Internal Developments: Significance of Building Programs Flashcards
“I made another monument for him who begat me, Amun-Re Lord of Thebes, who established me upon his throne.” (Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt Vol. 2)
Historian Perspective
Expresses the use of buildings and monuments to worship religious figures.
“Ideology needs architecture for its fullest expression.” (Kemp, Ancient Egypt, Anatomy of a Civilisation)
Historian Perspective
Barry Kemp, a respected Egyptian scholar sums up the varied motives for the building policies pursued by New Kingdom pharaohs.
Significance of Building Programs
Building was a politico-religious activity.
As each pharaoh came to the throne, he initiated the program that was to determine all building activity in his reign.
Political
Significance of Building Programs
- Monumental size meant to impress
- Temples in Nubia → the subjugation of the Nubian tribe
- Temple at Soleb → Amenhotep III dedicated it to himself as a message of the might of Egypt and its king
Religious
Significance of Building Programs
- Dedicating palaces and temples to particular gods to show piety
- The relationship between the gods and kingship could be expressed (Temple of Amun → Amenhotep III’s divine birth scenes)
- Opet festival - vital to the concept of kingship
Additionally, Akhenaten’s departure from the worhip of Amun and the subsequent return to orthodoxy cn be observed through the buildings erected.
Economical
Significance of Building Programs
- The pharaoh is the upholder of maat, providing stability to the economy (somehow…)
- Once built, temples were endowed with permanent sources of revenue.
- Surplus grain was stored in the built-in magazines (Ramesses II’s mortuary temple)
- Regular occupation for workers of varying skill
- Can own herds, fishing/fowling rights, ships, barges, mineral resources etc. (Seti I’s Temple in Abydos would mine gold from the eastern desert)
- Winnings of war were used to fund the pharaonic building programs.
Purposes of Building Programs (8)
- Development of the ideology of kingship
- Promotion of the Amun cult
- Maintenance of traditional pharaonic building policy
- Promotion of solar worship
- Construction of funerary monument
- Maintenance of pharaonic control
- Self promotion of the pharaoh
- Establishment of new capitals (Akhenaten, Ramesses II)
Amenhotep III
Builders of the 18th Dynasty
Most prolific builder of 18th Dynasty Egypt
Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak
- Constructed the third pylon which acted as a new entrance
- Constructed the tenth pylon, oriented towards Luxor Temple
- Constructed temples to Mut and Maat (solar theology)
Luxor Temple
- Divine birth reliefs → claimed he was the offspring of Mutemweia (his mum) and the god Amun
Mortuary Temple
- Located at the west bank at Thebes (largest in New Kingdom)
Malkata Complex
Buildings in Quaban (Wadi es-Subua, Soleb, Sedeinga)
- Soleb: depicted worshipping himself as a god
- Sedeinga: Tiye is worshipped as a deity
Notably began to build open sun courts in front of his buildings to identify with the sun-god, Re, in the latter part of his reign.
Akhenaten
Builders of the 18th Dynasty
Focused exclusively on the new deity, the Aten.
Four Temples at East Karnak, Thebes
- All dedicated to the Aten
Moving the Capital to Akhetaten
Layouts/Methods
- The roofed temples and inner sanctuaries that were used in the worship of Amun were replaced by wide open courts to allow sunlight.
- Talatat - small blocks of a half-cubit in length that allowed for faster construction (one could be carried by each man)
- Raised and sunken reliefs were used to make effective use of the angles of the sun
- Glazed tiles decorated with brightly painted motifs of nature
- The use of registers was exchanged for decorating entire walls with a single scene
Smenkhkare
Builders of the 18th Dynasty
Followed tradition
Addition to the Great Palace at Akhetaten
- Huge hall with 546 square columns, all built with bricks inscribed ‘Ankhkheperure’ (throne name)
Mortuary Temple
- Existence evidenced by a graffito from a Theban tomb referring to an involved priest
Tutankhamun
Builders of the 18th Dynasty
More extensive than realised.
