Blame it on the Eighteenth Dynasty

The blog post for this week is written by Iris C. Meijer, who has been gripped by ancient Egypt from an early age. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Law from Leiden University, where she spent as much time as she could at the marvelous Dutch Museum for Antiquities and took every Egyptological course she could, up to and including an elective in Ancient Egyptian Law. When her career collapsed due to severe chronic illness, she took a leap of faith and moved to Egypt. For the last eighteen years, she has been there, deepening her understanding of the monuments, as well as being active in animal rescue, raising animal welfare awareness through her book and workshops for kids in Egypt, and community efforts to promote Egypt, the land that makes her heart sing!

I blame the Eighteenth Dynasty. I do. If the subtle lines and serene beauty of the Maya and Merit statues at Leiden hadn’t grabbed my heart and mind as a ten-year-old and hung on to it, I wouldn’t be living in Luxor right now, and I wouldn’t have been able to visit Karnak, the “Most Select of Places”, the amazing temple complex that may be the biggest one in the world, so many times. I thought I knew quite a bit about this splendid place, but this course of Dr Ken Griffin is giving me a whole new perspective and so many new insights. The chronological approach Dr Griffin has chosen throws a whole new light on the development of the magnificent temple we are confronted with today—a giant, overwhelming, glorious mass of edifices, pillared halls, shaded sanctuaries, fabulous festival halls, and more (fig. 1). No one entering Karnak, for the first time or the twentieth time, can escape being overwhelmed and gaping in awe. But by tackling the temple chronologically, Dr Griffin causes an adjustment to our mind’s eye. We can ‘see’ the temple developing from quite a modest structure in the Middle Kingdom to the incredible place we have today.

Fig. 1: View of Karnak looking east to west

And again, I blame the Eighteenth Dynasty 😉. Even though arguably the most famous part of Karnak, the very impressive Hypostyle Hall dates from the Nineteenth Dynasty, the sprawling vastness of the Amun complex is mostly down to the Eighteenth Dynasty, as we learned in part two of this wonderful course (fig. 2). The Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs ... names that evoke so many intriguing stories and images. Ahmose II, Hatshepsut, Thutmose (I–IV), Amenhotep (I–III, and even IV 1/2 let’s say—he who later became Akhenaten), Tutankhamun, Aye, Horemheb—even if you have only a passing interest in Egyptology instead of a passion, you will have heard of at least one or more of these.

Fig. 2: Annals of Thutmose III

Ahmose II, the proud Upper Egyptian king who stood up against the foreign usurpers and reunited the Two Lands; my personal favourite, Hatshepsut (fig. 3), the woman who declared herself pharaoh—and who, as Dr Griffin rightly says, gets far less recognition than she deserves—; Thutmose III, who built Egypt into a vast Empire; Amenhotep III, the Golden Pharaoh who presided over the pinnacle of ancient Egypt’s might and wealth; Akhenaten, the Heretic King; Tutankhamun, the young king whose undisturbed tomb has made millions marvel at the glorious art of this period; and last but definitely not least, Horemheb, the ones who put it all back together again after the thankfully short-lived heresy of Akhenaten and paved the way for the restoration of Egypt’s might under the following, warrior-like Nineteenth Dynasty. They all wanted to make their mark on the precinct of the mightiest God of them all: Amun-Ra. And they did. They did it by, in our view perhaps quite ruthlessly, tearing down older structures at Karnak to make space for their vision. And they built and built and built—not in mudbrick as much as had been done before, but in strong, solid, lasting stone. Pylon after pylon, sanctuary after sanctuary, obelisk after obelisk shot up in this dynasty (c. 1550–1292 BCE).

Fig. 3: Hatshepsut and Thutmose III on the Red Chapel

The work on the adjoining precinct of Mut, the consort of Amun-Ra, also started in earnest in this time. Today, there is not much left standing of this wonderful temple to that goddess, but what is there evokes a visual of a once magnificently beautiful temple—and let’s not forget the hundreds of statues of mighty Sekhmet found there (fig. 4)! The last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Horemheb, completed a causeway between the two holy places, lined with magnificent and gigantic ram-headed sphinxes. Mostly overlooked by the general tourist who only has time (and attention span) for the main axis of the Amun complex itself, it is well worth a wander to this side axis and then from its gate via the other side to the temple of Mut. Uniquely, Karnak seems to be the only ancient Egyptian temple that has both a major east-west axis as well as a north-south one, connecting all the temples of Luxor’s East Bank into one glorious religious landscape. It boggles the mind, when you really try to stretch it to encompass all of it in your physical or mind’s eye!

Fig. 4: Sekhmet statue in the Mut Complex

But back to Karnak. Thankfully, though they did tear them down, the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs did not fully destroy the older stone chapels that were there before their own personal building projects, but instead used the blocks as infill for the magnificent pylons that they erected. Due to serious hard work by expert restorers, the stunning restored chapels, shrines, and columns can now be admired in Karnak’s lovely Open Air Museum—it may be an extra ticket, but well worth it (fig. 5). Because the structures were torn down relatively early in their monumental lives, they survive in often pristine condition when put back together, and escaped later purges, defacements, and destruction. There are some real gems in there, and they tell us so much about the development of Karnak. Dr Griffin must have studied them with a magnifying glass, he gave us so many beautiful and interesting details to go and find on the next visit to Karnak!

Fig. 5: Beautifully carved relief of Thutmose IV in the Open Air Museum

The Eighteenth Dynasty properly started the New Kingdom, the era of Empire and one of the greatest heydays of the long, long history of ancient Egypt. Amun merged with Ra, and became the most important deity in all of Egypt. And of course, the proud Upper Egyptian dynasty needed to reflect that in the magnificence of his home, his temple. And oh my goodness, did they ever! And is there yet more to discover? Oh yes! Not many people are aware of this, but there are thousands upon thousands of blocks neatly lined up at Karnak, just waiting, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, to be matched and put together into yet more structures (fig. 6). Some of the decorations on these blocks are truly sublime, and yet others, as Dr Griffin showed us, are more unassuming but invaluable in what they can tell us—about history, veneration, and development at Karnak.

Fig. 6: Fragment of a large quartzite statue of Amenhotep III

So when you (next) visit Karnak, for the first or the umpteenth time, do take more than an hour or so. Take at least a whole afternoon, schedule in a nice break at the café at the beautiful Sacred Lake, and wander, just wander. Wander to side rooms and chapels, don’t just stop at the holy of holies but go further, to the great Festival Hall of Thutmose III (fig. 7). Go to the south and explore the magnificent side axis. Go north-west and take in the Open Air Museum. Wander between the rows and rows of blocks still waiting, waiting… You will be stunned at how vast this temple complex really is, and how much vision was behind how everything was put together. And when the vastness gets to you, do like I did: blame the Eighteenth Dynasty. They did most of it! 😊

Fig. 7: Columns in the Festival Hall of Thutmose III