Solar Flair

Question: What Egyptian temple is perfectly aligned to welcome the rising winter solstice sun?

Answer: Karnak Temple, Egypt

On the Winter Solstice—the shortest day of the year—the sun rises dramatically in the entryway of Karnak Temple, illuminating the pillars and inner sanctum dedicated to Amun-Ra, the god of sun. The solar alignment that penetrates Abu Simbel and illuminates Ramesses II, while quite dramatic, is timed to coincide the pharaoh’s birthday and coronation.

While Angkor Wat in Cambodia is spread out over more acres (400 to Karnak’s 200), the sheer size of Karnak Temple staggers the imagination. Bigger than some cities, the temple’s Great Hypostyle Hall alone features 134 massive columns—some 80 feet tall—and could fit about ten cathedrals the size of Notre Dame within its walls (it’s also considered the largest religious building in the world). And lining a two-mile long pathway over to Luxor Temple with more than 1,300 sphinxes was a nice touch. It’s no wonder that Karnak was known as Ipet-Sut, the "most esteemed of places." When he created "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" comedy science fiction franchise, Douglas Adams was talking about space but might just as well have been describing Karnak as he wrote: "you just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is."

Karnak was built directly atop of Thebes, the city ancient Egyptians believed was founded on the primordial mound rising from the waters when the world was created. For centuries it was the most important religious complex in Egypt, and as the main place of worship for Amun-Ra, the Sun God, it made sense for the temple to have its axis aligned along the sunrise (azimuth) of the winter solstice.

So why did Egyptians to go to all that trouble to recognize the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year? For ancient people, the shortening days of winter were nothing to celebrate—quite the opposite. A sinking sun posed the greatest threat: freezing or famine. And while the winter solstice was the darkest and gloomiest of them all, it also marked the turnaround toward spring and summer. Knowing things wouldn’t get any worse, it was a time to rejoice.

Egyptians—and everyone else in the ancient world—would have noticed how the sun’s arc across the sky had been dropping lower month after month—and how in the days surrounding the winter solstice, it would appear to rise and set in the same place. This phenomenon is where the word "solstice" came from, which is derived from the Latin and means "sun stands still."

Skeptics who dismiss Karnak’s perfect alignment to the winter solstice as just a fortunate coincidence only need to glance at the temple walls. There are hieroglyphs depicting a ceremony called the "stretching of the cord," with a pharaoh shown marking off the temple’s precise dimensions with a string. Experts have confirmed that this isn’t unique to Karnak either, and that ancient temples throughout Egypt are aligned with various celestial phenomena—both solstices and equinoxes, as well as the rising of the bright star Sirius. The precise alignment was key, too, as it was a way for people to mark their agricultural, political, and religious calendars.

How was this alignment achieved, one might ask? Well, it meant that someone would have to go out to a prospective building site during a solar or lunar event, then mark out the precise position that the temple axis must take. It is believed that the pharaoh only served this role at the most important of Egypt’s many temples—and Karnak was certainly that.

A Few Fascinating Facts About Karnak Temple:

• It will be finished when?! Building projects are notorious for taking longer than expected, but Karnak Temple takes top prize. Construction, which began in 2056 BC, went on for not 2, or 20, or 200—but more than 2,000 years. Pharaohs from various Egyptian dynasties just kept expanding, adding, and making renovations to the massive complex.


• If those walls could talk: Covered in hieroglyphs and carvings, the walls of Karnak Temple served as a form of visual language—and were purpose-built to tell stories about the pharaohs, gods, and various rituals performed at the temple.


• Not too many layoffs at Karnak: The immense scale of Karnak Temple is reflected by the vast workforce required for its operation and upkeep—including more than 80,000 priests, servants, and slaves dedicated to serving the temple's main deity, Amun-Ra.


• Raise the roof: Karnak Temple originally had a roof, a very big roof. And the columns we see today were once plastered and painted with brightly colored heroic scenes from the lives of the pharaohs. While many original carved hieroglyphics and symbols remain, some have been embellished with graffiti from 19th-century British and Egyptian soldiers—and 20th-century tourists.


• But he’s so sweet at home: This is what it says on one of Karnak’s remaining wall inscriptions: "His Majesty exults at the beginning of battle, he delights to enter it; his heart is gratified at the sight of blood. He lops off the heads of his dissidents. His majesty slays them at one stroke—he leaves them no heir, and whoever escapes his hand is brought prisoner to Egypt." Likes kittens and romantic walks along the Nile …


• Lost and found: Despite its grandeur, Karnak went into a steady decline during Egypt’s Late Period (from about 712-332 BC), when the power of the pharaohs began to wane and invasions from the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans took their toll. Karnak and many other pagan temples were closed and abandoned following the rise of Christianity during the Roman era (30 BC-395 AD). With much of Karnak looted, broken down, and hauled away as building materials, sand and time did the rest and the complex was buried for centuries. But thanks to renewed interest in Egypt in the 19th century, archaeological excavations—that continue to the present day—began unearthing one of the most magnificent temples the world has ever seen.

Explore Karnak Temple during our Egypt & the Eternal Nile by Private, Classic River-Yacht adventure.