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The Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project
The Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project
Welcome to the Great Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Karnak. In antiquity, Karnak
was the largest religious sanctuary in Egypt's imperial capital of Thebes (modern
Luxor) and was home to the god Amun-Re, king of the Egyptian pantheon. For over 2000
years, successive pharaohs rebuilt and expanded the temples of Karnak, making it the
largest complex of religious monuments from the ancient world.
At the heart of Karnak, the Nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh Sety I (reigned ca. 1291-1279
BCE) erected his Great Hypostyle Hall, a colossal forest of 134 giant sandstone columns
supporting a high clerestory roof and enclosed by massive walls that after 3300 years
remain substantially intact today. The Great Hall is vast. It covers an acre of land,
and its great columns soar to heights of 20 meters. Not only does the scale and completeness
of this monument remain a rarity among ancient Egyptian temples, but it is also the
largest and most elaborately decorated of all such buildings in Egypt. Visitors often
remark on the bewildering array of inscriptions covering every surface: the walls,
columns, and even the roof! The patchwork of artistic styles and different royal names
seen in these inscriptions and relief sculptures reflect the different stages at which
they were carved over the centuries. Successive pharaohs, Roman emperors, high priests
and common Egyptians added to its wealth of inscriptions and relief decoration, made
architectural alterations and restorations, and even left pious graffiti on its walls...
The Karnak Hypostyle Hall Project of the University of Memphis, William J. Murnane,
Founding Director (1945-2000)
Although the University of Memphis' mission to Karnak only began in 1990, the roots
of the Project go back decades earlier. From the early 1970s until his untimely death
in 2000, Dr. William J. Murnane was the driving force behind the recording and study
of the Great Hypostyle Hall. We dedicate this site and our ongoing work to our beloved
colleague...
Reliefs and Inscriptions
The main goal of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall Project is to record and publish all of
the hieroglyphic text from the monument and to make them as widely accessible as possible
through dissemination of English translations of all the texts with photographs and
line drawing facsimiles of all the inscriptions. From this page, the user will find
links to PDF documents of all the inscriptions that we have recorded and translated.
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