Page 37

Touring the Temples at Karnak

D espite the short walk from the river, it was almost eleven when they stood in the partial shade of the first pylon of the temple complex.

Off to their right was a sphinx featuring the head of a ram atop a lion’s body, the base and part of the statue beneath the sandy ground.

It wasn’t nearly as large as the one they had seen in Giza, and part of the nose was missing.

“As you can see, this Temple of Amun-Re is half-buried in the desert, the height of the sand requiring us to guess at how far down the original floor of the temple might be,” Mahmood explained as they regarded the limestone entrance.

Due to the uneven terrain, the married women continued to hold onto their husbands when they would usually go off on their own to examine an artifact or column. Taking her cue from them, Helen continued to hold onto David’s arm as the guide began the tour.

“Why is the right side so much higher than the left side?” Barbara asked, referring to the pylon. The angular sides were symmetrical but looked odd given their different heights.

“This may have been the last part of the temple to be added,” Mahmood replied.

“But we believe it was never finished.” He waved them past a pair of columns, the one on the right of the entrance still standing while its mate lay collapsed in two lines on the left, the column drums still aligned with one another.

“I know it appears as if a giant has knocked it over, but it probably fell over due to its base being on land that was at one time quite marshy,” he explained.

“We will first go into the grand forecourt. Follow me.”

After they passed through the rectangular opening of the first pylon, the second pylon—or what was left of it—was visible straight ahead.

The ruined condition suggested it had been made of mud bricks rather than limestone or sandstone.

Given the height of the sand that had collected in the forecourt, only the top halves of the columns on either side of the courtyard area were visible.

The sand varied in depth from one side to the other, the winds having caused a sand dune effect.

“This great forecourt would have been the closest the peoples of Egypt could come to their gods,” Mahmood explained. “Although they are probably buried, we would expect this area to include some rooms for storing items for the processionals during the festivals,” he added.

“What are those capitals supposed to be?” Barbara asked, clinging to Will’s arm as she pointed to the colonnade on the left. It was almost a mirror image of the one on the right, except that colonnade was interrupted by the entrance to a smaller temple.

“The columns are meant to depict papyrus stalks with closed buds,” Mahmood replied. “A very simple design.”

“They’re far more decorative than Doric capitals,” Helen remarked, earning a look of approval from David. Studying one of the columns on the left, Tom pretended not to notice.

“Not as garish as the Corinthian capitals of the Roman temples,” Stella said thoughtfully.

“I could imagine these in our parlor,” Harry remarked. “In fact?—”

“Not in the parlor, darling. Mayhap in front of the townhouse, though,” she countered. “We could start a new fashion in Mayfair. Egyptian columns.”

He chuckled. “Never. I happen to adore the Greek columns we have,” he said, arching a teasing brow.

Despite the shadow of her parasol, Stella’s blush was apparent to anyone who was looking at her.

“I do wonder what’s buried beneath all this sand,” Diana murmured, her furrowed brows indicative of her thoughts.

Letting go of Randy, she headed in the direction of the smaller temple off to the right, grimacing when she realized it was the Temple of Ramesses III.

She and David had studied the crude map the French had drawn of the area in preparation for that day’s tour, and she had expected to find it in better condition.

Inside were the remains of two colonnades that had at one time lined the walls, and straight ahead, where the rest of the temple should have been, lay a pile of rubble.

“One day this may be rebuilt,” Tom murmured from where he stood next to her.

She glanced over at him. “It will have to be dug out of the desert first,” she replied on a sigh.

“Are you thinking to do it?” he asked.

Scoffing, she regarded him for a moment with a thoughtful expression before she finally shook her head. “No. I think the Egyptians should see to their own temples,” she said.

They turned around when Mahmood called for their attention.

“If you will follow me,” he announced, before leading them through the opening in the second pylon. Their path took them on a downward slope. Here the depth of the sand was less, so the height of the columns was far more impressive than in the forecourt.

Even more so were the twelve columns on either side of the center aisle, each topped with an open capital featuring the feathery blossoms of flowering papyrus. Beyond those columns on either side were row after row of shorter, smaller columns. They were topped with the closed-bud capitals.

