Art of Waset, which in the Bible is called But the Greeks called Thebes. Thebes was located near the present Luxor, and its prosperity survived in the New Kingdom period, when it was the capital of Egypt. In 663 BC the city was destroyed by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, and from the little that remains. But still majestic ruins his temples produce indescribable impression on visitors.


Two great temple was in Thebes - Karnak and Luxor, and they were devoted to the sun God Amon-RA. Every morning he is young and mighty - ascended into heaven to give life to the earth. In the evening I was getting old, died to-morrow again be born young and mighty and again pass your way into heaven. So the gods have purposed for people to grow old and die to be reborn. In this circle of life...

Karnak and Luxor were connected by a long Avenue of sphinxes with RAM heads, carved from stone. This alley is called the path of the gods, for in the sacred holidays with Barca statue traveled from one temple to another. In the last century, some monuments were covered with sand brought from the desert, as if they were under the shroud, hiding them from the sun. However, the ensemble of the temple at Karnak with his gate, courtyards and halls with numerous columns, statues and obelisks, in all its magnificence and mystery of luxury is the greatest monument of Ancient Egypt and proves the ancient glory of the king of all Egyptian cities.

The beautiful and Grand Karnak, the main sanctuary of the country. This place earthly sojourn of the God Amun. In 1828 in front of its ruins there was a young French scientist Jean Francois Champollion, happy that he was sent excavations on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. It was a beautiful journey in his life, and he's deservedly rewarded for it to France, having subsequently mysterious characters of the ancient Egyptians.

The scientist had a premonition that awaits him - because for Homer in the "Iliad" admired one hundred gates Thebes. His heart was ready to jump out of his chest when he saw lying before him the city. Pylons (giant gate) welcomed it; colonnade and halls with columns struck with beautiful reliefs, statues of kings, wall paintings depicting scenes from the life of Pharaoh, sacrifice and war. Destroyed churches and chapels... It was something indescribable, but the scientist still wrote in his diary: "I finally got in Karnak, I saw the luxury in which the pharaohs. All that could invent and create people in giant size. As if these were not people but the giants growth in hundred feet".

When Champollion went through a huge gate (nearly 44 meters high and 113 meters in width), whose gigantic stone blocks 15-meter thickness defended the sanctuary, he found himself in a huge yard of one of the greatest temples of Ancient Egypt. The great temple of Karnak was dedicated to Amun, God of the winds and air. It depicted in the crown of the two high feathers, and a sacred animal of the God Amon was a RAM. At first Amon was dependent local deity, but pharaohs of the New Kingdom turned it into a nationwide God. Since XVI century Amon became identified with the God of the Sun RA.

In the early period of the New Kingdom, a small temple of Amun was increased by the Pharaoh Tuthmosis I, and his successors expanded the temple even more.

In the center of the court and the parties settled the colonnade, everywhere lay breakaway pieces of statues. Although Champollion saw the mountain ruins, he immediately felt the greatness that was in these structures. The second pylon led him to the Great hypostyle hall, which covers an area of 5000 square meters and today stands under the open sky. This huge square stood a forest of giant pillars of Sandstone. In ranks, by sixteen columns each, stood before him 134 columns, and each of them was called the silent amazement. In the middle of the rose 12 "papyrus columns" height of 21 meters, each more than 10 meters in circumference. The remaining 122 columns were 13 metres high and about 9 meters in circumference. The shape and arrangement of columns create such a play of light and shadow that still Karnak is unsurpassed architectural masterpiece.

In the centre of the hypostyle hall stands a giant statue of Ramses, and next to it a fragile blue-eyed woman his beloved wife Nefertiti. "I put it on the left, where is my heart, for I love her".

Trunks columns and walls of the hall were covered with reliefs. Engraved in stone, and then painted with bright colors, the shape of the painted figures slightly above the background.

The Central relief was a huge image of the Pharaoh. Frantically galloping horses carried him in a chariot, and he was aiming an arrow at the fleeing enemies. Their tiny figures seemed miserable before a giant of a winner.

In the dazzling sunlight sparkled bronze paint-tanned body of Pharaoh, white, colored necklaces God Amun in Caracarai, bracelets and blue metal weapons. On the walls and obelisks inscribed hymns to the gods, stories about battles, the names of pharaohs in the Royal cartouches. Among them, the name of the only in the history of the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut. "You, who through the ages will see these monuments will be surprised! To gild them, I gave as much gold as if it were sacks of grain".

Behind the gates was a huge yard in which, like in the thickets of the papyri on the banks of the Nile, the man was surrounded associated bundles stems with flowers and the unopened buds. Really one of the builders of the temple decided to use columns form of plants, seen in nature? Who knows... But brittle stems are thin and delicate petals of flowers, having increased thousands of times, became capitals of the columns. Themselves columns represent palms, which (on Egyptian mythology) grew on the Island of Creation of origin of the world. These columns supported the roof, which once were hypostyle hall at the height of 24 meters.

Lonely and stood thoughtfully Champollion of giant buildings, among the silent beauty of the past. But he had not known about the Harris papyrus, where it was said that in the Holy Karnak was once 86 000 statues.

Champollion already was shocked that opened before him greatness. Built by Ramses temple eclipsed everything that was built on the planet before. It was built many years. One architect died, and his place was taken by another. Tens of thousands of slaves were killed during the exhausting work, but no one believed. The place of the dead were brought new, and the Church was built and grew up, claiming the unparalleled strength of the king and all-powerful gods.

One of the reliefs of the main hall represents Pharaoh, who leads the captives and brings trophies some other king, a figure which is also great as a figure of Pharaoh himself. Only on the crown of that shines a large disk, and in his hands - something like a cross with a handle in the form of a loop. This is that, in honor of whom built the temple of the Sun God Amon-RA. In his hands he holds a sign of life, and the drive to it the crown represents the Sun.

In the depth, behind the hall of columns, there is the statue of the God. It is hidden from all the sanctuary, in the Holy Barka, in which (as did the Egyptians) the Sun makes its way across the sky. During big holidays (for example, when the high priest was announced the beginning of the flooding of the Nile) from the gates of the temple at Karnak went gold Barca Amon. It was followed by two obelisks, but now the second obelisk is not in Carnac. He was taken away by Napoleon and now adorns the Concord square in Paris.

The path of the God Amon was in Luxor. Ahead in a chariot drawn by five horses, went Pharaoh, God is similar. On his shoulders Cape from the skin of a leopard, in the hands of the Golden rod and whip him... under the drum roll and the whistle of horns followed all the other scribes, the court, judge. Colorful procession closed archers and guards.

At the gates of the Luxor temple they were met by skinheads priests and were transmitted to the altar, where he burned incense and lay already killed the Hulk of a bull. Pharaoh asked God's blessings. The priests were repeated his words and tysyachegolosaya the crowd outside the Church eagerly caught every sound, stealing prayer.

Then Pharaoh followed in the sanctuary, where he kept the statue of the God of the Nile, and dropped his lips to her feet. And then came with his retinue to the people. All stood face to the river and sang her praises. The priests were put in the water a long papyrus roll and drift away. The crowd rejoiced: people on the shore and boat waved palm branches and burning torches.

So spoke the ancient Chronicles... But even in the holidays of the God Amon can't see the eyes of other people - gold sacred Barca hides it from their views, and the rest of the priests hiding of God in a vast, mysterious and inaccessible temple...