Festival Hall of Tuthmose III

Figure 1 - Festival Hall of Tuthmose III

     The Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Tuthmose III was remembered for hundreds of years after his death as one of Egypt's greatest kings. He built extensively at Karnak Temple where he erected obelisks and wrote the tale of his conquests in the Levant. He also constructed one of the most unique buildings ever erected in Egypt, the Festival Hall of Karnak.

     The Festival Hall was built as part of the celebration of Tuthmose's Heb-Sed festival. This festival was first celebrated after the King had been on the throne for thirty years, and was then celebrated every few years after that. The building in Karnak that the Pharaoh erected to celebrate his Heb-Sed is designed to look like a giant tent made of stone. The building has an "awning" on the outside and the columns that support the roof have "upside down" capitals that seem to be imitations of the poles used to support a tent. Possibly this is an echo in stone of the tents that Tuthmose lived in during his many military campaigns.

Figure 2 - Tulips(?) from the Court Behind the Festival Hall

     Behind the Festival Hall is a court where the Pharaoh had depicted some of the plants he saw during his campaigns, plants that did not exist in Egypt. See figure two for a depiction of what looks like tulips.