SOLEB
The temple of Soleb is one of the most grandiose architectural achievements of the Egyptian New Worst in the heart of Nubia, some five hundred kilometers south of Aswan. The ruins of this magnificent jubilee temple of Amenophis III (around 1400-1370 AD) are worthy of the builder of the temple of Luxor. The jubilee ceremonies - or Sed festival -, still very rich in enigmas, were celebrated by Pharaoh in -incipe every thirty years; in fact Amenophis III cut three jubilees, in the years 30, 34 and 37 of his reign: the jubilee was to mark the beginning of a new royal cycle; the divine powers of the king were then renewed; thus Egyptian “order” was guaranteed as opposed to the “chaos” of foreign countries or bad floods.
Under the tropical sun, beyond the solitudes of the enormous barrier of the Second Cataract (the Batn el-Haggar, the “belly of Stone”), also cut off towards the South from the rest of Sudan by the Third and Fourth Cataracts, Soleb remained difficult to access for a very long time, if not impossible. In 1813, he was seen from the right bank, on the other bank of the river, by J.-L. Burckhardt, the Balois explorer who became a Muslim under the name of Cheikh Ibrahim. It was only on January 3, 1821 that the temple received its first European visit: Frédéric Cailliaud of Nantes drew up the plan, noted the scenes and made drawings, using clear chamber, published in 1826 in his famous Voyage à Méroé. The English Waddington and Hanbury, who had been barely beaten there, returned to Europe earlier and were thus able to publish their own account in 1822. The apparent remains were the subject of rapid reconnaissance by the Prussian R. Lepsius at the beginning of July 1844 and by the American professor Breasted at the end of January 1907. It was only from 1957 to 1977 that he was able to work on them tirelessly, under the high patronage of the University of Pisa, an Italian-French mission financed and led by Michela Schiff Giorgini, with the assistance of the architect Clément Robichon and Jean Leclant. Two volumes, devoted to travelers and necropolises, were published in 1965 and 1971; In recent months, the complete description of the reliefs of the temple has been resumed, with all the surveys.
The beauty of the remains, in an incomparable setting, testifies to the prestige of Pharaonic art at the height of one of its most beautiful periods. The ravages of time have, however, been considerable; Nubian sandstone also suffers poorly from the attack of very violent winds. But Soleb offered the exceptional advantage of never having undergone any of these overly hasty investigations which too often affected the sites of Egypt; we could thus reconstruct the way in which the elements of the temple had collapsed; it was also possible to study the foundations of the monument, to discover the successive floors in place, to locate the reused blocks in position, witnesses to the dynamic history of the temple.
Soleb's plan is perfectly classic. At the rear of a sort of counter-temple reduced to substructures, a first pylon now leveled and an avenue formerly flanked by statues of rams, the sacred animal of Amun, as well as statues of lions, erect cobras and royal falcons, preceded the building. A monumental vestibule rested on the large pylon, the façade of which contains both the cartridges of Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV. Behind the large pylon, towards the West. two courtyards followed one another as in the funerary temples of the Theban left bank. then came a hypostyle room, itself followed by the rooms surrounding the holy of holies.
The first courtyard was lined with porticos with fasciculated papyriform columns of a very pure style, comparable to those of Luxor. They only survive - and partially - on the north side. The back wall of the peristyle was decorated with reliefs depicting the long procession and the ceremonies of the Sed festival. Nothing remains of the southern half where Pharaoh was to officiate as king of Upper Egypt. On the northern half, the most important remains are, on the east side, those on the reverse side of the north pole of the pylon and to the west the north side of the doorway between the first and second courtyard. On the wall of the pylon, the very eroded remains of a strip of decoration relating to the "illumination of the thrones" are dominated by a very large composition encompassing six superimposed registers: it is surrounded by the representation of an enclosure commemorating the ceremonies of the king who "knocks the doors", in a gesture of both consecration and destruction; the sovereign is accompanied by the “royal scribe” Amenhotep, that is to say the famous Amenhotep son of Hapou, also equipped with a white club and a long staff. Inside the enclosure itself, there are series of naos containing deities as well as the two Merets, crowned with plants from Upper and Lower Egypt, surmounted by the three markers of the ritual race.
