The Most Amazing Hypostyle Hall in Karnack Temple

Tourism began in Egypt during the 19th Century when Thomas Cook first arranged luxury Dahabiya cruises from Cairo to Aswan for wealthy Victorians, in this image we can see a group of Victorian tourists having a meal inside the hypostyle hall, of Karnack Temple, something that would not  be allowed today

After passing through the portal between the pylons, I entered the most amazing Hypostyle hall in the center of Karnack Temple, it is the reception area of the gods, its awesome lotus columns represent the plants that came into being on the mound of creation. The lotus columns are a symbolism of Horus who was born on the waters of creation, the lotus plant represents the first sunrise on the day of creation. Each evening the lotus submerges beneath the waters, and at dawn it rises symbolically to worship the sun again, it encompasses all the forces of nature and lives in all the four elements, its roots are bound to the earth and its stem rises through water, it flourishes in the  air and blooms in the sunlight.  Standing in this incredible hall you are overpowered by 134 of these gigantic columns, 122 are in the open papyrus bud style, and another 12 in the central isle are closed.  I had a dream once that I closed my 

eyes and I was carried on the wind across the oceans to that magical forest of Redwoods in America where the trees seem to touch the sky, it must be one of the most natural heavenly places on earth, I never came close to that forest but I found the forest of my dreams in Karnack temple, but Instead of bark texture  I saw hieroglyphs all the way up these gigantic stone forest columns.

This image of a group of Egyptian women carrying water bottles on their heads was taken in 1870, during this period there was a lot of damage to the temple, but gradually over the last hundred years the temples have been restored to their former glory. In 1899, eleven of the massive columns of the Great Hypostyle Hall collapsed in a chain reaction, because their foundations were undermined by ground water. Georges Legrain, who was then the chief archaeologist in the area, supervised the rebuilding that was completed in May 1902. Later, similar work had to continue in order to strengthen the rest of the columns of the Temple..

The Hypostyle hall was originally created by Seti 1, and was finished after his death by his son Ramses the Great during the 19th Dynasty. Karnak was known in ancient times as 'The Most Select of Places' (Ipet-isut ) The Hypostyle hall is awesome and the thousands of visitors never fail to be astonished by this vast forest of giant columns, they crane their necks and look up to the dizzying heights of the column capitals, I think that you would probably need ten people holding hands to surround a column, it is surrounded with walls, and the mammoth window grilles and architraves of the clerestory roof. When the hall was originally built it had a roof, but damage to the columns have caused the roof to collapse

On this column we can see Ramses 11 offering the God    

Amun min lettuce, which was considered to be an aphrodisiac 

as it gave white milk, it was eaten by men in an effort 

to achieve potency. Amun Min was represented in 

many different forms, but was most often

represented in male human form, shown with an 

erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail. As a god of male sexual potency, he was honoured during the coronation rites of the New Kingdom, when the Pharaoh was expected to sow his seed—generally thought to have been plant seeds, although there have been controversial suggestions that the Pharaoh was expected to demonstrate that he could ejaculate—and thus ensure the annual flooding of the Nile. Amun Min, was the  Lord of the Processions, God of the High Plumes, the great of love, the Son of Osiris and Isis.