Karnak: Inside Ancient Egypt's Largest Temple Complex

It's one of ancient Egypt's greatest treasures. A site that ranks among the most impressive religious sanctuaries of the world in both its size and its splendor. Karnak. For more than a thousand years pharaoh after pharaoh left their mark here. From the monumental to the minuscule. But why of all places in ancient Egypt was this temple complex so significant? Why was it so significant to so many of these ancient Egyptian rulers who came here sometimes building, sometimes demolishing, sometimes extending this key site? Well today we're going to find out. Walking through this great complex near the ancient city of Thebes you can't help but be awed by the huge scale of these buildings and the rich detail you can still see on walls and columns all around you. As an ancient historian I've always been intrigued by the many different gods and goddesses that were worshipped. This was certainly true for the ancient Egyptians with a complicated polytheistic hierarchy of gods with different roles for life, death and the afterlife. Karnak story is closely entwined with one of the most important gods from this region. The god Amun. To understand Karnak you first have to understand Amun. To help me I've joined Tayyip, the director of Karnak Temple. Actually the god Amun he was one of the most important gods in the Egyptian civilisation. The first time mentioned this name of the god Amun it was during the old kingdom. To start our investigation into Amun's connection with Karnak Tayyip has brought me to the oldest building here. What is this we have in front of us? Because if I'm right this is going back to the very early history of this great temple complex at Karnak. Yes that's right. This is the white shovel. This is the most ancient part of Karnak temples. Dated to the king, to the time of the king Sinusert I. And can you see his name at all on here Tayyip? Yes this is the name of the king Sinusert. This is the old name. This is the regular name of the king Sinusert around 1960 BC during the 12th dynasty. And actually there is no part of the temple older than this shrine. The white chapel was originally constructed for Senesret some 4,000 years ago. It was dismantled by later pharaohs who wanted to make their own mark. But today the remains of pharaoh Senesret's white chapel have been reconstructed to the side of Karnak. And it's in the detail all over the walls that you can discover evidence of the close relationship pharaohs wish to stress between themselves and the god Amun. We can have a look yes here the depiction of the god Amun and we can read his name. So Kamuteth is this a particular version of Amun? Yes exactly and in his name like this it was the ethyphalic Amun. Because actually we have two forms of the god Amun. The first one as the king of the sky as the god of the sky and the sun. On the other side we have the other name Amun Ra Kamuteth. And in this case he is the ethyphalic Amun, the god of the fertility and the sexual life in ancient times. So fertility this version of Amun is all to do with fertility. Exactly and we can see the image of the god Amun. Yes and I guess is that Senesret there on the right and that's Amun on the left? Exactly this is the depiction of the king Sinusir. He has his name over his head. This is the cartouche which has the name of the king Sinusir. And he's offered a bread as offering in front of the ethyphalic god Amun Ra or Amun Kamuteth. And you can see the headdress that he's wearing crowns and with the serpent little headdress there. Actually in this form the king Sinusir he's wearing the white crown. The white crown. Yes this is just the white crown, the crown of Upper Egypt. The crown of Upper Egypt. So was there a different crown if he was king of Lower Egypt? Exactly we have the red crown and the red crown for Lower Egypt. And we can see it right here. Oh this is the red crown. You can see how different it is. Exactly, exactly. So Lower Egypt that's the end closer to the Nile Delta. Yes exactly. Lower Egypt was the region to the north and Upper Egypt later the south. And Thebes with the mighty temple of Karnak sat right at the heart. A key role of Karnak was as a home of the said festival. An official renewal ceremony of a pharaoh's power three decades into their reign. Think that this shrine for the said festival and the said festival it was very important for the Egyptian king to renewing his life, to renewing his power. So he used to celebrate with this festival after 30 years of his reign, of his ruling for the many ceremonies, many rituals in front of the common people to prove that he can control Egypt. He can rule for another 30 years. So that sometimes he used to control a bull. The bull was a symbol of strength and fertility in ancient Egypt. But the bull also had a strong