karnak

 

 the king, wearing a blue war helmet, kneeling in a persea tree. He has just been directed toward the sanctuary of his father Amun, by Atum, the master of Heliopolis, and by Montu, the master of Thebes. The king holds the hek and nekhakha scepters over his shoulder with one hand. With his other hand, he prop up the symbols of the sed festival that have been extended to him by Amun, who is seated in his naos.
Behind the king stands Thoth, who announces various renewals to him and inscribes the throne name on one of the fruits that he holds up in his left hand. Above this scene, in a cartouche on the left surmounted by the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt, is the throne name of Ramesses II Usermaatre. Here, a winged disk gives his cartouche life.

karnak temple

 coronation as king of Upper and Lower Egypt is depicted. Usermaatre, Son of Re, Ramesses (II) Meryamun is here seated on a throne and wearing the double crown representing the duality of his kingdom. In his hands he holds two, uncrossed scepters. He is flanked by two seated, female gods who grasp his shoulders. The goddess that he faces, to the east, is Nekhebet, mistress of the South. She assures him of her protection by "joining with his limbs" and of "his rejuvenation in the image of the Aten disk in heaven". Behind her, Horus of Behedet reaches over Nekhebet to present Ramesses II with the white crown set on a basket.
The goddess to the west is Wadjet, mistress of the North. Behind her, Thoth is presenting the red crown to the king, while confirming his divine origin and the righteousness of his rule over the Two Lands. The three thrones of the king and the two goddesses rests upon a single pedestal, while Thoth and Horus stand on the ground.

western facade of the third pylon

western facade of the third pylon was inscribed with five registers of scenes surmounted by a frieze of khakeru that represent the different phases of the Ritual of the Daily Divine Worship, during the reign of Seti I.
On the lower register, for example, the king breaks the clay seals, draws back the bolt, and opens the two sections of the door to heaven.

In the second register, we find the king wearing a headband, a long, pleated linen robe, and a large scarf. In his right hand, he holds a key-of-life shaped vessel, while in the left hand he grasps a bundle of tied straw, which he uses to eradicate the marks of his footprints while turning his back to the neter (god). While the text of this scene is lost to us, we may interpret its meaning from the a temple at Abydos and from the Berlin Papyrus, which in sixty-six chapters, describes the Ritual of the Daily Divine Worship.
In this type of depiction, the king is always represented as officiating in the temple reliefs, though the ritual was actually performed by the "priest on his day", for whom the name signifies pure and who is identified as the king. A statue of the neter was believed to renew the Osirian passion each night. In the morning, after having made his ablutions, the officiating priest who was now purified in mind and body would start the day's ceremony with a purification fire, which was a metaphor for the Eye of Horus. Horus was responsible for driving back the power of Seth and annihilating the enemies of the neter.
In the five vertical columns of the lower register, to the left of Amun-Re Kamutef, we find text with the title, "Chapter on Making the Fire Each Day".
After having made the fire, the priest, acting for the king, would proceed to open up the naos of the temple, which would have been sealed for the night. He would then complete the steps of the complete ritual. After the first part of the ceremony had ended, the service was repeated twice. When the priest leaves the sanctuary, he speaks the words, "I have left, with your great face behind me".
It should be noted that in this scene in the Hypostyle Hall, the ankh shaped vessel is split in half, signifying that only half of the ceremony has been completed
In the third register, we find Seti, still kneeling, but now holding a torch before Amun, who "lights with fire the first day of the year". Then in the fifth register, the kneeling king, who holds the key of life, presents a list of offerings and finally, in the fifth register, Seti I kneels before Amun, who holds a rope rolled up like the hieroglyphic h. Here, the caption reads, "he activates his fire".
These various registers refer to chapters within the Ritual of the Daily Divine Worship. Here, the second register is from the chapter on the lighting of the temple, while the third and fifth registers, respectively, or from the chapters on the New Year's Day torch, and the chapter on the extinguishing of the torch.
Next, we will skip over and examine the front edge of the antechamber attached to the front of the third pylon. These scenes continue the theme of the Daily Divine Worship. At the top of this corner block we find Amun seated on his throne. Below this, the reliefs were decorated in the name of Ramesses II using sunk relief. The next lower register depicts the king on his knees before Ptah. Here, his fist is clenched with only the little finger extended. This gesture is explained by the fact that the officiating priest always puts on a silver or gold fingerstall to anoint the sacred statue.
The priest, representing the king, after having entered the sanctuary, purifies it with incense. Next, he breaks the seal to the doors of the naos, and uncovers the face of the god while uttering the sanctioned words and making the medjet unguent offering. One must remember that the god is supposed to have undergone the dismemberment of his body during the night, just as Osiris was dismembered by Seth. The Berlin Papyrus explains the unction on the forehead with the:
"medjet paint emerges from the Eye of Horus, puts his bones back in place, rejoins his limbs, reassembles his flesh, drives off the evil influences of Seth, and, subsequently, destroys all those who are in his retinue."
The final lower scene in this section depicts the offering of the white vessel to Amun. From here, we will move over to the eastern side of the south wall, were we will see a scene at the top of the wall representing the manufacturing of the young king by Khnum on his potter's wheel. The royal infant is represented alone, whereas in the temple at Luxor he is depicted with his ka.

