Silver gelatin on
glass 23.5 x 29.5 cm Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute,
University of Chicago |
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Temple
of Luxor. Beyond the southern side of the first court of Luxor
Temple, the columns of the Colonnade Hall rise in the background. The
ruined portico shelters standing figures of Ramesses II, and to the left
of the central portal is a seated colossus, worshiped in ancient times as
a deified statue of the divine king. Through this court, festal
processions wended their way to the inner sanctuaries of the temple,
particularly during the annual Festival of Opet, when the portable barks
of the divine triad of Karnak were carried south for the celebrations at
Luxor. The walls of the Colonnade Hall, now much destroyed, originally
extended up to the height of the architraves atop the fourteen massive
columns. The inner thicknesses of the doorway into the Colonnade, were
originally recessed to receive the leaves of a giant door carved from
Lebanese cedar. The photograph was taken about 1920; the huge cornice
block in the center of the court and the lower walls of later buildings to
the left have been cleared away.
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