link to the god Amun. In one of his forms Amun obtained the epithet Ka-Mu-Tem or bull of his mother. It refers to the belief that Amun fathered himself with his mother. By controlling a bull at the said festival the pharaoh aimed to portray himself as a divine figure still capable of ruling after 30 years on the throne of Egypt. Here we can see the name of the said festival. After 30 years on the throne, this important festival, the renewal of your, the revival of your strength, of your power. It was incredibly significant and important for the pharaohs, for their people. Yeah, that's right. So actually Tai, this altar here in the center, does this not date therefore to the time of Senesret I? Is this later? Was there originally something else in the center? Exactly, this is the point. Some Egyptologists think that this part of the shrine, the altar, the granite altar, added later to the time of the king Senesret. But originally we had a royal throne. Here, double royal throne. For the two faces, the two entrances and the king. He acting at that time himself as the king of Lower Egypt and the king of Upper Egypt during this said festival. Senesret's legacy at Karnak is clear, thanks to the preserved white chapel. This often overlooked building, full to the brim with invaluable hieroglyphs and imagery, emphasizes the importance of Karnak and Amun for pharaohs as early as 2000 BC. But this was only the beginning. As ancient Thebes' prominence increased over the following centuries, so too did Amun grow in importance. And so too did Karnak. Pharaoh after pharaoh added more to this temple complex. And by the time that the Egyptian New Kingdom dawned in the mid-2nd millennium BC, Karnak was evolving into the monumental complex you can still see today. One of the most striking constructions is this. This is the most iconic and one of the most beautiful buildings still standing at Karnak. It's the Hypostyle Hall. It's just, it's this forest of columns more than 3,000 years old. It was constructed by the 19th dynasty pharaoh Seti I, who ruled in the early 13th century BC. Now Seti I, he was one of the first rulers of the 19th dynasty and he was keen to secure their claim to the throne. And one of the ways he sought to do this from very early in his reign was by constructing monumental buildings. There are inscriptions which mention how Seti lay awake at night thinking about how he was going to improve sanctuaries, temple complexes such as here at Karnak, with a massive monumental construction in his name. But those sleepless nights evidently paid off because it resulted in this. There are 134 columns in total. In the centre, the central colonnade, there are 12 gigantic open papyrus columns, roughly 22 metres in height. The rest, the other 122, are roughly 15 metres in overall height. But they're equally impressive. Just looking at them now, you can see the reliefs, the hieroglyphs, the huge cartouches that are still visible today all around. They're absolutely incredible. It makes you feel quite small indeed. Weaving your way through the columns, you can't help but be awed by the hall's monumentality. But what was it used for? The function to build the hypostyle hall was a kind of imitation for the myth and the legend of Horus. The legend of Horus? Exactly. When the god Osiris died, the legal heir, he was his son, and his successor, the god Horus. But his uncle, he refused this, and he tried to kill him to take the throne of Egypt. The mother of the god Horus, the goddess Isis, tried to hide him in the marshes of El Delta, which at that time was filling with papyrus flowers and trees. So that they did the same here in the hypostyle hall, which looks like a veritable forest in stone. Yes, because we've got these columns here at the end, these closed papyrus columns. Exactly. Those gigantic open papyrus ones in the centre, that central colonnade. This is the point. That's the point. So it represents the papyri of this myth of this legend of Horus. Exactly. Why sometimes open, sometimes closed? We think this depends on the sunlight. Why? Because originally this part of the temple was roofed. So that the flowers on each side, it's completely under the shade. So it's not grown up easily. But in the middle, the larger columns, it comes the sunbeams from the small windows up there. Ah, so those small slits, yes. Exactly. So that it depends on the light, it's the flower grown up or not grown up. This part of the temple, the hypostyle hall, it was for the most important people, like the royal family, the people around the king, just to enter and to be in this part of the temple, to make kind of rituals and ceremonies. So completely unlike today where anyone can come in, you know, it's such a popular attraction, as we can see right now. Of course not. Back in ancient Egypt, no one would have