seat of worship was Heliopolis, near Cairo. In order to make Amen acceptable to the nation as the royal god he was identified with Ra under the name Amen-ra seten neteru, "Amen-Ra, king of the gods," which was contracted into Amonrasonter, the famous name of later times. Amen was sometimes identified with Min, the god of Koptos, and under the name Min-Amen he received much worship in Roman and Ptolemaic times. The goddess of the western hills opposite the city was Hathor. Sometimes she was regarded as a beautiful woman; sometimes she was a cow which could be seen coming forth from the hills s; and sometimes again she was a serpent. The main seat of her worship was Dendereh, but all these western hills belonged to her, and she was certainly the most important mortuary deity of Thebes. There were many other gods worshipped in Thebes, but none which belonged primarily to the city. TH CHAPTER V THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR 'HE temple of Luxor stands on the river bank, a few minutes walk from the imposing Winter Palace Hotel. Visitors will find it best to examine the temple in the afternoon, for the lights are then very beautiful; while by moonlight the colonnades are perhaps more impressive than any other buildings in Upper Egypt. HISTORY OF THE TEMPLE On the site of the temple there seems to have stood during the Middle Kingdom a small building erected by King Sebekhotep IInd; for a block of stone bearing that Pharaoh's name has been employed in the foundations of the later edifice. A shrine of Thothmes IIIrd was built on the site of the later Forecourt of Rameses IInd, and it is probable that the original shrine of the Middle Kingdom stood here. The famous Senmut, the supporter of Queen Hatshepsut, states that he conducted all the works of the queen and of Thothmes IIIrd at Luxor. The south end of the temple which is seen to-day, that is to say, the colonnaded Forecourt and the chambers leading from it on the south, was erected by King Amenhotep IIIrd of the XVIIIth dynasty, and was dedicated by him to the great Theban trinity-Amen-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu. In ancient times the temple was generally known as "The Temple of Amen in the Apts of the South"; and in mediæval times it came to be known as El Uksûr, “The Castles," from which the modern name of the town "Luxor" is corrupted. The reign of Amenhotep IIIrd marks the zenith of Egyptian wealth and prosperity, and the king had not been long upon the throne before he felt it incumbent on him to erect in the city of Thebes a temple worthy of the most wealthy metropolis of the world. At Karnak there was already the temple of Thothmes IIIrd and his predecessors, and on the west bank of the river numerous temples studded the edge of the desert. But in the heart of the city there was no edifice of any magnitude to be shown with pride by the Thebans to the numerous foreigners who now visited Egypt. In erecting the temple the king took the opportunity of placing before the Theban populace upon its walls a series of scenes relating to, and justifying, his accession to the throne. Egyptian law decreed that the king should either be the son or the husband of a Pharaoh's eldest daughter; but Amenhotep IIIrd was neither. His father, Thothmes IVth, seems to have had no daughter to whom Amenhotep could have been married in order to become legal king; and his mother, Mutemua, was in all probability the daughter of the king of a small North Syrian country called Mitanni. Moreover, the wife whom he had married when he was still young-the famous Queen Thiy-was not royal at all, and very possibly was not Egyptian. The erection of the temple at Luxor, therefore, was undertaken probably for the purpose of conciliating the people and priesthood of Thebes; and the reliefs, which demonstrate the miraculous birth and divine coronation of the king, were intended to set at rest any doubts as to the legality of his accession. The temple is thus an entirely personal monument, and the glorification of the king is its evident motif. Speaking of this building the king says: Amenhotep IIIrd, Ruler of Thebes, is satisfied with the building made for his father Amen-Ra. . . . When the people see it they give praise to His Majesty. It is Amenhotep IIIrd who hath satisfied the heart of his father Amen." 66 When Akhnaton, the son of Amenhotep IIIrd, came to the throne and renounced the worship of Amen, he ordered that god's name to be erased wherever it occurred; and one may see to this day how it has been chiselled out in all the inscriptions. A small shrine of Aton, the new god, was erected within the precincts of the Luxor temple.1 The next king, Tutankhamen, who returned to the worship of Amen, destroyed this shrine; and continued the building of the original temple which Amenhotep IIIrd had left unfinished. Horemheb and Sety Ist of the XIXth dynasty proceeded with this work. Rameses IInd much increased the size of the temple by adding to it the pylons and Forecourt at the north end, and a few small additions were made shortly afterwards by Merenptah, Sety IInd, Rameses IIIrd, Rameses IVth, and Rameses VIth. The architect of the work of Rameses IInd 1 Fragments from this temple are (1907) preserved in the Luxor temple. The Forecourt of Amenho tep IIIrd. was a High Priest of Amen named Bakenkhonsu, who tells us that he erected obelisks "whose beauty approached heaven,” and that he laid out a "garden planted with trees" in front of the pylons. "I made," he continues, "very great double doors of electrum ; their beauty met the heavens. I hewed very great flagstaffs, and I erected them in the august court in front of the temple." The temple was now at the height of its glory. A broad and magnificent avenue of sphinxes extended from its pylons to the temple of Karnak, along which the great processions of priests passed on festal occasions. Around the temple were beautiful gardens, and on its west side were the extensive quays of Thebes, always crowded with galleys. So great was the wealth of the priesthood that the walls of the temple were inlaid with electrum, the doors were studded with gold, and it is said that even parts of the pavements were covered with sheets of silver.1 Under Rameses IIIrd there were 2623 servants in the temple; and a herd of 279 head of cattle supplied the altars, according to a list of this date. Menkheperra, the son of King Painezem Ist of the XXIst dynasty, restored parts of the temple which were ruined. In the reign of Smendes one reads of a flood which destroyed or endangered the building (p. 301), and another flood in the reign of Osorkon IInd is recorded. In the XXVth dynasty Kings Shabaka and Shabataka restored parts of the building; and in the XXIXth dynasty King Hakar 2 added to it, as did also Nectanebus IInd in the XXXth dynasty. Finally, Kings Alexander and Philip built here; but by that time the riches of the temple had probably been carried off during the various invasions and revolutions of later Egyptian history. In Christian times churches were constructed inside the temple, and after the Mohammedan conquest houses were erected in the once sacred courts, which, falling and being rebuilt, soon filled the place with debris. A mosque, dedicated to a much honoured saint, was built in the Ramesside Forecourt, and still stands there, although the main part of the temple has now been cleared and walled in. DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE On passing through the modern gate one enters the Forecourt of Amenhotep IIIrd, around which runs the famous colonnade, so often portrayed. The columns are still almost perfect except for 1 Breasted, Records, ii, 886. 2 Weigall, Report on the Temple of Luxor, Annales du Service. |