Through the Eras

Architecture and DesignThe columned court of the temple of Luxor. © BETTMANN/CORBIS.barque was accompanied by soldiers, dancers, and singerswho provided part of the spectacle of the procession. InRamesses III’s time the temples distributed to the people11,341 loaves of bread, 85 cakes, and 385 jars of beerduring each day of the festival. During Hatshepsut’sreign the procession returned to Karnak from Luxor bywater, sailing on the Nile.LUXOR TEMPLE: WOMEN’S QUARTERS OF AMUN’SESTATE. The present Luxor temple, built by AmenhotepIII and expanded by Rameses II, represented thewomen’s quarters in Amun’s estate. The Egyptians calledit ta-ipet, “the harem.” During the Opet Festival, theEgyptians celebrated the divine birth of the king at thislocation. This divine birth provided a religious explanationfor how the king could be both a human and thegenetic son of the god Amun. The Egyptians visualizedthe genetic relationship literally, as attested in reliefs fromboth Deir el Bahri and the Luxor temple. They believedthat the spirit of Amun inhabited the king’s human fatherat the moment of conception, an act ritually recreatedin the Luxor temple by the king with a livingwoman, probably the queen, annually during the OpetFestival. Moreover, the act of conception, in Egyptianthought, conveyed a spirit called the royal ka into thefetus of the unborn king. Amun created the royal ka aspart of his essence that gave the child possessing the royalka a legitimate right to rule Egypt. The festival also reinfusedthe royal ka in the living king. This festival wasthe main purpose of the inner rooms of the Luxor temple.The king was part of the god’s procession from Karnakto Luxor. The king then entered the inner rooms atthe temple and mystically re-enacted both his own conceptionand his rejuvenation by absorbing the royal ka.Perhaps the best illustration of the way this helped theking is found in King Horemheb’s coronation at Luxor.Horemheb was the second general to become king at theend of the Eighteenth Dynasty after the last royal heir,Tutankhamun, died. Horemheb merged his coronationwith the Festival of Opet, infusing his originally nonroyalself with the royal ka, and thus becoming the legitimateking.LINKING EAST AND WEST THEBES. In general,Amun’s living quarters were on the east bank of the Nileat Thebes. On the west bank of the river, associated withthe land of the dead, lived other forms of Amun inhabitedby the spirits of deceased kings. All of the Eighteenth-dynastykings built temples on the west bank thatEgyptologists have called mortuary temples. In realityArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 51