been allowed in, no one of the common people, as you said, it was just special access. No way. But perhaps the most striking aspect of the hypostyle hall's gigantic central colonnade is the colour. Tarek, the colour here is absolutely incredible. You'd be forgiven for thinking it's been painted on, but no. I mean, what's the story behind this beautiful colour? No way. All of these colours are original, belonging to the time, yes, yes. The decoration of the hypostyle hall was begun during the time of the king's city, father of the king Ramses. And the king Ramses, the son of the king's city, and his successor, he finished the whole work and the decoration of the hypostyle hall. You can see the remaining of the colours everywhere. It's amazing to see all of these colours after 3,000 years, which we just cleaned, we used to see it covered by dust and the smog. And now we can see it very clear after the project which we started about eight months ago. The hypostyle hall's construction spanned several pharaohs. Amenhotep III may well have started the building of this central colonnade, but it was the second 19th dynasty ruler, Seti I, who extended the hall into how it looks today. Following Seti's death, his son and successor, the famous pharaoh Ramesses II, added the finishing touches, applying the final decorations to the hall's forest of columns. Amun and the pharaoh, they seem to be everywhere on these reliefs in the centre of Karmak. Actually, the scenes in the hypostyle hall, it represents many things, like the daily rituals, the mythical topics, processional scenes, and all of this, we can see the king himself, the pharaoh, interacting in front of many gods. For example, this is irtet. Irtet, it means the milk. The milk. Okay, so this is milk here. Okay. So, different kinds of offerings, offer given by the king in front of many gods and goddesses, but the main god is the god Amunra or the god Amun Kamuteth. They're absolutely everywhere, aren't they? It's absolutely stunning. And Tarek, I can't help but notice that Amun and Ramesses, these depictions of them on these columns, their faces are removed. Do we know why? Yeah. Many Egyptologists think that, actually, it's happened at the beginning of the Christian times. Ah, so Christian. Okay, right. We think that at that time, the Christians, their faces, it was forbidden at the beginning of the Christianity. But it wasn't just men who built its karnak, who wanted to align themselves closely with Amun. Hatshepsut was an extraordinary female pharaoh who ruled in the early 15th century BC. She constructed grand monuments across her kingdom. On many of these, she associated herself as the child of Amun to help legitimize her rule. And Karnak was the best place to do this. Near the center of the temple complex stands this obelisk, built for Hatshepsut. Quarried in faraway Aswan and brought down the river Nile to Karnak, it was partly covered in gold and linked Hatshepsut to Amun-Ra, a newly created version of Amun associated with the sun and creation. And she also built the Chapel Rouge, originally situated right at the heart of Karnak. The building is filled with depictions of Hatshepsut and festivals associated with Amun. Wow, the entire walking into this chapel, it's incredible the size of it once again. And here we have depictions, representations of Hatshepsut herself. Yes, we can see the queen in the middle and between the two gods, Thoth and Horus. During the purification rituals, she must to be cleaned by the sacred water before the coronation to be the pharaoh of Egypt. And after that, she must to make the coronation ceremonies after the blessing by the god Amun. Okay, so Amun is part of all of this again. And it seems, because we've got him down here as well, Amun is everywhere in this Hatshepsut temple. Exactly. Here, we can see the god Amun-Ra, and this is his title in front of his face. Amun-Ra, the lord of all the throne of the two lands, Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt. And the queen herself burned the incense in the presence of the god Amun-Ra. That represents incense? Incense, exactly, exactly. This is the incense she must to burn in front of the god Amun-Ra. And we can see the name of the queen, and this is the personal name. Ah, so that's why this name of Hatshepsut is different to that one, because it's a different person. Because every king, he has two names at least, the coronation name and the personal name. So in this case, we can see the name of the queen, the personal name of the queen, Ghenemet Imen Hatshepsut. And it means the chosen one by the god Amun. And here we can see the coronation name, Ma'et Ka Ra. And Hatshepsut, she seems to have really wanted to stress this close divine link to Amun. Exactly, and about everything belongs to the pharaohs and the kings. Even the god