Jebel Barkal
Jebel Barkal
The Barkal (287 m) (Arabic: جبل بركل Jebel Barkal, DMG Ǧabal Barkal; Egyptian dw w ˁ b - the pure mountain; Jebel Barkal or Gebel often Barkal, the first word in each case the transcription of the Arabic word Berg, Barkal means " holy" ) is a small mountain in the northern Sudan. The Barkal is surrounded by a vast field of ruins, which includes several temples, significant secular buildings ( " palaces " ) and a pyramid necropolis. The buildings form the ancient city Napata, together with the finds in Sanam. Therefore, the mountain Barkal, Sanam and other sites around 2003 by the UNESCO received the status of World Heritage Site.
Location
The Barkal is located about 30 kilometers downstream from the fourth cataract of the Nile and the new Merowe Dam, on the right bank of the Nile, about two kilometers southwest of Karima and about 400 kilometers north of Khartoum. The distance to the Nile is about 1.5 kilometers.
Table Mountain stands out about 100 meters from the surrounding areas, the near-vertical sandstone slopes are 80 to 95 feet high, only the northern flank is less steep. Because the mountain is visible from a great distance, it was used as a landmark by traders who were traveling from north to south-west direction Darfur or southeastward to Meroe.
History
Ever since Thutmose III. in the 15th century BC, of which the earliest excavated ruins date, was the Egyptians Barkal as the southern counterpart to the temple complex at Karnak and as the residence of the god Amun. Until the 20th dynasty of the Barkal was the most important religious center of the Egyptians in Nubia. During this dynasty, the Egyptians marched slowly back from Nubia, the Barkal remained a politically insecure area, and the Amun cult disappeared for a transitional period. After 1000 BC, ruled local Nubian prince. With the emergence of the Kushite Empire, whose first capital was in the 8th century BC, Napata with the Barkal as a center of the cult of Amun was revived. Under Kashta (reigned 760-747 to ) began the renovation and expansion of the Egyptian temple. His son and successor Piye (reigned 747-716 to ) let renovate and expand the great temple of Amun from Mount Barkal. Front of the vertical rock wall at the south end of the mountain there is an approximately 70 -meter-high free-standing pinnacle. Earlier it was believed that it was a heavily weathered colossal statue. Recent studies were able to refute, but seems to have been this peak in ancient times is important. The rocks can be interpreted as a uraeus, the symbol of Egyptian kings. Taharqa ( 690-664 BC to ) and Nastasen, who ruled in the second half of the 4th century BC, have had their names here to install.
Temple district
In the plain to the east, directly at the foot of the hill are the ruins of several temples and tombs that were excavated 1916-1920 by George A. Reisner. A re- examination of the temple ruins is done intermittently since 1987 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston under the direction of Timothy Kendall.
Temple of Amun
To the temple district of B.500 heard called the Temple of Amun. The oldest part of the temple dates from the New Kingdom and is partially built of stone blocks in the format talatat, which was common especially towards the end of the 18th Dynasty. Was significantly expanded the building immediately before the beginning of the 25th dynasty under King Piye. The columns and inputs were made of sandstone, while unfired clay bricks were used for most walls. Piye and Taharqo sided with the temple in relief bark subsets of granite. The construction should continue Egyptian traditions. From the 25th dynasty of the Temple of Amun developed into a kind of national shrine in which numerous Kushite kings stelae were set up with reports on their actions to justify that before the deity. These steles are today one of the most comprehensive written sources on the history of the 25th Dynasty and the Napatan time dar.
Temple of Mut and Hathor
The best preserved after the Amun temple ruins of the B.300, even Temple of Mut located, just 200 meters west of this at the southern tip of the Barkal below the spire. The original building for the goddess Mut, from the time of the New Kingdom was a free-standing temple. Under Taharqa a new temple with a pylon and axial rows of columns was built into the interior to 680 BC halfway into the rocks. Two pillars of courage temple with capitals show Hathorgesichter were re-erected. 25 meters to the west there was the similarly sized and equally partially built into the rock temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor B.200. Both temples pay homage to a sun cult, the myth of the eye of Re. The Temple of Hathor had three sanctuaries for Hathor, Tefnut, and another unknown goddess.
More temple within the temple precincts
B.600 was a small temple, which was built under Thutmose IV around 1400 for the first time, been destroyed by a rockfall had to be and was probably rebuilt in the late Napatan time. At the same time, the damaged by falling rocks, adjacent and dating from the 7th century B.700 was restored.
The originally built of mud brick temple b.800 (Temple of Alara ) was Kaschta expand with a pylon from stone blocks and to which access is lined with a series Steinwidder. Between these temples slight remains were excavated by other temples and secular buildings. The first phase of the palaces ( B.1200 ) of mud brick probably also falls in the time of Kushta.
City and necropolis
To the east of the temple ergrub a team from the University of Rome, the remains of several, mostly hailing from the Meroitic period secular buildings, including a large palace from the 1st century AD, found in 1994, the Italians there are two lion statues. On the opposite western side of the mountain are from the thoroughfare from the Meroitic pyramids of Mount Barkal to see.