A Karnak discovery shows how ancient builders shielded temples from Nile water By Ahmed Maged
First Published: April 22, 2007
Courtesy of the Supreme Council of Antiquities
New Karnak discovery sheds light on how the ancients protected their temples from water
LUXOR: Remains of an ancient Egyptian wall used to prevent the leakage of the Nile flood waters from spreading over the Karnak temple in Luxor were discovered on Thursday at the temple’s eastern side, culture minister Farouk Hosni announced on Sunday.
Hosni revealed that the wall was accidentally found by Egyptian excavators during an archeological inspection of the site undertaken as part of a development project aimed at removing encroachments accumulated over the years on the temple’s different sides.
Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), explained that the newly-discovered wall is only 400 km long and 7m in height.
More excavations will reveal more relevant structures, said Hawass.
The wall was originally built of huge sandstone blocks brought from Al-Selsela area in Aswan to stop the water from reaching the temple during the annual Nile floods.
Hawass added that early studies on the wall and the decorated blocks scattered around it, showed that several kings had contributed to its construction.
The earliest was during the 25th Dynasty and the latest was during the reign of King Psammuthis of the 29th Dynasty, all of which assert that the construction of the wall started in the 26th Dynasty and lasted until the reign of King Nekhtanebu, the one who built the Karnak temple’s first Pylon.
Sabri Abdel Aziz, head of the ancient Egyptian department in the SCA, remarked that the discovery is important in as far as it highlights how ancient Egyptians protected the Karnak temple from the Nile flood.
It also reveals that temples built on the banks of the Nile were protected from the Nile flood by walls which led to the formation of several river islands in front of these temples that were inhabited by Egyptians during the Greco-Roman era.
Greco-Roman clay pots and pans were also found.
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