On the very back of the pylon, the processions of the Sed festival began, arranged in eight long, continuous registers, superimposed. The king generally wears the great jubilee mantle and holds the curved crozier and the whip in his hands; often accompanied by the queen, he appears in front of the chapels where he enters alone; among the various officiants, we can distinguish the “royal infantas” wearing a sort of mortar; in one place they are named: Satamon, Isis and Henouttaneb; We also recognize the “divine mother (of Assiut)”, shaved head, dressed in a tight tunic, the “reader-priest, royal scribe” Nebmertef and the two viziers.
Beyond the second, badly damaged courtyard, we reach the hypostyle room; before the clearing and careful restoration of the scattered elements, there was a mass of drums of columns, fragments of abacus and intermingled architecture. Only a heavy column with a papyriform capital still stood, topped with an architrave still in place. The assured reconstruction shows that, to the North and South of the central nave, there were three rows of four columns each. At their lower part, they showed shields containing the names of bewitched peoples, each surmounted by the bust of a character with arms tied behind them. On the North side, there are countries and cities of Asia: on the South side, African peoples whose strange names cannot be most generally localized; however, the individualized goods constitute an astonishing “ethnographic gallery”; it is moreover a sort of inventory of magical domination much more than real territorial annexations. Let us underline the importance among the Asian peoples of the Shasou Bedouins occupying the mountainous steppes south of Edom; the name corresponds exactly to the “tetragram” of the biblical God YHWH: under Amenhotep III, the name of God thus appears as a place name.
Each column was decorated above with a large painting confronting the king with a divinity, sometimes Amon, sometimes the image of the king himself deified; the latter is depicted with the ear surrounded by a ram's horn, wearing a modius surmounted by a crescent and a disc: should we see here a lunisolar or simply lunar emblem (with the two phases of the star) which would be a symbol of Khonsou, the god son of the Theban triad, unless it is an allusion to this god Iah whose name is included in the cartouches of the first princes of the dynasty: Ahhotep, Ahmose before those of Amenhotep and Thutmosis were in favor (Thoth being another form of the lunar god). The king is called by his second name of Nebmaâtre, that is to say “Re is the master of Maât (Truth-Justice)”. He is also the “master of Nubia”, the “great god”, the “master of the sky”. The coronation cartouche often includes solar epithets: “image of Re”, “elect of Re”, “heir of Re”; we insist on the brilliant brilliance of this “perfect god”, “mountain of gold”. Amenhotep III in Soleb truly appears as a “sun king”. Numerous details confirm the solar theology, the one which under Akhenaten, the son and successor of Amenhotep III, culminated in the exclusive adoration of the solar disk Aten, whose name is mentioned several times, and the exaltation of its high priest the king.
The back area of the temple has disappeared. Disparate blocks litter the ravine dug by a great torrential flow from the desert. The sanctuary was also dedicated to the two deities: Amon and the deified king.
Apart from the precious indications that the temple of Soleb can provide on the solar rise and the affirmation of the cosmic power of the Pharaoh, we can still gather important information such as that provided by the careful examination of the modifications of the cartridges: hammerings, plaster refills, re-engravings. This is not a classic hammering from the Amarna period. The new name engraved is that of Nebmaâtre, as if the king had wanted to affirm his message in the most complete way: “Re is the master of Maât”. It is this essence “Nebmaâtre” which corresponds to his “living image on earth”, the aspect as god under which he worships himself.
The research carried out in Soleb by the Michela Schiff Giorgini Mission also led to the discovery of the necropolis. Originally topped by pyramids which were completed with mud-brick chapels, the tombs had wells with chambers dug into the rock. Despite the looting, we collected the remains of a rich material: a particularly elegant mirror inlaid with electrum, a makeup spoon in the shape of a duck, a pretty little terracotta vase depicting a crouching monkey holding in its lap a bag undoubtedly full of dates, a beetle commemorating exceptional lion hunts.
At the rear of the temple, on the first slopes of the desert, we were able to precisely highlight the remains of the layout of a vast park, very likely a wild animal reserve; the priest, officiating for the king, could engage in the royal hunt, a symbol of Pharaoh's triumph, the spoils of the hunt being only a substitute for warlike victories.