Precinct of Mut
The Precinct of Mut, located near Luxor, Egypt, is one of the four main enclosed areas that make up the immense Karnak Temple Complex and occupyies some 150,000 m². It is dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Mut, the mother-god. The area in which the precinct is located was originally known as Isheru (or Asher)[1]. Currently the area is not open to the public or tourists.
Short history
It has been used, added to, or enhanced from the 18th Dynasty to the Graeco-Roman Period of rule in Egypt. By the 1st century its use had steadily declined and when worship of Mut stopped so did the function of the complex. After that, time has not been kind to it. So levelled is this site today, that practically nothing over one metre high is still standing. Hundreds of statues are scattered all over the central part of the site.
Features
Its main features are the crescent-shaped lake, temple of Ramesses III, temple of Mut and temple of Khonspekhrod. To that comes a number of smaller buildings and shrines, as well as the temple of Nectanebo II, bark station of Thutmose III / Hatshepsut and Sanctuary of Amun-Kamutef, located just outside the enclosing wall.
From the main entrance an approximately 400m long avenue of ram-headed sphinxes leads north, directly to the tenth pylon of the Precinct of Amen-Re. This avenue is itself under restoration. Another avenue of sphinxes, also starting from the entrance, leads 250m west to catch up and flow into the 3km long avenue of sphinxes that connects the Gateway of Ptolemy III Euergetes I of the Precinct of Amen-Re with Luxor Temple.
Excavations
The area was visited and planned by Napoleon's expedition in 1799-1801, and then by The Royal Prussian Expedition of 1842-1845, which was led by Karl Richard Lepsius. Recording continued under Auguste Mariette and Gaston Maspero, but it was Margaret Benson and Janet Gourlay who actually undertook the first major excavations in 1895 through 1897. The area was not excavated again until the 1920's by Maurice Pillet. Since 1976, when the Egyptian government granted the Brooklyn Museum exploration rights to the entire site, it has been in a state of ongoing excavation / restoration, and presumably it will be a while before that changes. The Detroit Institute of Arts is also associated with this excavation, together with a John Hopkins University team, under Betsy Bryan.
References
- ^ Weigall, A.E.P. A Guide To The Antiquities of Upper Egypt, Methuen, London, 1910