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Medinet Habu |
last update:
14.01.2010
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Description of the 18. Dynasty Temple - Ambulatory |
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The floor plan above shows the parts of the small temple of Amun which
were built during the reign of Hatshepsut (I-----I)
or Thutmosis III (I-----I). The red
lines in the chapels built by Hatshepsut mark the walls which had been
decorated by Hatshepsut - all other parts of the walls were either
decorated by Thutmosis III or sketched by Hatshepsut but carved for Thutmosis
III.
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Above a reconstruction of the small temple of Amun after the temple had
been extended by Thutmosis III (Hölscher, 1930)
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The today's gallery has a few
alterations from later periods. For example, today 4 polygonal columns with a
rather strange arrangement are standing in the ambulatory (the left photo below
shows the eastern one of two columns on the north side). These polygonal columns
were built-in by Achoris (3rd king of the 29th Dynasty), when construction
faults in the foundation led to cracks in the barque shrine of Thutmosis III.
The columns were taken from the adjacent chapels of the "God's Wifes of Amun" as
testified by the cartouche of Amenirdis ont one of the columns. The columns were
used to support in each case three or four stone blocks of the ceiling. |
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Polygonal columns built-in by Achoris (3rd king of the 29th Dyn.) |
Formerly plastered cartouche of the "God's Wife" Amenirdis. |
The access to the temples has been changed too. Originally, the ambulatory
had only one entrance on the eastern side. Later 4 barriers (parapets) were
removed between the pillars, so that the temple received two accesses on the
north side as well as the south side.
On the northern side a gate (the next photo) was inserted between both
eastern pillars by Achoris.
On the opposite south side another entrance was built at the same time
together with the Ptolemaic wing. According to Hölscher it cannot be
ascertained anymore when other both entrances had been built.
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East side of the shrine and the gate of Achoris (right), behind the gate of
Achoris the northern wing built in the ptolemaic period. |
Sometime the windows were closed between the pillars with two stone slabs
mounted on top of each other. One them is preserved from in situ in the southern
window of the eastern side. These stone slabs were decorated on their outer side
- the decoration of the preserved slab dates from the Saitic period and shows
Isis and Osiris before an offering table, on the other side of the table a goddess (Satet?;
Porter&Moss, Vol. II, p. 466) is depicted holding arrows and a bow in her hands.
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Above teh east side of the 18. Dynasty-temple with the last stone slab placed in
the (southern) left window. The photo below shows the decoration dated from the
Saitic period. |
The ambulatory was probably built completely by Thutmosis III. Only the 4
pillars of the eastern front (without pillarsat the corners) could still have
been begun under Hatshepsut, because their horizontal joints lie in another
level{plain} than those of the remaining pillars. The pillars are approx. 87 cms
square, on the eastern side they are more closely spaced than on the other sides.
The pillars are connected with parapet walls (intercolumnar walls) which were
rounded at the top.
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Above: the entrance of the gallery (ambulatory) viewed from
the court erected during the Kushite period.
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For the following presentation of the pillars, i.e. their decoration, the
pillars were numbered as usual (see for comparison: Porter&Moss, BD II, or Myśliwiec,
1985). The numbering starts at the eastern entrance, the pillars A - H
are south and the pillars
I - P are north of the temple-axis. |
All pillars were decorated on three sides by Thutmosis III, the outer sides -
like the whole outside of the temple - were not decorated (until Ramses III).
All representations always show Thutmosis III before a divinity - on the photo
below he is shown on the eastern side of pillar P before Upuaut, "Lord of the
Necropolis ", and receives "life" (in this scene Thutmosis III wears the Red
Crown of Upper Egypt.
Almost all representations of the divinities were erased in the time of Akhnaton
and restored in the 19th dynasty.
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Myśliwiec stated (1985) that the scenes on the pillars should exhibit a special
distribution. According to his analysis the king appears on the inside of each
pillar always before Amun-Ra whereby he should wear in any of these presentation
in correspondence with the geographic partition of the "Two Lands" on the north
side the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and on the south side the White Crown of Upper
Egypt.
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Both statements prove untenable as for example on the photo above the king is
depicted on the inside of pillar M wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt (this
can also be demonstrated at other places). On the inside of pillar N (photo
below) he embraces the ithyphallic Amun-Kamutef, "Lord of the Heaven".
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The insides of the pillars show the following arrangement (see als the table
below):
- the king is always depicted before one of the two manifestations of Amun;
- on the south side the king always weras the White Crown of Upper Egypt -
except on pillar F (where he is depicted before the ithyphallic Amun, and
wears a kind of a wig);
- on the north side the king wears alternating the Red and the White Crown,
parallel to pillar F on the south side he wears a special headress (nemes) in
front of the ithyphallic Amun. |
Pillar Inside |
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Pillar Inside |
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East Wall - north side |
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East Wall - south side |
Amun-Ra |
I |
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A |
Amun-Ra |
Amun-Ra |
j |
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B |
Amun-Ra |
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North Wall |
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South Wall |
Amun-Ra |
L |
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D |
Amun-Ra |
Amun-Ra |
M |
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E |
Amun-Ra |
ithyphallic Amun |
N |
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F |
ithyphallic Amun |
Amun-Ra |
O |
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G |
Amun-Ra |
Amun-Ra |
P |
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H |
Amun-Ra |
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Red Crown |
Nemes |
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??? |
White Crown |
The table shows encoded in colors the distribution of the
different types of crowns on the inside of the pillars which belong to the east
wall (A,B, I, and J) and to the north or south wall.