karnak temple

the king is kneeling, and his right leg is stretched behind him in the position known as the "silver statue", a posture that is very specific to Karnak. He bows before Re, who is seated in his naos. The king wears a headband and the atef crown, flanked by two uraei on disks, all surmounting the horns of Khnum. The king holds the hek and nekhakha scepters in his right hand. In the king's left hand, he supports the symbols of the sed festival and longevity that hand beneath the "palm of the years" that Re holds with the was in his right hand. With Re's left hand, he reaches out to the horn of the king's crown.

Behind Seti I's image we find a good example of the lion headed Sekhmet, who is here named "the great magician". She also holds, in her right hand, the "palm of the years, from which dangles some of the same symbols we find in the depiction of Re. Her left hand is raised.Amun-Re Kamutef, the prince of the Great Ennead of gods. Here, he wears an unusual headdress which is shaped tightly about his head. It is held in place by a band that extends in the back down to the pedestal. To the right, the king kneels before his Horus name supported by the ka. The king holds a basket of offerings above his head.

karnak temple

 the king is once again depicted as he stands facing the west. He bows, while offering a lotus and papyrus bouquet. In this scene, he wears a wig that is finely portrayed with lines that end in curls radiating from the crown of his head. Two long, folded ribbons drop behind him from the nape of his neck. Covering his shoulders is the user necklace, consisting of seven rows of stones such as lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise and a row of beads, separated by gold wire. Above the king in the second cartouche we find the jackal-headed Seth animal used to write his Seti name. It follows the name of Horus and the cartouche of Menmaatre.



 the king entering the temple. He faces the east, towards the temple sanctuaries. Here, his first action is to "Give the House to Its Masters". The "house" is of course, the temple itself, which is depicted by a sanctuary, above which the king holds an ankh in his left hand. Before him, and facing the king is Amun-Re, presiding in Ipet-sut (The Temple of Karnak), who gives him all life, stability, power and the assurance of numerous years of Atum, as Re.

The king gives the house to its masters

The figure of the king has been altered three times. The original scene depicted the bearded king standing upright with a nemes headdress revealing his ear. The next alteration had him bowing, with no beard and his ear hidden. Through the final alterations, the original ear may still be observed.


 

the king on his knees, before the persea tree. He wears the blue helmet, while holding the hek scepter over his shoulder with his right hand. In his left hand, he holds stylized fruits on which Thoth has just engraved his mystical name. Here, Thoth, with his ibis head, has written with his gnomon the name of Menmaatre and is holding a shell in his left hand. Here again, the figure of the king has been reworked at least several times. Originally, he was larger and wore a loincloth.
Above the persea tree, the anaglyph of the king is made up of symbols for Ma'at and men, crowned by the solar disk Ra, which which are suspended two crowned uraei.

The Great Hypostyle Hall at the Temple of Amun, Karnak

the king  wears the blue khepresh helmet. He is on his knees and is making offerings to Montu, who is in the heart of Thebes. The king offers three papyrus stems in his right hand and a bouquet of budding and flowering lotuses in his left. Montu, holding the was scepter with his right and and the ankh in his left, is standing..

The King makes offerings such as bread before Amun (standing) 

king kneeling, this time before Amun. Above the king is the vulture god, Nekhebet. In this scene, the king offers breads, plucked and trussed geese and a bouquet of lotus buds and flowers on a platter to Amun. In return, Amun gives him "all life, stability, strength, and all enlargement of the heart, as Ra"

The lower register is in very poor condition, but we can make out the upper part of a naos in which the sacred barque of Amun rests.

The Great Hypostyle Hall at the Temple of Amun, Karnak

Amun-Re is seated on his throne; standing behind the god is the goddess Mut, who is ordinarily enfeoffed (subservient) with him. A second enfeoffed goddess [our of whose horns the solar disk emerges] holds a [sistrum] and flowers in her right hand raised before Amun-Re; with the left hand she holds the hand of pharaoh with a scratched-out figure of enfeoffment, who is holding [the hek scepter and the nekhakha scepter] on his shoulder and is bowing as he approaches Amun-Re...
Behind the king, the god [Khonsu] is standing, disk and crescent, the enfeoffment of the prince, necklace, body clad in a girdle, the one hand holding a panegyric scepter, the other designating a notch with the gnomon. He is performing the duties of Thoth here, for whom he is the prototype."
These depictions apparently overlay earlier depictions and in fact, the great disk carved in sunk relief above the face of Seti I is from one of these earlier scenes. Legrain believed it might have surmounted the head of the rams that adorned the prow and stern of the barque of Amun.