Amun-Ra, later he became not a local god, like he was in past, but he was the god who created the world, who created the cosmos. So he became an international god at the end of the new kingdom. And for 2000 years, he's still the main god and the most important god in the Egyptian civilization. And one of the most important objects linked to Amun-Ra at the time of Hatshepsut was the sacred bark, a wooden boat that housed the deity's holy statue. For most of the year, the bark would have remained within this all-important shrine right at the heart of Karnak. But a couple of times every year, Hatshepsut and the sacred bark would be involved in a great procession. The most important was the Opet festival, where Amun's bark processed from Karnak towards Luxor Temple along a processional route, the Avenue of Ram-Headed Sphinxes. If you know where to look in the Chapel Rouge, you can still find a depiction of this celebration. It's a very important scene here, where we can see the queen kneeling. Oh, yes. On her knees, and she's giving offerings. Oh, so these are offerings for Amun. This is the offering table, full of different kinds of offerings, like bread, fruits, vegetables, head of the bull, and the goose. The goose? Yes. There's a goose there as well. Yes, you can see it right there. Oh, yes, yes, you're right. All of this giving to the sacred bark of the god Amun, which we can see on a base in the middle. This bark of Amun, as we've got a visual depiction of it here, it's very curved, isn't it, in its design, as you say, with that central square in the middle of that box. Because actually, it's a real boat. It looks like a boat made of wood. And in the middle, we can see the nose, or the box, which had the golden statue of the god Amun inside it, but it's invisible. Because actually, the name of the god Amun, it's the invisible one, or the hidden one. The hidden one. Exactly. So his actual statue is hidden from view, it was that idea, that you couldn't actually see the representation of the god. Exactly, exactly. Just the king. Because he's the son of the god, he must open the lock to see the glory of his father. And after his praying over the offerings, like here, the Queen Hatshepsut, he covered and he closed the lock again. And they used to pray for three times per day, with the sun rising, and in the middle of the day, and at the end of the day, with the sun set. From Senesret I to Hatshepsut, again and again, pharaohs would use Karnak to stress their close association with Amun. But as you explore more and more of the complex, and decipher the words and pictures on the walls, you start to realise that for several rulers, Karnak also served another purpose. Many pharaohs also used Karnak as this place to promote their own achievements, for instance, their military successes. This is the northern exterior wall of the Great Hypostyle Hall. It was carved during the reign of Seti I to show some of his military achievements. For instance, over there at the top right, you have a depiction of the town of Kadesh in the Near East. You can see people on top of the walls, almost afraid in the advance, seeing the advance of Seti's Egyptian army. You can see other depictions too. You can see several chariots. You can see bows and arrows. And even further along, you can see crocodiles. You can see a river crossing, a depiction of Seti I and his armies crossing into Sinai. Here too, also right in front of me now, this must be the pharaoh Seti. You can see he's got the red crown of Lower Egypt and he's got, holding in his hand, these people, these prisoners, and he's about to smite them with his weapon. This classic sign, this classic depiction of ancient Egyptian art. It emphasises how Karnak, it was more than just a temple. This was, in some ways, it was a pharaonic notice board, a place where they could promote their military achievements to all who laid eyes upon it. But there was one pharaoh who took this idea to a whole new level, Ramesses II, Seti's son and successor. On the southern exterior wall of the Hypostyle Hall, Ramesses promoted his own martial achievements, centred around his major battle against the Hittites in the early 13th century BC at Kadesh. But alongside the regular military depictions of the pharaoh in his chariot, shooting arrows, smiting prisoners, and offering praise to Amun, this exterior wall has a remarkable addition that is easy to overlook. An account of the treaty that followed this battle, of what happens next. This is the Treaty of Peace, which concluded by the kings, Ramesses II and the king Hattusili from Hittite, after the Battle of Kadesh. So this was the result of the Battle of Kadesh, this peace treaty between these two great nations. One of these results, it was a treaty between both Egypt and Hittite at that time, in the year 21 of the reign of the