What is the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak?
The Temple of Khonsu is an Egyptian temple within the Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak, near present-day Luxor. It is dedicated to Khonsu, the moon god and son of Amun and Mut. Ramesses III (20th Dynasty) began its construction on the site of an earlier temple. Later rulers, including Ramesses IV, Ramesses XI and the high priests Herihor and Pinedjem, had the temple and its pylon further decorated. In the Ptolemaic period, Ptolemy III built a monumental gateway that still stands today.
Architectural layout
The temple is often used as a textbook example of a New Kingdom temple plan because the sequence of spaces is easy to read:
- Pylon: the monumental entrance wall with two towers.
- Open forecourt with colonnade (peristyle): surrounded by papyrus columns with closed-bud capitals.
- Hypostyle hall: a roofed columned hall, here with eight columns in two rows.
- Barque chamber and sanctuary: the room for the sacred barque and the cult statue, surrounded by smaller rooms.
Towards the back, the spaces become lower and darker and the floor rises slightly. In this way visitors were led step by step towards the most sacred part. The temple measures roughly 70 by 27 metres overall.
Why it is interesting for builders
- It is a clear example of an axially symmetrical plan with a sequence of increasingly enclosed spaces.
- Many blocks are reused material from older buildings, recognisable by decoration set upside down or out of alignment.
- From 2006 to 2018, the American Research Center in Egypt carried out conservation work on the temple.
Related terms
- Pylon
- Hypostyle
- Leaf capital
- Calyx capital
- Capital in architecture
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