Surprise discoveries at Karnak
National Geographic
A series of surprising discoveries has been made at the foot of Egypt's famous Temple of Amun at Karnak, archaeologists say. The new finds include ancient ceremonial baths, a pharaoh's private entry ramp, and the remains of a massive wall built some 3,000 years ago to reinforce what was then the bank of the Nile River.
A host of other artifacts, including hundreds of bronze coins, has also been found. Together the discoveries are causing experts to reconsider the history of the largest religious complex from ancient Egyptian times. . . .One depiction from the tomb of Neferhotep, an official from that period, depicted a large rectangular pool in front of the temple that was linked to the Nile by a canal.
Archaeologists had first uncovered small parts of this wall in the 1970s but assumed it was the back wall of the pool, Boraik said.
That theory held until January, when Egyptian archaeologists found a piece of the same wall several meters away, too far off to be part of the enclosed basin.
Now experts believe that the pool depicted in ancient drawings was backfilled in antiquity and that the temple was expanded on top of it, built to the edge of where the Nile flowed 3,000 years ago.
"It means that the Nile was reaching the foot of Karnak in the time of the pharaohs," said Boraik. "It changes everything."
See the above two-page story for more details.
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