Memories Travel│Egypt │People are not as good as God, and I will leave you with the things I want to destroy the most

Luxor on the east bank of the Nile, the ancient city of Thebes has the largest temple in the world left over from the ancient Egyptian era. The colonnade built by 134 giant stone pillars, the most complete and huge obelisk, the promenade lined with statues of sheep's head and lion's body, the sacred pools and scarabs for sacrifices are the most amazing places in the Karnak Temple. .

The mound on the left side of the first tower gate of the temple is different from the mound of the general temple. After verification, it is speculated that these black soil mixed with straw and wheat husks (Kemet, fertile soil when the Nile flooded) is unfinished The material of the tower gate, according to the stacking appearance, archaeologists speculate on the construction method of the temple.

There are different views on the origin of the holy pond used for sacrifice. One is that it was used by priests as a place of purification before sacrifice, and the other is that it was the birthday gift that Amenhotep III wanted to give his wife. If it's really a private pool, it's really too big.

In the period of the Old Kingdom, the most important thing for the pharaoh after he took the throne was to build the pyramids, to prepare for the next life, and to devote all the strength of the whole country to prepare for the continued prosperity and wealth in the next life. But because the manpower and financial resources spent on building the pyramids are too terrifying, not every pharaoh has the ability to build them, and not every pharaoh has enough life to wait for the pyramids to be built (it is said that it takes 40 to 70 years to build the pyramids). time), the pyramid gradually lost its urgency.

Beginning in the Middle Kingdom, pharaohs liked to build temples. Shrines can function as sacrifices to gods, centers of local belief, places for priests and civil servants to convey the ideas of the pharaohs, places for tribute, and symbols for the consolidation of status. What's more, some pharaohs combined temples with mausoleums. Such a combination of several buildings is really more economical than pyramids.

It is against this background that the Temple of Karnak began to be built out of control. The extension was still under construction until the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, but most tragically, she never finished it.

The main god worshipped in Karnak Temple is Amun (one of the sun gods), and the auxiliary temple has Amun's wife Mut and Ramses III. Every year, during the Opera celebration, the whole country will hold a "Valentine's Day" for Amon and Mutter, which is exclusive to the two gods, and Amon will be carried in a sedan chair along the stone road between the temple of Luxor and sent to Mutter. , let the two gods spend the festival together.

It is probably a kind of idea that "if the gods are happy, the gods will bless us even more". It is said that this festival is held on more than one day. The gods were happier and happier, I guess they thought so. I really think the idea of the ancient Egyptians is really super simple and cute.

Another simple and endearing thing also happened in Karnak Temple.

During the 18th Dynasty in Egyptian history, there was a female pharaoh, Queen Hashepsu. King Amenhotep III passed away when he was still young. The complicated relationship between Queen Hashepsu and King Amenhotep III resulted from indiscriminate intermarriage of close relatives, and Hashepsu became Amon. The aunt, aunt, aunt and mother-in-law of Hortaip III. In order to maintain the purity of the bloodline, the queen decided to regent when the third king was still young, temporarily taking control of Egypt.

(Because I didn't go to the Queen's Temple, I briefly wrote the Queen's story here, and I will write a more complete one next time I have the opportunity).

She had a brilliant mind and political skills, and after a year of being regent, she found herself suitable for the job and took the throne on her own. Through the frescoes left in the Queen's Temple, it can be seen that Egypt at that time was really strong under the Queen's rule. The frescoes recorded the pictures of the Queen dispatching merchant ships and envoys to bring back rare treasures and rare beasts.

However, the reason why the " female pharaoh " was emphasized was probably because the orthodoxy at that time was still to pass the position to the boy (because the sun god was a boy, and the pharaoh was the incarnation of the sun god). The queen not only disguised herself as a man to go to court and fight, of course He also kept a record of his great achievements.

The way she made her record was by building an obelisk.

The obelisk is difficult to build, because it needs to be formed in one piece and what she is going to build is the largest obelisk in Egyptian history. There is an obelisk in the temple that was broken during the production process. It is now lying in the temple. The top of the obelisk lying on its side felt how sturdy and huge it was. But luckily one succeeded. In addition to her great achievements, the obelisk also records how she obtained the throne from the god Amon, emphasizing her legitimacy.

As Amenhotep III grew up, Queen Hashepsu gradually returned her troops and power to the third king, and carefully trained the pharaoh. Coupled with the queen's strong rule, it really laid a good foundation for the rule of the third king. Thirty-three years of pro-government of the third generation continued to create peak events and became a powerful country that even neighboring countries did not dare to invade at that time.

But in the last two years, I don't know if I listened to the slander, and suddenly I hated my aunt, and began to deny the legitimacy of my aunt's succession to the throne, destroyed everything my aunt left, and shoveled out the names on the frescoes. The ancient Egyptians believed that erasing names was a A very, very serious "punishment", so that no one will remember that this person ever existed, and he just wanted to make the people forget that the aunt was in power.

The largest obelisk in Egypt has not been removed, but if it is torn down, it will inevitably destroy the temple. In order not to make the gods angry, it cannot be torn down. In the end, Sanshi didn't know where to think of this method--encircling the obelisk, what a way to hide the bells! The third generation ordered people to build a wall to surround the obelisk. If you can't see the obelisk, you will forget the fact that the queen once ruled, and it will not destroy the temple. It is really genius and very cute.

Because there is no way to build the wall as high as the obelisk, after thousands of years of sun exposure, the obelisk I see now has two different colors on the top and bottom, which is the wall built at that time for the obelisk. Sunscreen.

The tour guide asked everyone, "Why are the top and bottom colors of the obelisk different? Which part was done first?" When the tour guide asked me, I said I don't want to answer, because every answer I answered from the book was different from the tour guide's answer from the first day, I decided not to be embarrassed anymore, he knew the most I was a little angry at the cheering, hahaha, he smiled and looked at me who was pissed and didn't answer and was going to continue his explanation. And I was suddenly blessed to my heart, and a flash of inspiration thought that the obelisk was formed in one piece! He shouted, "Ah! At the same time!" He and I were both pleasantly surprised (I finally got one question right), and he said, "Yes!" and we smiled at each other.

The temple has experienced the subsequent wars, and the natural weathering has been severely damaged. The third generation's clever and earth-shattering innovations at that time, on the contrary, completely preserved the proof of her existence for the aunt.