king, Ramesses II. He concluded, signed this treaty between Egypt and Hittite to stop the war and all kinds of hostilities. It's absolutely remarkable when you think of it, that Ramesses II decided to put the whole treaty here, outside the hypostyle hall at Karnak. Yes, but he did something very intelligent because he put the treaty just beside the scenes of his battle and to prove his victory, which he claimed on the Hittites. Because actually this is the Virgin, the Egyptian Virgin, talks about the Hittites, that they came asking peace from the king Ramesses II. Actually before 1916, we didn't have anything except the Egyptian Virgin. But later in 1916, around this date, we discovered the Hittite Virgin in Bogazkoy in Turkey. In the excavation of one of the scholars there, he found the Hittite Virgin who talks about something reverse of the Egyptian Virgin. This treaty is the oldest recorded peace treaty in history and you can still decipher key parts of it today. Well, let's have a look at some of the details of this treaty now because I'd love to really delve into this. I mean, I see a cartouche right here. What is this cartouche? For example, this is the cartouche of the king Ramesses II. Oh, so this is Ramesses II? Yes, that's right. The most powerful king chosen by the king, by the god Ra. So, and here we can see something very important. This is the name of Khet or Kheti. This is the name of the Hittites. Of the Hittites? Exactly. Right, okay. Yeah. So you have Ramesses here, you have the Hittites, his opponents there. Do we also have any mention here at all of the Hittite king, of the Hittite ruler? Up there, at the beginning of the treaty, we can see in the third line from the top, on the left, we can see the name of the city, Hittite empire. And after that, we can see the remains of the name Khatusiri. Khatusiri. Or Khatusha. He was the king who concluded the treaty with the king Ramesses II after they finished this war and all the kinds of these hostilities between the two empires. And even later, after about 12 years, it was something very important to know that the king Ramesses, he married the daughter of Khatusha or Khatusiri. And this action, it was the first political marriage in the history. A lot of firsts, a lot of real significance behind this, isn't there? I mean, Taib, you mentioned the year 21 that this treaty was signed. How do we know that? How do we know it was the 21st year? Okay, we can see that at the beginning. And this is actually Egyptian tradition. At the beginning, he must mention the date, the history, the date exactly, and the name of the king with his titles. So that at the beginning, on the right, we can see this sign. This sign, it's 10. So we will see 210. So it's like an upward down, it's like a crescent. Exactly, exactly. It's a U-shape, like U-shape. We will see two like this. It means 20 and one. So this is in his year 21. This treaty, it's very important in the international relations. There is a replica of this. Treaty still exists, hangs in the headquarter of United Nations. No way. That's right. That's a great fact, right there. But it wasn't just native Egyptian rulers who built this great sanctuary. This is the Taharqa kiosk. It looks quite lonely today in the courtyard near Karnak's great entrance, but it tells an important story. Taharqa was a pharaoh of the 25th dynasty, also known as the Nubian dynasty. This dynasty originated from the kingdom of Kush, further up the river Nile in what is now Sudan. It came to rule Egypt for almost a century. Taharqa was a devout worshipper of Amun and constructed several buildings at Karnak. This column is all that remains of one of these constructions, which originally had 10 columns topped with open papyrus almost 19 meters in height. The building doesn't seem to have been roofed, so it perhaps served as a colonnaded port to the temple of Amun. It's a remarkable symbol of the power of Karnak for many pharaohs of Egypt, no matter their place of origin. But for me, there is the construction of one particular non-native Egyptian ruler that trumps all others. And it still stands just where it was first built, right at the very heart of Karnak. I'm here at the centre of Karnak in the holiest of holies, the central bark shrine of the god Amun. But this red granite bark shrine, what's so interesting about it, is that it's not associated with a native Egyptian pharaoh, this one at least. No, it's associated with a Macedonian king, King Philip Aridaeus III, the half-brother, the elder half-brother of Alexander the Great. Philip Aridaeus' reign was relatively brief, ruling for just six years in the chaotic aftermath of Alexander the Great's death. He ventured into Egypt only once, trying to remove the governor of Egypt, Ptolemy. The invasion was a disaster, but Ptolemy was prepared to become