The Karnak king list, a list of early Egyptian kings engraved in stone, was located in the southwest corner of the Festival Hall of Thutmose III, in the middle of the Precinct of Amun-Re, in the Karnak Temple Complex, in modern Luxor, Egypt. Composed during the reign of Thutmose III, it listed sixty-one kings beginning with Sneferu from Egypt's Old Kingdom. Only the names of thirty-nine kings are still legible, and one is not written in a cartouche (a border used normally to surround the name of a king).
The Festival Hall of Thutmose III (Akh-menu) is an ancient shrine in Luxor (Thebes), Egypt. It is located at the heart of the Precinct of Amun-Re, in the Karnak Temple Complex. The edifice is normally translated as "the most glorious of monuments", but "monument to living spirit" is an alternative translation since akh can mean either glory or blessed/living spirit.
The Precinct of Amun-Re, located near Luxor, Egypt, is one of the four main temple enclosures that make up the immense Karnak Temple Complex. The precinct is by far the largest of these and the only one that is open to the general public. The temple complex is dedicated to the principal god of the Theban Triad, Amun, in the form of Amun-Re.
Thutmose III was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 24 April 1479 BC to 11 March 1425 BC, from the age of two and until his death at age fifty-six; however, during the first 22 years of his reign, he was coregent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. While he was shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. Thutmose served as the head of Hatshepsut's armies. During the final two years of his reign, he appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. His firstborn son and heir to the throne, Amenemhat, predeceased Thutmose III.
It is not a complete list of the Egyptian Pharaohs, as other kings are known from other ancient lists, but this list is valuable as it contains the names of kings of the First and Second Intermediate Periods, which are omitted in most other king lists.
Pharaoh is the common title of the monarchs of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty until the annexation of Egypt by the Roman Empire in 30 BCE, although the actual term "Pharaoh" was not used contemporaneously for a ruler until Merneptah, c. 1200 BCE. In the early dynasty, ancient Egyptian kings used to have up to three titles, the Horus, the Sedge and Bee (nswt-bjtj) name, and the Two Ladies (nbtj) name. The Golden Horus and nomen and prenomen titles were later added.
It was first described by James Burton in 1825.[1] In 1843, a German expedition directed by egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius was traveling up the River Nile to Karnak. A French adventurer, Émile Prisse d'Avennes, dismantled and "stole" the blocks containing the king list one night in order to secure it for France, and sent it home.[2][3] Severely damaged, it is now on display at the Louvre[4] in Paris.
James Burton was an early British Egyptologist, known for his pioneering exploration and mapping of the Valley of the Kings, during which he became the first individual of the modern age to enter KV5; his pioneering excavations at Karnak, during which he discovered the Karnak king list; and his excavations at Medinet Habu, during which he was part of the team that discovered TT391.
Karl or Carl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology.
Achille-Constant-Théodore-Émile Prisse d'Avennes was a French archaeologist, Egyptologist, architect and writer.
Drawing of the list
Drawing of the Karnak King List. The colored bits remain, the white are more or less lost.
Description of the list
The list features the name of the Pharaoh followed by the actual one inscribed on the list. The list comprises three sections and is divided at the center. The numbering follows Lepsius,[5] counting from the sides, toward the center.
The Palermo Stone is one of seven surviving fragments of a stele known as the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The stele contained a list of the kings of Egypt from the First Dynasty through to the early part of the Fifth Dynasty and noted significant events in each year of their reigns. It was probably made during the Fifth dynasty. The Palermo Stone is held in the Regional Archeological Museum Antonio Salinas in the city of Palermo, Italy, from which it derives its name.
The Saqqara Tablet, now in the Egyptian Museum, is an ancient stone engraving which features a list of Egyptian pharaohs surviving from the Ramesside Period. It was found during 1861 in Egypt in Saqqara, in the tomb of Tjenry, an official of the pharaoh Ramesses II.
The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list available of kings compiled by the ancient Egyptians, and is the basis for most chronology before the reign of Ramesses II.
Hatshepsut was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically-confirmed female pharaoh, the first being Sobekneferu.
