Ancient Egyptian Capital of Waset (Part 1)

 

Waset also known as Thebes in Greek, was the political center of Ancient Egypt during much of the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550 BC - 1070 BC). This was a golden age of unprecedented prosperity and military expansion. Egyptian armies led by their living gods, were marching as far as modern day Syria, Turkey or Ethiopia. To worship their deities and to commemorate own military achievements, Egyptian Pharaohs were organizing grand-scale construction projects. Employing thousands of people, they were building massive temple complexes with no parallel in any other civilization. Even after the political center had been moved to the Nile Delta, Waset remained a religious center for many centuries thereafter.

Today Waset area, situated around the modern day city of Luxor, still represents the greatest concentration of temples in Egypt. Although we can admire primarily the remaining sacral architecture, Waset was a living city with some 40-80 000 inhabitants. Unfortunately only the religious buildings were made of stone blocks and the most common building material were adobe bricks. Thus ordinary dwellings, administrative buildings or even royal palaces virtually vanished under the modern house-development.

Egypt is one of those countries which are heavily polluted by mass-tourism. Sacred places once opened only to a few chosen individuals are now crowded with visitors. And therefore I decided to show the beauty of the Egyptian art and architecture without this disturbing element. Hence some of the following photos were software-enhanced. The opening visualization is based on a scaled-down model of temple of Amun which is currently on display in the entrance hall of Karnak Temple.

    Drawing of the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

Luxor Temple

 

 Luxor Temple was dedicated to the sun god Amun-Re and like other Egyptian temple complexes, it was a result of continual construction. The development of Luxor Temple lasted for 3000 years and even today due to the construction of mosque of Abu el-Haggagit within the inner court, it is still used as a religious center.

The core of Luxor Temple was built by Pharaoh Amenhotep III a great builder who left his imprint not only on Luxor and Karnak temples, but also decided to build an enormous mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile. Another Pharaoh who built extensively in Luxor Temple was Hatshepsut. Unfortunately most of her work was later replaced in order to erase her name from the recorded history. Further great expansion came with the reign of Ramesses II (1279 BC - 1213 BC). At this period Luxor Temple had gained its final shape, although some minor expansions were made in the following centuries.

Some 300 years after Ramesse II had largely expanded Luxor Temple, Pharaoh Nectanebo I built this impressive avenue with hundreds of human-headed sphinxes. Originally it was a 3 km long  processional avenue to Karnak Temple.

The entrance to Luxor Temple was guarded by six colossi of Ramesses II and two obelisks. One of the obelisks is now placed at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

                     Ramesses II depicted during the famous battle of Kadesh.

Colossi of Ramesses II

The great Court of Rameses II formed by huge papyrus-bud columns.