The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

by Bolesław Prus

The royal palaces on the right bank of the Nile were on the southern end of the city, while the temple of Amon-Ra was in the northern part of it. These were connected by a road unique in character. This was an avenue two kilometers long, very broad, lined not only with immense trees, but with two rows of sphinxes. Some of these with lions' bodies had human heads, others had rams' heads. There were several hundreds of these statues on the avenue, at both sides of which countless throngs of people had assembled from Thebes and the surrounding region. Along the middle of the avenue moved the funeral procession. Advancing to the music of various regiments were detachments of female wailers, choruses of singers, all the guilds of artisans and merchants, deputations from some tens of provinces with their gods and banners, deputations from more than ten nations which kept up relations with Egypt. And again walkers' music and priestly choruses.

This time the mummy of the pharaoh advanced in a golden boat also, but incomparably richer than that in Memphis. The car which bore it was drawn by eight pair of white bulls; this car, two stories high, was almost concealed under garlands, bouquets, ostrich plumes, and precious woven stuffs. It was surrounded by a dense cloud of smoke from censers, which produced the impression that Ramses XII was appearing to his people in clouds like a divinity.

From the pylons of all Theban temples came thunder-like outbursts and with them loud and rapid sounds from the clashing of bronze disks.

Though the avenue of sphinxes was free and wide, though the procession took place under the direction of Egyptian generals, and therefore with the greatest order, the procession spent three hours in passing those two kilometers between the palace and the edifices of Amon.

Only when the mummy of Ramses XII was borne into the temple did Ramses XIII drive forth from the palace in a golden chariot drawn by a pair of splendid horses. The people standing along the avenue, who during the time of the procession had held themselves quietly, burst out at sight of the beloved sovereign into a shout so immense that the thunders and sounds from the summits of all the temples were lost in it.

There was a moment when that mighty throng, borne away by excitement, would have rushed to the middle of the avenue and surrounded their sovereign. But Ramses, with one motion of his hand, restrained the living deluge and prevented the sacrilege.

In the course of some minutes the pharaoh passed over the road and halted before the immense pylons of the noblest temple in Egypt.

As Luxor was the quarter of palaces in the south, so Karnak was the quarter of divinities on the northern side of the city. The temple of Amon-Ra formed the main centre of Karnak.

This building alone occupied two hectares of space, and the gardens and ponds around it about twenty. Before the temple stood two pylons forty meters high. The forecourt, surrounded by a corridor resting on columns, occupied nearly one hectare, the hall of columns in which were assembled the privileged classes was half a hectare in extent. This was not the edifice yet, but the approach to it.

That hall, or hypostyle, was more than a hundred and fifty yards long and seventy-five yards in width, its ceiling rested on one hundred and thirty-four columns. Among these the twelve central ones were fifteen yards in circumference and from twenty to twenty-four meters high.