Amenhotep I from Ancient Egyptian "jmn-ḥtp" or "yamānuḥātap" meaning "Amun is satisfied" or Amenophis I, (,), from Ancient Greek Ἀμένωφις, additionally King Zeserkere, was the second Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. His reign is generally dated from 1526 to 1506 BC. He was a son of Ahmose I and Ahmose-Nefertari, but had at least two elder brothers, Ahmose-ankh and Ahmose Sapair, and was not expected to inherit the throne. However, sometime in the eight years between Ahmose I's 17th regnal year and his death, his heir apparent died and Amenhotep became crown prince. He then acceded to the throne and ruled for about 21 years. Although his reign is poorly documented, it is possible to piece together a basic history from available evidence. He inherited the kingdom formed by his father's military conquests and maintained dominance over Nubia and the Nile Delta but probably did not attempt to maintain Egyptian power in the Levant. He continued the rebuilding of temples in Upper Egypt and revolutionized mortuary complex design by separating his tomb from his mortuary temple, setting a trend in royal funerary monuments which would persist throughout the New Kingdom. After his death, he was deified as a patron god of Deir el-Medina.
Amenhotep II was the seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few military campaigns in Syria; however, he fought much less than his father, and his reign saw the effective cessation of hostilities between Egypt and Mitanni, the major kingdoms vying for power in Syria. His reign is usually dated from 1427 to 1401 BC.
Thutmose IV was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century BC. His prenomen or royal name, Menkheperure, means "Established in forms is Re."
Shepseskaf was the sixth and last pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. He reigned 6 to 8 years starting circa 2510 BC. The only activities firmly datable to his reign are the completion of the temple complex of the Pyramid of Menkaure and the construction of its own mastaba tomb at South Saqqara, the Mastabat al-Fir’aun, "stone bench of the pharaoh".
Mentuhotep I may have been a Theban nomarch and independent ruler of Upper Egypt during the early First Intermediate Period. Alternatively, Mentuhotep I may be a fictional figure created during the later Eleventh dynasty, which rose to prominence under Intef II and Mentuhotep II, playing the role of a founding father.
Gebel el-Silsila or Gebel Silsileh is 65 km north of Aswan in Upper Egypt, where the cliffs on both sides close to the narrowest point along the length of the entire Nile. The location is between Edfu in the north towards Lower Egypt and Kom Ombo in the south towards Upper Egypt. The name Kheny means "The Place of Rowing". It was used as a major quarry site on both sides of the Nile from at least the 18th Dynasty to Greco-Roman times. Silsila is famous for its New Kingdom stelai and cenotaphs.
Great Royal Wife, or alternatively, Chief King's Wife, is the term that was used to refer to the principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who served many official functions.
The Abydos King List, also known as the Abydos Table, is a list of the names of seventy-six kings of Ancient Egypt, found on a wall of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. It consists of three rows of thirty-eight cartouches in each row. The upper two rows contain names of the kings, while the third row merely repeats Seti I's throne name and praenomen.
The history of the Karnak Temple complex is largely the history of Thebes. The city does not appear to have been of any significance before the Eleventh Dynasty, and any temple building here would have been relatively small and unimportant, with any shrines being dedicated to the early god of Thebes, Montu. The earliest artifact found in the area of the temple is a small, eight-sided column from the Eleventh Dynasty, which mentions Amun-Re. The tomb of Intef II mentions a 'house of Amun', which implies some structure, whether a shrine or a small temple is unknown. The ancient name for Karnak, Ipet-Isut only really refers to the central core structures of the Precinct of Amun-Re, and was in use as early as the 11th Dynasty, again implying the presence of some form of temple before the Middle Kingdom expansion.
The Annals of Thutmose III are composed of numerous inscriptions of ancient Egyptian military records gathered from the 18th dynasty campaigns of Thutmose III's armies in Syro-Palestine, from regnal years 22 to 42. These recordings can be found on the inside walls of the chamber housing the "holy of holies" at the great Karnak Temple of Amun. Measuring just 25 meters in length and 12 meters wide, the space containing these inscriptions presents the largest and most detailed accounts concerning military exploits of all Egyptian Kings.
Sewahenre Senebmiu is a poorly attested Egyptian pharaoh of the late 13th dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. According to egyptologist Jürgen von Beckerath, he was the forty-first king of the 13th dynasty. Alternatively, Darrell Baker proposes that he may have been its fifty-seventh ruler. Kim Ryholt only specifies that Senebmiu's short reign dates to between 1660 BC and 1649 BC.
The memorial temple of Ramesses II, also called simply Ramesseum contains a minor list of pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The scene with the list was first published by Jean-Francois Champollion in 1845, and by Karl Richard Lepsius four years later.
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