an ally of Philip. What followed was a great reconciliation on the banks of the River Nile. But what's so interesting in that story is that Ptolemy met with King Philip Aridaeus III during this reconciliation, and it might have been one of Ptolemy's acts to show that he was loyal to the king, that he wasn't going to make Egypt this breakaway province. One thing that he might have done was to promise to erect this shrine in Philip Aridaeus' name at this beating heart of ancient Egyptian culture at Karnak. Could this red granite shrine here, dedicated, associated with King Philip Aridaeus III, actually all be to do with Ptolemy? Ptolemy's influence over the construction of this granite-sparked shrine seems almost certain. But it's Philip Aridaeus, this often-overlooked Macedonian king, who dominates this holiest of polies at Karnak. Ah, and here we are, just outside on the exterior wall of the granite-barked shrine. Here is a depiction of the man himself, of King Philip Aridaeus III, in the guise of an Egyptian pharaoh. And what's so astonishing about this, you can see his crown he is wearing. Just to the right of that crown you can see a cartouche, and that cartouche is that of King Philip Aridaeus III, the Macedonian king, the elder half-brother of Alexander the Great. From Semesret I to Philip Aridaeus more than a millennia and a half later, Karnak remained this great bastion of ancient Egyptian culture, with the god Amun right at its centre. And its importance remained down into Roman times, until the arrival of a new religion that not even Amun and his fluid character could contend with. There are clues to this new religion on the walls of one of Karnak's loveliest buildings. I've come here to the eastern end of the Karnak complex, to the Akhmenu, the festival hall of the pharaoh Thutmose III. It was constructed very early in Thutmose's reign, and it is an absolutely stunning structure. Thutmose III, he was the stepson of Hatshepsut. This was meant to be a temple to Amun, the god Amun, Amun-Ra, but also to the pharaoh himself, to Thutmose III himself. It came complete with its own priesthood. This is the central complex, filled with all of these columns. You have these square peg columns around the outside, 32 of them in total, and in the centre here you have this colonnade of more rounded columns. It's one of the most stunning structures surviving at Karnak today. And it's also fascinating for looking at the afterlife of Karnak, when the worship of ancient Egyptian gods came to an end. If you look very closely here, you can see what happened when Christianity came to Egypt. Structures like this were taken over by Christians and transformed into churches. This complex became a church, and you can see the evidence of that, one piece of evidence right up there. You can see a depiction of a Christian figure, of a Christian saint. You can notice the halo above the head. You might be able to pick out the beard and you might be able to pick out that he has in his hands a book, the Bible. That is an image of John the Evangelist. It's a wonderful example. There are many examples on several of these columns. You can see Christian representations right here in this ancient Egyptian temple. Alongside the Christian depictions, you can't help but also see another more recent inscription on one of these columns. Now the story of this temple doesn't end with these Christian depictions. No, we've got something from even more recently in our history, on this column right here. Because if you look up once again, you can see a name etched into the column, the name of Champollion, the man who deciphered hieroglyphs, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone. Even Champollion decided to etch his name, his graffiti into this ancient Egyptian temple, etched onto a column that was erected some 3,000 years before he was even around. From Senesret I to Philip Aridaeus III, from Ramesses II to Champollion, within this massive temple complex, you can discover evidence and remains that stretch 4,000 years. And at the heart of it all, was the worship of one of antiquity's most extraordinary deities, Amun. Thanks to the incredible amount of archaeology that has survived, the sensational feeling you get walking through Karnak is unparalleled. But away from the monumental, it's only by looking at the much smaller details that you really start to understand the importance of this temple complex. It's a site where every hieroglyph tells its own story, a place filled with often overlooked features that reveal what mattered most to these ancient Egyptian pharaohs, from religious ceremonies to military boasts. As the archaeological work here continues, and more and more artifacts are unearthed, it's a place that will continue to reveal its secrets in the years ahead. The legacy of Karnak lives on.