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As many of you may know I have been in Egypt for the last few days for a variety of reasons. While I am here I took the opportunity to experience the Winter Solstice sunrise along the axis of the great Temple of Karnak for myself.

Interestingly the sun actually rose at 6:34am somewhat North of where the temple axis hits the horizon as far as I can see.... I don;t know if that would have been different in antiquity but will analyse it when I get back from Egypt.

It was only after the sun had elevated a couple of degrees that it had drifted southwards into the framed archway 'window'. At this time of year the sun rises at an incline of around 45 degrees, so it moves south as quickly as it rises at this time of day and year.

As it rose through and past the 'window', there was a clear reflection of fiery red sunlight off the polished granite altar in the kiosk chapel - it was quite impressive to see a sliver of the sky reflected on earth - just as the Egyptians perceived Karnak itself.

You can see the sun is well south of the axis by the time it has cleared the pylon at 7:30 am as I was leaving.

More soon - I have hundreds of photos.

And yeh, it was awsome. I would advise anyone doing this in the future though to watch the actual sunrise from the 'Solar Chapel' off the Akhmenu and the then pop down to the temple axis for photos just after once it has risen enough to cross the window.

Dave Light.



The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Architecture JAEA:
[egyptian-architecture.com]
[glasgow.academia.edu]
[egyptology-scotland.squarespace.com]
Dave's Archaeology Homepage:
[arkysite.wordpress.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2007 05:35AM by Dave L.