself to us today, is mostly the work of two kings: Amenhotep
III (18th dynasty) and Ramesses II (19th dynasty).
One enters through a great pylon, adorned with giant statues of the
king, and (originally) two obelisks. Today, only one remains (the other
one now stands in Paris, on the Place de la Concorde). This pylon, and
the large open court that follows it, are the work of Ramesses II.
Immediately behind
the pylon, to the left, lies a mosque. It was built here during the 13th
century, at a time when ground level was considerably higher than it is
now. As a result, the original
doorway now hangs several meters above the modern pavement. Also
immediately behind the pylon, but now on the right side, is a bark
shrine with three parallel rooms. It was meant for the barks of Amun,
Mut and Khons during the Festival of Opet. They could rest here for a
while, on route to the inner temple. The elegant, slender columns of
this structure stand in stark contrast to the plump, massive style of
the rest of the forecourt. It betrays a gap in time of several
centuries. The bark shrine was commissioned by Hatshepsut. Her reign
predates that of Ramesses II with 280 years (and that of Amenhotep III
with 70 years).
Hatshepsut’s bark
shrine probably stood in the way when this court was being constructed.
It was therefore taken apart, and later incorporated into the peristyle
surrounding Ramesses’ forecourt.
All work behind the
first court was begun by Amenhotep III. The Colonnade was however only
decorated under Tutankhamun and Horemheb. The second court is
undoubtedly the highlight of the monument. With its elegant papyrus
columns, it’s a symphony in stone.
Behind the second
court lies a hypostyle, followed by a series of smaller rooms that
together form the inner temple. In the middle of these stands a bark
shrine, commissioned by Alexander the Great. The image of the god was
kept in a small room with four pillars, at the very back of the
building.
Halfway between the
hypostyle and Alexander’s bark shrine, there are some remnants of a
construction from the Romans. High on a wall, part of a Roman fresco can
still be seen.
Completely out of
character for an Egyptian temple is the fact, that the axis of this
temple is never quite straight. From the shrine at the back to the
Colonnade, the axis shifts a little (hardly perceptible) to the right.
Ramesses’ court then suddenly shifts markedly further right – in the
direction of the Amun temple of Karnak.
The plan
The following plans served as starting material:
-
Kurt Lange & Max Hirmer: “Aegypten” (1967), page 96 (focused on the
situation today).
-
Dieter Arnold: “Die Tempel Ägyptens” (1992), page 128 (focused on
the original situation).
I have combined these, adding my own observations made during several
visits in February, 2004.
The different building phases are in the plan indicated with different
colors. A key to these colors is provided in a separate document.
The plan shows the
temple as it is now. This means that parts of the building that are now
gone (or reduced to no more than one or two courses) are represented in
outline only, without color.
I have mostly ignored elements that are on or close to the ground. This
includes thresholds, the bases of columns and shallow ramps. It curtails
the work somewhat, and it results in a more open representation. But if
you happen to use a wheelchair, and you’re planning a visit, you would
have to take this into account.
The dimensions of the torus moldings that regularly appear on the
outside corners of buildings have been somewhat exaggerated in size. At
scale, they would have been almost invisible.
In the room where now stands Alexander the Great’s bark shrine, four
circles indicate the positions of columns that once stood here, in an
earlier phase of the building.
Small, freestanding
rectangles refer to statues, squares with a diagonal cross to obelisks.
Overview plan, with
explanatory remarks
The same, without
the remarks
Detailed plans
(4 pages)
Key
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