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Karnak Temple Complex - Table of Contents........................Egyptian / Egyptian Revival Architecture - Table of Contents
Hypostyle Hall, Temple of Amon-Ra
Karnak Temple Complex
Near Luxor, Egypt
Hypostyle: Having a roof or ceiling supported by rows of columns
TEXT Beneath Illustrations
Unfinished columns |
Bell-shaped, open capitals |
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Bud-shaped capitals |
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Part of the clerestory |
Painted soffit |
Part of the grill clerestory |
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... the columns all have smooth shafts, but there are two different types of capitals: bud shaped and bell shaped, or campaniform. Although the columns are structural members ... their function
as carriers of vertical stress is almost hidden by horizontal bands of relief sculpture
and painting, suggesting that the intention of the architects was not to emphasize
the functional role of the columns so much as to utilize them as surfaces for decoration.
This contrasts sharply with most Egyptian practice as well as with later Greek architecture,
in which the architects emphasized the vertical lines of the column and its structural
function by freeing the surfaces of the shaft from all ornament.... The formalization of plant forms into the rigid profiles of architecture closely parallels the formalization of human bodies and action that the Egyptians achieved so skillfully in tomb painting and sculpture.
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Columns Column shafts and capitals were typically formed
out of stacked stone drums or half drums. These could be centered atop each
course by the use of plumb lines, either aligning the drums using markings at their
centers or via vertical grooves along their sides. ...
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Columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall The Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak was begun during the reign of King Seti I (c.1290-1279 B.C.E.) and was completed by his son, Ramesses II (c.1279-1213 B.C.E.). The central row of 12 columns on the east-west axis are 69 feet in height, about 33 feet in circumference, and have open papyrus capitals. The 122 columns in the side aisles are 43 feet in height, 27.5 feet in circumference, and have closed papyrus-bud capitals . Remember that the whole of this hall was roofed with stone slabs, and the interior was quite dark. The difference in height between the central and the side aisle columns was used to provide natural light through clerestory windows which have vertical stone slats. The huge sandstone columns are carved in sunk relief and were originally painted. The grill of the clerestory window is still visible above the columns. |
Roofs Egyptian buildings were roofed by a limited number of methods. Most common at Karnak was the flat roof, supported by walls and columns. The distance between these supportive elements limited the size and material of a structure's roof. Constructions at Karnak benefited from the fact that by the New Kingdom, engineers had learned to confidently span large spaces with sandstone slabs. The ceiling blocks of the magnificent hypostyle hall, for example, measured 25.5 feet in length, 4 feet thick, and bridged up to 21.9 foot wide aisles between columns. Even larger were the lintels of the gates of the first and second pylons, possibly formed of granite blocks, which spanned 22.6 foot and 23.7 foot doorways.
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Lighting Natural light filled the open-air courts at Karnak.
Within the temple's covered buildings, however, other means of illumination were
necessary. One of the architectural solutions was the use of clerestory
windows. In the temple's hypostyle hall, the
raised central nave was lined
with grilled windows. The high openings (280 feet above the hall's floor) allowed
sunlight to enter the hall, while maintaining the privacy and secrecy of the space.
The grills were composed of two sections, one stacked atop the other, and
secured in place by being fitted tightly into grooves in the side of the bordering
piers....
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