Position 55 - Avenue Of Sacred Rams, Leading From The River To The Western Entrance Of The Karnak Temple (after Excavation)

The tramway now lies piled up in sections beyond the obelisk on the right and, thanks to its efficiency and the native laborers, the rubbish in the avenue has vanished, though it remains in great masses on either side awaiting a future campaign. This obelisk on our right, with the native in a snowy garment striving in vain to puzzle out the writing of his forefathers, was erected by Sethos II, toward the close of the 19th Dynasty (Plan 11). It was Ramses II who erected this splendid avenue of sphinxes, or really of rams, though they are often called sphinxes.

The row on the right is in an unusually good state of preservation, and you observe the statues of the king standing between the protecting forepaws of each ram. The ram was the sacred animal of Amon, the great god of Thebes; and hence his use as the exclusive figure in the sculpture along these Theban avenues, thus expressing in an oft-repeated symbol the god's protection of the king. This avenue doubtless once extended beyond the point now occupied by the first pylon, which was not yet built in Ramses II's time, and led up to the entrance between the towers of the second pylon, which you can see through the first pylon.

Here the splendid festal processions of Amon passed up from the river to the state temple; but now it sees nothing more impressive than a straggling line of Cook's tourists, riding up to the gate on such tiny donkeys as this one, now in the avenue; while an eloquent descendant of the Pharaohs, employed for the purpose, discourses learnedly to the unsuspecting travelers upon historical incidents connected with the temple, which never occurred, and of which he knows very little more than his dupes.

This pylon, thus erected across Ramses II's avenue, is the largest in Egypt, being 50 feet thick, 142 feet high, and forming a front no less than 376 feet wide. But it was never completed, and portions of the brick scaffolding used in its erection are still to be found beneath these heaps of rubbish on either side. It was the last work done on this temple so far as we know, and after it was abandoned, the Romans allowed the temple to fall into ruin. The gateway of iron, which stands open before us, is the work of the government for keeping out the natives and preventing vandalism in the temple.

The timbers across the door in the second pylon are also modern repairs, of which we shall have more to say later on. Through these timbers you can see the columns of the great hypostyle hall, and far beyond appears the “east gate” (Plan 11), which forms the entrance to the temple enclosure through the sun-dried brick wall surrounding the entire sanctuary. We saw another gate in that same wall in looking down the “western avenue of rams” (Position 52). That “east gate” yonder is over a third of a mile away, which is the distance between the extreme eastern and western approaches of this enormous temple.

We shall presently be able to see the wall to which it belongs, for we are about to climb the staircase that leads up through the interior of the left-hand tower before us, look down into the court that is beyond, and over the great hypostyle hall behind the court; when we shall see the brick enclosure wall (“girdle wall” on Plan 11), far beyond. Find the red lines numbered 56, which indicate this next standpoint and our field of vision from it on Plan 11. It is also given on Plan 12, an enlarged plan of this temple.