“Now we have entered the hypostyle,” he announced proudly, his arms held out.

“These are huge,” Randy said in awe, as he stared at the greater columns.

“Thirty-three feet in circumference,” David stated. “Their capitals are eighteen feet in diameter, and it’s said they can support a hundred men.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t wish to go up there,” Tom murmured.

“I wouldn’t want you to,” Helen said, her face reddening when he glanced with surprise in her direction. “They’re entirely too tall,” she added, earning her a nod from Tom.

Randy angled his head back. “And they are carved all the way to the top,” he marveled.

“Painted as well,” Stella said, awestruck. She was circling one of the columns, as if she was studying all the carvings.

“They were indeed,” Mahmood confirmed. He pointed to the underside of the architraves. Between each capital atop the columns were painted hieroglyphics, their colors still vibrant. “But it is not yet known what is written up there or on the columns.”

“You cannot read them?” Barbara asked in surprise.

“I cannot, my lady,” Mahmood admitted. “Not all of it. I do know that every place you see an oval shape around a series of hieroglyphics, it depicts the name of a pharaoh.”

Barbara’s eyes widened as she returned her attention to the column to which she was standing.

“The smaller columns have a circumference of seven-and-twenty feet,” Diana stated. She had pulled out her sketchpad and a pencil from her satchel, prepared to begin drawing the one in front of her.

“How many columns are there in this part of the temple?” Harry asked of their guide. “It’s like a forest,” he added, for despite the midday sun, the columns provided shade where they stood.

“One-hundred-and-twenty-two is the number of the smaller columns,” Mahmood replied. “Although calling it a marsh of papyrus plants would be a better analogy than a forest of trees, for we believe that is what the builders intended,” he explained.

“So these larger columns here in the middle must have supported a higher roof?” Will guessed.

“Yes. The central nave,” Mahmood confirmed.

“Is there any thought as to how deep these columns go? How tall they really are?” Tom asked, as if he was determined to gain Helen’s attention.

Mahmood waved for him to follow, and the two moved toward the outer wall and the last row of columns.

Between two columns, the sand was considerably lower on this side of the hypostyle, and it appeared as if someone had dug a channel between the columns and the wall deeper than even Tom was tall.

The carvings on the exposed sandstone suggested they continued well below the bottom level of the deep channel.

“Mayhap sixty or seventy feet tall,” Mahmood said.

“Until the sand is removed to the original floor, we will not know.”

“Seventy feet?” Tom repeated in awe. He shook his head. “How would they have even erected such tall columns?”

Mahmood shrugged. “Using the same techniques they did to build the pyramids,” he suggested.

“Up there, above the architraves,” Diana said, pointing to some vertical pillars with crossbeams that formed rectangular openings above the largest columns. “Were those windows?”

Mahmood glanced up to where she indicated. “Indeed,” he agreed. “Those are the window frames of the clerestory.” In some of the openings, the grills were still intact.

“So it would have been light here in the temple,” she mused, her gaze going to the last two great columns at the back of the hypostyle. Not only were they devoid of carvings, their surfaces weren’t nearly as smooth as the others in the hall.

“They are unfinished,” Mahmood confirmed, noting her gaze. “But they give us a hint of what was involved in building such a temple.”

“Indeed,” Diana murmured, before she continued her survey of the temple.

Several in their party had already ventured beyond the third pylon, where a complete obelisk and the base of another stood.

“The obelisks of Thutmosis the First,” Diana said before she displayed a huge grin. “I wasn’t sure they would still be here,” she remarked.

“Why not?” Randy asked.

“I feared the French might have transported them to Paris,” she whispered.

“Ah,” he replied.

“At one time, there may have been six obelisks in this area between the third and fourth pylons,” Mahmood said.

He indicated the area to the right, where a line of mounds of rubble indicated another series of pylons perpendicular to the ones they had passed through.

“That was once another entrance to the temple out there,” he explained.

“And this is where they intersected. Imagine the spectacle of the processions during the annual festivals. It would have been quite grand.”

Barbara glanced up at Will. “Rather hard to imagine given the current state of this courtyard,” she murmured.