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From the table above it arises clearly that the statement of Myśliwiec applies
only to the insides of the 4 pillars of the east wall (front side) of the
ambulatory (i.e. for pillars I and J north of the temple axis, as well as to A
and B south of the axis ; the pillars at the corner do not belong to the front
wall).
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In the representation for the peripteral temple
Thutmosis III impresses particularly by various feather crowns. In general these
crowns consist of some constant elements whose presence is optional:
two ostrich feather,
two falcon feathers,
two horizontal ram horns,
two high cow horns,
two little animal horns,
one solar disc,
two or more cobras of equal number.
The right photo of the north wall shows a scene in which Thutmosis III.
is performing grounding ceremonies. |
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In this group most often two crown types appear in which two ostrich
feathers form the main element:
a) the "atef"-Crown which consists of two ostrich feathers
framing a kind of "tiara" that looks like the White Crown (see
photo above),
b) a crown assigned to the god Anedjtj in which the feathers are
directly mounted on ram horns (as shown on western side of pillar M
where Thutmosis III stands before Seth, "Lord of Upper Egypt, Lord of
Heaven ", right photo).
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The representation of the gods on the transverse sides of the
pillars reveal the following arrangement (see table below):
- on the eastern, the front side of the temple, the main deities of the country
and those of the realm of the dead are presented;
- on the south side appear the gods whose names show a geographical allocation
to Nubia and the parts of Upper Egypt which lie to the south of Thebes; Sobek
and Harendotes which have no geographical epithets establish an exception here;
- on the north side various gods have been arranged or those who have relations
with the counties which lie north of Thebes.
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Pillar |
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Pillar |
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Pillar |
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Pillar |
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East Wall - north side |
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East Wall - south side |
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J |
Amaunet |
Amun-Ra |
I |
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A |
Atum |
Ra-Horakhti |
B |
K |
Month |
Mut |
J |
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B |
Osiris |
Anubis |
C |
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North Wall |
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South Wall |
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L |
Gate of Achoris |
K |
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C |
Harendotes |
Sobek |
D |
M |
Haroeris |
Hathor of Theben |
L |
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D |
Hathor of Edfu |
Satet |
E |
N |
Hathor of Dendera |
Seth |
M |
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E |
Khnum |
Anuket |
F |
O |
Harsiese |
Onuris-Shu |
N |
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F |
Horus Behedetj |
Horus |
G |
P |
Upuaut |
Khnum (Hypselis) |
O |
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G |
Nekhbet |
Menhit (Esna)
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H |
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Thot |
P |
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H |
Horus (Nubia) |
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Double
Crown |
White
Crown |
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Red Crown |
Feathercrown |
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The table shows which gods are presented opposite to each
other on the transverse sides of the pillars and indicates by color-coding which
crown Thutmosis III wears before the god. On the south side only feather crowns
appear with 2 exceptions. Myśliwiec explains this by the fact that the king
faces on pillar G the patron goddess Nekhbet and with a parallelism between the
pillars H and P the exceptions. On the north side no special arrangement reveals
itself.
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On the opposite transverse sides of pillars I (right) and J
(links) Myśliwiec detects an interesting combination of gods and crowns.
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On the right (pillar I) Thutmosis
III. appears before Amun wearing the Red Crown of Upper Egypt, on the left (pillar J)
he wears before Amaunet a doublefeather crown like Amun (plus ram horns),
whereas now the goddess is depicted with the Red Crown of Upper Egypt.
Does Thutmosis identify himself with Amun, the husband of Amunet?
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Myśliwiec supposes additional ideas behind the decoration,
e.g. the representation of gods with solar aspects (Atum, Ra-Horahkti) on
opposite pillar sides, but he could demonstrate them - again with exceptions -
only on pillars south of the temple axis.
Independent of all details and possible ideas behind the decoration, above all,
obviously one statement of Thutmosis III. was behind the representation of the
king in the presence of the most important gods of the Egyptian realm of gods:
"I am the legitimated ruler, accepted by all gods."
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The temple from the 18th Dynasty had only one access on its
eastern side (see photo below) which probably could not be closed by a gate.
Only the eastern outside of the temple was decorated with relief and
inscriptions. The architrave bears a long inscription with titles of Thutmosis
III, the outsides of the 6 pillar show the king in front of Amun. On the
southern outside Thutmosis III wears like on the southern inside always the
White Crown of Upper Egypt. On northern outside he wears a Red Crown or a Double
Crown (on the left) and a feather crown with 2 cobras and ram horns (middle).
The representation on the right corner pillar is not visible due to the Ptolemaic extension. |
On left half of the Ptolemaic lintel Ptolemy VII
Euergetes and Cleopatra II are depicted before the ithyphallic Amun and Amaunet,
on the right of it Ptolemy offers a figure of Ma'at to Amun and Mut. On the
right half Ptolemy and Cleopatra III are shown before Re-Horakhti and Hathor
(far right), to the left Ptolemy offers again a figure Ma'at to Amun and Khons.
The lintel is crowned with a winged solar disc with 2 cobras. |
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