Position 57 - The Famous Colonnade Of The Great Hypostyle Hall In The Temple Of Karnak, Thebes

Here we stand beneath the greatest columns ever erected by the hand of man. Look at that pygmy human form out yonder at the other end of the aisle, and then set it against these tremendous shafts. What a feeling of littleness as the eye soars aloft amid this forest of giant forms, each bearing its mysterious legend of a forgotten past, of vanished power and splendor, of which there is now no whisper in all the great silence round about us. Through the roofless nave the sunlight streams in and throws vast black shadows athwart the aisle, in marked contrast with the bright, serene sky against which the capitals are so sharply outlined.

Do you know that you could place a hundred men, standing upon each one of those capitals? Twelve hundred men upon these twelve capitals! Perhaps this may convey some idea of their size as the dimensions in figures cannot do. But you will want the figures. These columns are 65 feet high, 35 feet in circumference and over 11 feet through. It is a fortunate thing for the government treasury that these were not involved in the catastrophe of October 3, 1899.

We shall not understand this great hall unless we know just where we are standing. Recall what we said as we were leaving our last point of view out there on the top of the first pylon; and look again at the plan of the temple (Plan 12). You will see that we are looking westward, down the main aisle of the great hypostyle hall.

Behind us and a little to the left is the obelisk of Thutmosis I, on our left is Luxor, before us at the other end of this magnificent nave is the door which we saw from the top of the first pylon, beyond it the great first court with just the edge of the capital of the sole standing column showing at the left side of the door, through which one of the towers of the first pylon appears, balancing the other barely visible at the right side of the aisle.

We see the rubbish still encumbering the door of the first pylon yonder, to which leads the avenue of rams from the river, and a lone palm on the river bank is clearly defined against the cliffs on the other side of the river, where we stood for our first view of Thebes (Position 47). These blocks upon which we are standing belong to the third pylon, which forms the rear wall of the great hypostyle hall. It is the last work of the 18th Dynasty in the temple, having been built by Amenophis III.

At his death it formed the front of the temple and remained such until the beginning of the 19th Dynasty, when the great hall before us was undertaken. We shall see more of it later, but as it marks the transition from the 18th to the 19th Dynasty we should carefully note its position behind this great hall (Plan 12).

Now we shall move back behind the sacred lake and view the hall in its entirety. This next standpoint is given on Plan 11. We stand as the encircled red number 58 shows, on the south side of the lake, and look nearly north across it to the great hypostyle hall.