The Southern Buildings Of The Great Temple Of Amûn .. The Karnak Temple Complex .. Part ( 17 )

We have now finished our survey of the main building of the great temple ; but, besides the scattered remains of small temples and shrines which lie within the great temenos of Amûn, there is a very considerable southern extension which contains a number of reliefs and inscriptions of great interest .

We start from the Central Court of the great temple, between pylon III and pylon IV, and beside the obelisk of Tuthmosis I . The court which we enter is almost a complete ruin, its enclosing walls to east and west being badly wrecked, while the pylon ( No. VII ), which forms its south wall, is also ruined .

This court was once the site of a Middle Kingdom temple, and an early New Empire one of Amenophis I, which were both superseded by the work of Tuthmosis III, to whom the VII th pylon is due . We are now on the site of the famous Karnak Câchette, now closed, from which Georges Albert Legrain ( French Egyptologist ), between 1902 and 1909, drew an almost incredible number of works of art, greater and smaller .

In six months, from 26^th December 1903 to 4^th July 1904, his bag was 456 statues, 7 sphinxes, 5 statues of sacred animals, and 8000 bronzes ; from 19^th November 1904 to 25 July 1905, it was 200 stone statues and another 8000 bronzes, without reckoning the decayed woodwork which was past preserving, and which formed a layer of considerable depth .

The total catch amounted to 779 stone statues and 17000 bronzes . Of course far the greater number of these objects proved to be of only ordinary merit ; but some of the pieces were of first-class importance, the most notable being the well-known green schist statue of Tuthmosis III, which is by far the most attractive likeness of that redoubtable Pharaoh .

Now that the temple has actually yielded statues by the thousand in this fashion, it is quite easy to credit what seemed the incredible statement of the Great Harris Papyrus that Karnak possessed 5164 divine images, and that the number of statues in the temple was 86486 .

On the north wall of this court is an historical inscription of Ramses II . On the east wall, near the main temple, is a scene of Meneptah kneeling between the paws of a ram-headed sphinx ; while farther along the wall is an inscription of the same Pharaoh, referring to his wars with the Libyans and the Sea-Peoples, and a scene in which he slays his captives before Amûn .

Part ( 18 ) .. The Southern Buildings Of The Great Temple Of Amûn .. Coming SoOoOon .....

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