The Southern Buildings Of The Great Temple Of Amûn .. The Karnak Temple Complex .. Part ( 19 )

Pylon VIII, which closes in the south side of this court is the work of Hatshepsut, though the work upon it has suffered many usurpations . Hatshepsut's name was erased from the reliefs by Tuthmosis II .

Akhenaten erased the figures of Amûn during his brief occupation of Thebes as his capital ; and in the next dynasty Seti I restored what Akhenaten had erased, inserting his own cartouche . Before looking at these usurped reliefs, it will be worth while to pass out by the doorway in the south-east corner of the court and glance at the reliefs there, which are of great interest as a picture of the growth of priestly power in the later Ramesside period, before the complete usurpation of the royal power by the priests of Amûn in the 21^st dynasty .

On the inside of this doorway, to the left, is a figure of Ramses IX and the high-priest of Amûn, Amenhotpe, who is offering flowers to the king . Outside the doorway, and a little to the left on the outside wall of the court is another similar relief . In this the high-priest is again making offering to the king, with uplifted hands, and is being draped in fine linen by two servants, doubtless as a reward from the king, who extends his hand in favour towards his great subject . But the noticeable thing in both reliefs is that the high-priest is represented as being of the same stature as the Pharaoh, a thing previously unknown in Egyptian art .

Manifestly the priesthood was getting to a position where the king counted for little, and only another step was needed to place the insignia of royalty upon the head of the too-powerful subject, and to abolish the puppet-king .

The reliefs on the north side of the pylon represent Seti I and Tuthmosis II ( in place of Hatshepsut ) offering to the gods . Priests carry the sacred barge, and Tuthmosis I appears before Amûn, Mût, and Khonsu . An inscription here refers to Queen Hatshepsut's accession . These are on the east side of the gate-way .

On the west side are similar reliefs of Seti, Tuthmosis ( again superseding Hatshepsut ), and Ramses III . Passing through the doorway, we find on the south side of the pylon four more or less wrecked statues of different Pharaohs . The most complete is one of crystalline limestone representing Amenophis I . West of it are the remains of a colossal limestone statue of Tuthmosis IV, and east of it, next the doorway of the pylon, the wreck of a quartzite colossus of Tuthmosis II .

Part ( 20 ) .. The Southern Buildings Of The Great Temple Of Amûn .. Coming SoOoOon .....

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