Karnak:Egypt's Ancient Capital

2007-04-12 18:09:03 [ Big Normal Small ]  Mark Berthold  　Comment

Egypt’s ancient capital of Amun at Karnak is perhaps the greatest temple complex the world has known and my 28 ml wide angle lens was required to encompass its splendor.


Here, at the largest place of worship in the ancient world, tributes were made to the Egyptian gods and kings. These were accompanied by the ancient purification rituals according to the principles of maat. Its life and times continue to fascinate us and Egyptologists are increasingly using modern science to uncover some of history’s more enduring detective mysteries.

Karnak was not built in a day. It developed over generations and successive pharaohs were expected to dedicate new temples to Egypt’s many gods.

But this orderly society was plunged into chaos when Akhenaten became pharaoh. The first monist, he worshipped but one god- the sun. With his wife Nefertiti they set up a new power base in a remote desert wilderness at a spot where Akehenaten thought he discerned the solar nod of approval. Amarna became a temple complex to rival Karnak and they plundered its temples to pay for the new site’s construction. Thousands of Amun priests were fired from their posts at Karnak. Social disorder ensued.

Following Akhenaten’s death plague swept Egypt. According to some accounts the shadowy Smenkhare replaced Nefertiti as co-regent and succeeded Akhenaten as pharaoh. But it seems, rather, that Nefertiti became the first pharoahess. In any event Karnak was reopened and the Amun priests reinstated. Hostility lingered, however. Following Nefertiti’s death, the monuments she helped build at Karnak were defaced and torn down. Her own end was probably violent. A mummy has been identified which is likely to be that of Nefertiti-the mummy in question was indisputably a royal and probably a pharoahess and computer-simulated facial reconstructions are strikingly identical to a contemporary bust of Neferteti. Forensic evidence documented in a Discovery Channel program demonstrates that this royal was subjected to violence at about the time of, and quite possibly causing, her death. Meanwhile Nefertiti had married her daughter Ankhesenamun to her stepson Tutankhamun and we will see in the next article that forensic evidence throws new light on whether his parents’ legacy incited revenge resulting in his untimely death.

Mark Berthold copyright 2007

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