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The Osirian Temple of Taharqa at Karnak in Egypt
by Jimmy Dunn

A study of the cartouches and the hammered out double ureus on the blocks of this structure allow it to be dated to the 25th Dynasty, Nubian reign of Taharqa, with blocks reused from his predecessor, Shabaka. Psamtik II (Psammetichus II) subsequently added his cartouches to the building. 

On the outside northern facade of this building we find several interesting scenes. Here, the king is purified by a double stream made up of the ankh and the was (Life and Power) that falls in a dome around him. His two open hands show the palm of one and the back side of the other. Two falcons cross their wings over the king's chest under his three-row user necklace. As is the Nubian style, the musculature of the kings legs is prominent. Here, the cartouche of Taharqa has been etched out and replaced by that of Psamtik II. 

To the left of this scene is another where the king is clad in a pleated loincloth with a triangular front panel. He offers incense to his father Atum. He holds a "cubit of incense" which he sprinkles into a fire. 

Within the structure are additional support walls that rise about 1.5 meters that contain a large number of reused stones from the Nubian period, of which several still retain the cartouche and the two uraei, not hammered out, of Shabaka. This whole area, with the exception of the several rooms in the northwest corner of the building, is thought to have been filled with dirt or debris. 

Within the structure, in the corner northwest room, on its southern wall is a depiction of the king and behind him are six baboons, They face the east, and are called "the eastern souls who worship Ra" when he rises. There may have originally been two groups of four baboons each facing east. The classic tests, according to A. Piankoff, states:

"To worship the sun and cause it to rise, by the spirits of the east. The sprits of the east are the four neters (gods) who worship the sun. It is they who make the sun to rise and who open the doors of the four gates of the sky's eastern horison"

The Egyptians chose the baboon for this symbolism because the animal seems to greet the morning sun, and is said to give a howl at every hour and urinate twelve times during the day and twelve at night during the equinox. 

On the interior north wall of this chamber is a scene depicting the solar barque. The surface on which this bas-relief is sculpted has been flattened out, removing the base of a dozen columns of hieroglyphs from which the cartouches have been visibly removed or cut away. The solar barque is proceeding from east to west, in the direction of the sun's daily path. In the middle is Atum in his naos, who is surmounted by the single word "iuf", which means flesh. 

The solar barque as depicted in the temple

To the southeast of this chamber is another that in turn leads into an inner chapel. Here, carved on the lintel to the doorway into the chapel is a very strange and extremely rare representation. On one side, a female figure draws a bow with her left arm pulled behind her back, while on the other side, a male figure, who holds a club in his left hand, is making the "great stride". This is Taharqa and his mother. In the center is depicted a tree which juts up from a hemispheric mound drawn within a rectangle. Text here describes this as the shndt tree (spiny acacia of the chest). The name of Osiris is on the mound. A similar representation on a Saite sarcophagus explains that "This is the mound that hides what it holds; this is the hill of Osiris"

Taharqa and his mother on the lintel of the door leading to the inner chapel

Along the northwest wall of this structure on the inside runs the staircase leading to the terrace. On the wall next to the staircase are representations of androcephalic figures and mummified baboons, each of which correspond to a stair, climbing from north to south above a solar disk. In the Royal Tombs of the West Bank, when present, the Book of the Night is usually found on the western walls, while the Book of the Day is on the east. The ascension of the figures here very probably correspond to the last hours of the night.

During excavations conducted between 1949 and 1950, two additional walls of unbaked brick were unearthed that lead off of the north and south ends of the east wall of the main structure. Apparently this was a sort of courtyard that preceded the "pure wells" from which the water for purifications of the daily ritual were drawn. The southern brick wall is interrupted at its easternmost end by the opening of a staircase that descends to the sacred lake, perpendicular to its border wall. 

Back | Home | Next

• The Approach to the First Pylon (Western)
• The First Courtyard in the Temple of Amun, Karnak
• The Open Air Museum
• The Great Hypostyle Hall
       Part One, An Overview and the Exterior Walls
       Part Two: The Columns
       The Interior Walls
• The Obelisk Courtyard (Between the Third and Fourth Pylons)
• The Hypostyle Court of the Temple Proper
• The Colonnade of Tuthmosis I and the Vestibule and Antechamber of Tuthmosis III Between the Fifth and Sixth Pylons
• The Peristyle Court of Tuthmosis III, The Naos of Philip Arrhidaeu and the Sanctuary of Hateshpsut Beyond the Sixth Pylon
• The Central Courtyard and the Festival Hall of Tuthmosis III
• The Temple of the "Hearing Ear",  The Eastern Temple of Ramesses II,  the Colonnade of Taharka  and the Gate of Nectanebo I  at Temple of Amun at Karnak
• The Courtyard of the Cachette
        The Courtyard of the Cachette, Part I                
        The Courtyard of the Cachette, Part II
• The Courtyard Between the Seventh and Eighth Southern Pylons
• The Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Pylons and the Courtyards Between them
• The Osirian Temple of Taharqa at Karnak
• The Sacred Lake and the Scarab

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