The Great Temple Of Amen-Rê .. The Karnak Temple Complex .. Part ( 7 )

Leaving the temple of Khonsu, we proceed northwards for a short distance . Our road, after running along the side of the temple, turns somewhat towards the west at the north end of the building, then after a little bends round to the north again,
and lands us in the middle of an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, with a vast pylon on our right hand, at the left-hand ( west ) end of the avenue a slight incline leads to a rectangular terrace, this terrace is actually a quay, and instead of being, as now, " in the air ", and leading to nowhere, it was once washed by the waters of the Nile, which has now receded westwards by several hundred yards . The quay still served its purpose as late as the 26^th dynasty, for records of the height of the inundation between the 21^st and 26^th dynasties are marked upon its riverward face .

One little obelisk, out of the two which Seti II set up on the quay, still stands; the pedestal of the other is all that is left of it . One can well imagine that this quay must have formed the most magnificent approach to the great temple of Amûn in its later days, when the great barge " Userhêt-Amûn ", of cedar of Lebanon overlaid with gold, returned down the river from Luxor, at the close of the " Feast of Amûn in the Apts ", with the galleys which had towed it up-stream forming a stately escort in its rear, and all that was most gorgeous in the temple furniture of the wealthiest god in Egypt was displayed in the procession which welcomed the god as he returned to his temple .

On our right hand, as we look towards the great pylon, lie the ruins of a little shrine built by Hakar ( Hakoris ), of the 30^th dynasty ( 390 B.C. ) . The sphinxes which border the approach to the temple from the quay are, according to the Egyptian Survey, the work of Ramses XII . ( Other authorities attribute them to Ramses II ) .

Part ( 8 ) .. The Great Temple Of Amen-Rê .. Coming SoOoOon ....

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