Tomb in Thebes
- Unfinished when he died
Temple of Amun in Karnak + Others
- Restoration Stela refers to his rebuilding of temples neglected during the reigns of his predecessors (Temple of Amun, Karnak)
Sixth Pylon
- Repaired it
Two Temples (of his own)
- One was called the ‘mansion of Nebkheperure, beloved of Amun, who sets Thebes in order’
Reliefs of the Opet Festival
- Adorn the walls of a colonnaded hall in the Temple of Amun in Luxor
- Later taken over by Horemheb
Mortuary Temple
- Erected near the later site of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu
Ay
Builders of the 18th Dynasty
Valley of the Kings Tomb
- Incomplete by the time of his death
- His and his wife (Tey)’s names were hacked out during the reign of Horemheb
Restoration Work in Thebes
- Allowed Tutankhamun’s name to remain on the completed temple, even adding Tutankhamun’s figures and cartouches
- But all in vain bc Horemheb dismantled it to fill his pylons in Karnak
Mortuary Temple
- Located near Tutankhamun’s at Medinet Habu
- Usurped by Horemheb
Rock-Cut Shrine at Akhmim
- Not defaced! 👏👏👏
Cult Centre of Osiris
- According to a stela now in the Louvre, Paris
Shrine in Nubia
Horemheb
Builders of the 18th Dynasty
Great Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
Second, Ninth and Tenth Pylons, Karnak
- Filled with the talatat from Akhenaten’s East Karnak temples → unwittingly ensure the preservation of the details of Akhenaten’s reign
- Great Edict Stela on the Tenth Pylon - valuable details of his adminstration
Valley of the Kings Tomb
Tomb in Saqqara
- Scenes depict Horemheb receiving homage from Libyan and Nubian prisoners and Asiatic prisoners → excavator, Geoffrey Martin, suggest that they constitue campaigns fought by Horemheb during the rule of Tutankhamun
Rock Temple at Gebel el-Silsila in Nubia
- Reliefs depict battles with Nubians
Temple to Seth at Avaris in the Nile Delta
Ramesses I
Builders of the 19th Dynasty
Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
Stela dedicated to Mut in Wadi Halfa, Sinai
- Sent a turquoise-mining expedition
Stela in Buhen, Nubia
- Mentions Re and Ptah → honouring several gods is a possible reaction to the prominence of the Amun priesthood
Seti I
Builders of the 19th Dynasty
Focused on new temples at traditional relgious centres: Thebes, Abydos, Memphis and Heliopolis.
Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
Morturary Temple on West Bank + Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri
- Settng for the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, which honours Amun
Temple of Osiris, Abydos
- Seven chapels, each dedicated to a different god (Osiris, Isis, Ptah, Amun, Re-Horakhty, Horus and himself)
- Reliefs of the legend of Osiris
- The Osireion - strange structure that may have been a cenotaph for Seti as Osiris
- Hall of Records contains the famous King List (pharaohs Akhenaten to Ay and any female rulers are omitted) and a releif of Seti and his son worshipping their ancestors
Ramesses II
Builders of the 19th Dynasty
Greatest builder of the New Kingdom
Deeply Carved Cartouches
- Found on many monuments, some he didn’t build himself, meaning that he claimed many buildings that weren’t built during his reign as his own
Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
- FINALLY FINISHED IT
Temples at Abydos and Thebes
Mortuary Temple (The Ramesseum), Western Thebes
- One of the largest and best preserved mortuary temples in Egypt
Luxor Temple
- Added a peristyle courtyard, pylon and obelisks to the front, suggesting that he had built the entire thing (he didn’t)
Seti’s Abydos Temple
- Similarly blocked up the seven entrance ways by covering them with long text that glorified his own achievements
Temples in Nubia
- Two carved some out of the mountainside at Abu Simbel
- Bigger one: Colossal statues or the king dedicated to Re-Horakhty (statues of other gods were inside the temple)
- Smaller one: Dedicated to Nefertari and included a depiction of a battle scene from his battle of Kadesh
Valley of the Kings Tomb
Pi-ramesse (New Capital)
- Comprised of four main quarters with suburbs for traders, foreign residents and ordinary Egyptians
- Extended kilometres along the banks of the Nile
- Include the Great Temple to Amun-Re, together with temples and shrines for all of Egypt’s principle gods + foreign gods
“If the greatness of an Egyptian pharaoh be measured by the size and number of his monuments remaining to perpetuate his memory, Sethos’ son and successor, Ramesses II would have to be adjudged to the equal, or even the superior, of the proudest pyramid builders.” (Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs)
Historian Perspective
Emphasises the value of the building program to the prestige and legacy of a pharaoh.
Gardiner names Ramesses II as a prominent figure in the history of building programs.
