Templum Ammonis, Thebae
About
The vast Karnak temple complex remained an active Egyptian cult centre under Roman rule; imperial titles were carved onto its walls into the 2nd century CE. Standing and in worship in 117.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Strabo, Geography 17.1.46
Thebes seen as a scatter of villages among enormous temples; Strabo measures the surviving avenues of sphinxes and the halls of columns.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →