The Hypostyle Hall at Karnak Temple: approaches to decoding complexity and experiencing a monumental space

Since its construction during the Ramesside Period, the Hypostyle Hall at the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak has stood as a monument to the ingenuity, wealth, and power of Ancient Egyptian civilisation. For modern visitors, the complexity and grandeur of the Hall stands as a physical testament to the scope and limits of human thought.

Within the discipline of Egyptology, however, until late into the Twentieth Century, the enormity of the Hypostyle, particularly the height of the walls and columns, had hindered the recording and publication of the reliefs decorating its interior surfaces. Consequently, the academic study of the Hypostyle Hall has until recently trailed behind its fame. With the works of Nelson (1981), Rondot (1997), the CFTEEK (from 2016), and the Great Hypostyle Hall Project (2018), the publication effort of the Hall has steadily increased and so too have assessments on the Hall’s function and ritual use. While laying significant groundwork, these assessments have, however, focused only on particular architectural elements of the Hall.

In its analysis, the current work marks the integration of all architectural elements – the walls, columns and abaci, architraves, and clerestory structure. Through a focus on the iconographic program of the Hall, the work determines the relationship between the art and architecture, the ritual function, and symbolic meaning of the Hall. It is shown that despite being completed over the reigns of Seti I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses IV the overall decorative program of the Hall displays aesthetic and ideological coherence across the elements.

Furthermore, the integrated assessment of the decorative program allows for a deeper investigation into the embodied experience of the Hall. This work contextualises the archaeological material by determining the extent to which a purposeful placement of specific architectural and iconographic elements is discernible and how this would have influenced those at work or conducting rituals in the Hall.

This work shows that the Hypostyle Hall acts as a permeable boundary between the mundane and secular world outside the temple, and the divine and sacred world inside the inner sanctuaries. This contrast of the hidden divine and the open world plays out in both the architecture and the decorative program. The areas that can be accessed by human visitors to the space – the walls and columns – display the power of the king and, importantly, his ability to fulfil his duties towards the gods. By contrast, the decorative program of the hidden clerestory structure – a space that due to its great height could be “viewed” only by the gods – shows the direct and exclusive relationship of the king and Amun-Re.

The study demonstrates to what extent the complex narrative of divine kingship and the duties towards the gods is sequentially revealed to the visitors as they progress through the Hypostyle Hall to and from the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak.