Egypt Through The Stereoscope

A Journey Through The Land Of The Pharaohs

by James Henry Breasted | 1908 | 103,705 words

Examines how stereographs were used as a means of virtual travel. Focuses on James Henry Breasted's "Egypt through the Stereoscope" (1905, 1908). Provides context for resources in the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). Part 3 of a 4 part course called "History through the Stereoscope."...

Position 60 - The Tallest Obelisk In Egypt, Erected By Queen Makere (hatshepsut) In The Karnak Temple At Thebes

We are now looking northward with the sacred lake behind us, and a little to the right; on our left with just the northernmost corner showing, is the great hall, above which rises the smaller obelisk over the intervening fourth pylon (Plan 12). Those tottering blocks just on the right of the smaller obelisk formed our rather precarious footing, as we looked down into the great hall just now (Position 59), and you see again the shattered corner of the obelisk, which we had before us as we stood up there.

This fourth pylon was built by Thutmosis I, and formed the front of the temple during a large part of the 18th Dynasty, until Amenophis III erected his pylon, now the back of the great hall, later built in front of it. At what was then the front of the temple, Thutmosis I erected the obelisk we see still standing there, but its fellow has fallen. It stood at the other side of the survivor, which is 76 feet high and 6 feet square at the base. We have the biography of the architect, an official named Ineni, who raised these obelisks of Thutmosis I, preserved in his tomb on the other side of the river.

He says of his work: “I superintended the erection of the two obelisks. … built an august boat of 120 cubits (about 200 feet) in length and 40 cubits (about 67 feet) in width, in order to transport these obelisks. They arrived in peace, safety and prosperity and landed at Karnak.” This, of course, refers to the voyage from the granite quarries at the first cataract, whence the shaft was brought hither. It will be seen that it required no mean boat to float such a pair as this down the river.

The location of the large obelisk to our right is very unusual, for you see it stands here behind the fourth pylon. Indeed, as we shall now explain, it stands in a colonnaded hall. Behind this fourth pylon, but now just out of our range on the right, is a fifth pylon, also built by Thutmosis I. This he built first, and afterward erected the fourth here on our left. In the space between these two pylons, that is, the space directly before us, where we now see the great obelisk and its fallen fellow, he raised a fine colonnaded hall, which served in his time as the hypostyle hall of the temple.

Fragments of inscriptions on his columns show that they were originally of cedar, the only reference to wooden columns in any Egyptian temple. But they were afterward replaced by stone. In this hall on a certain solemn feast day, when Amon came forth in gorgeous procession, the young and obscure prince who afterward became Thutmosis III, the greatest conqueror in Egyptian history, was nominated as king by a special oracle of the god, who stopped before the young prince as he stood in the ranks of the priests, and designated him as the future king.

Of course, this was all done by connivance and plotting of the priesthood. Under Thutmosis I's daughter, Makere (often called Hatshepsut or Hatasoo!), this hall suffered strange alteration. She placed her obelisks in it, although she was obliged to unroof it, and to remove many of the columns in order to do so. She had them brought in from this side over the spot where we now stand, and all the columns on this side of the hall, some of those on the other side, as well as the side wall behind us, had to be taken down in order to introduce and erect the obelisks.

She tells with great pride in an inscription on the base of the standing obelisk yonder, how she did it all in response to an oracle of the god Amon, and states that the obelisks were taken from the quarry in the brief space of seven months. As it now stands the great obelisk is 97½ feet high and 8½ feet square at the base, being the largest obelisk in Egypt, but not the largest known; for the queen's brother and rival for the throne, Thutmosis III, brought to this temple an obelisk 105½ feet in height, which was finally erected by his grandson, Thutmosis IV, but was afterward carried to Rome, and now stands in front of the church of St. John Lateran.

The obelisk before us is over 20 feet higher than that of Thutmosis I, and weighs some 350 tons. Of its fallen companion only this upper part before us survives, but it gives you an opportunity to examine the pyramidal point at the top. This pyramid was covered with electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, which, glittering in the sun, might be seen from afar on both sides of the river, as the queen states in her inscription.

You will see, then, that the erection of these obelisks having caused the dismantling of the temple hypostyle, it was therefore necessary for the kings of the 19th Dynasty to erect a new hypostyle in front of this, which they did, producing the great colonnaded hall which we have already visited. Thutmosis I's columns were not replaced here until the time of his grandson, Amenophis II, some forty years after the queen took them down.

But they have all fallen again, and their bases are covered by the rubbish, beneath our feet. You can distinguish the entrance between the two towers of the fourth pylon in a line with the head of that native in the white garment and between that line and the fallen obelisk.

That entrance was erected by the architect Ineni, of whom we have before spoken, and he says of it:

“I superintended the erection of the great portal named 'Amon-is-Great-in-Height'; its huge door was of Asiatic bronze, whereon was the Divine Shadow (the figure of Amon) inlaid with gold.”

All such pylon entrances as we have seen, were closed with enormous doors of bronze, or of cedar overlaid with bronze, inlaid and chased with gold and electrum. That door looked down a central aisle, the columns of which were like those of the great hypostyle, but, of course, smaller. You must imagine it as leading directly across our line of vision between the standing and the fallen obelisk. The aisle then led through a smaller, now totally ruined hypostyle, out of range on our right, then through a smaller pylon (the sixth), and some small ante-chambers, to the holy of holies. (See Plan 12.)

We shall now be able to return to our first view of the temple and notice more intelligently some of the facts and details connected with the various parts. See the red lines numbered 53, starting near the right-hand end of Plan 12.

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