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Karnak: the Temple of Amun-Ra-Who-Hears-Prayers

Abstract

The eastern temple of Karnak known as “Temple of Amun-Ra-Who-Hears-Prayers” was partly built and entirely redecorated between year 40 and year 46 of the reign of Ramesses II; it was located in an area devoted to the personal piety from Thutmose III until the reign of Ptolemy VIII. The masonry has revealed that the temple hides previous structures. This former edifice could be the work of Horemheb. The columns of the hypostyle hall, which have probably been in place since the Thutmosid Period and were transformed by the Ramesside intervention, suggest also that a Thutmosid structure was still there. 4Dm nHt is the principal epithet—but not the only one—which indicates that the king as the god listens to the prayers in this sector of the Karnak Temple complex. Some tenuous indications suggest that divine justice, as corollary of the listening of the prayers, could have been applied in the temple by means of a processional bark before the Ptolemaic Period; during the reign of Ptolemy VII, there are indications that justice was administered in the temple.

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