This is one of the most impressive spaces in any Egyptian monument. Built by Amenhetep III to be the grand entrance to the Temple of Amen of the Opet, the Colonnade was the third stage in the king’s elaborate building plan.

It chronologically precedes the Great Court but follows it geographically. The two rows of columns he erected may have been intended as the main axis of what was to become a great hypostyle hall, similar to that at Karnak. If so, that work was never finished. Only the Colonnade was completed after the death of Amenhetep III by Tutankhamen, Ay, and Horemheb.

The axis of the Colonnade and chambers south of it is noticeably different than the axis of the Ramesside additions that precede it. The change was made necessary when Rameses II sought physically to join Luxor Temple by causeway to the Temple of Khonsu in Karnak, which had a different axial alignment.

The Colonnade has fourteen columns with  open papyrus capitals that supported a roof 21 meters (68 feet) above the ground. The room is narrow, only ten meters (32 feet) wide and 26 meters (85 feet) long. Originally, its walls rose to the full height of the roof, and the only light came from small clerestory windows cut at ceiling level.

It is difficult now to appreciate just how impressive this room must have been, because the walls are preserved only a few meters high. But to have walked into this dark and forbidding colonnade in antiquity, passing from the open and brightly-lit courtyard into a dimly-lit space proportioned like a great European cathedral must have been an awe-inspiring experience. The scenes in the Colonnade are the best sources available for the study of the Opet Festival, one of the most important religious ceremonies in the New Kingdom. They include details of the processions from Karnak to Luxor and return. Their “compositional unity” and carefully-followed sequential ordering indicate that they had been laid out according to a single, comprehensive master plan drawn up before actual work began.

 This “cartoon” was prepared by artisans of Amenhetep III—men like Hor and Suty, “Overseer of Works of Amen in the Southern Opet”—working with the senior priests responsible for the Opet Festival. Their design survived Amenhetep III and the Amarna Period, and was acted upon later by artisans of Tutankhamen and Ay. Thus, the scenes represent a decorative scheme that had been laid out before the Amarna Period but only realized two decades later when post-Amarna artists tried to restore earlier traditions. Later, under Seti I, further additions were made to the decoration. These are easy to distinguish from the earlier work by the greater height of the raised relief and the more meticulous modeling of figures.

The Opet scenes can be divided into twelve parts: five scenes on the west wall deal with the procession from Karnak to Luxor and initial ceremonies in Luxor Temple; five others, on the east wall, treat further festivities in Luxor Temple and the return to Karnak. In addition, there are scenes on the northern and southern end walls. In the northwest (right front) corner of the Colonnade, the procession begins with the king, Tutankhamen, greeting the gods at Karnak. He then makes offerings to the barks of the Theban Triad and joins the procession of those boats from their shrines to the Nile. Flags fly from staffs before Karnak’s Third Pylon. From Karnak, the barks are towed south against the river’s current by men on shore and by rowboats, then carried by priests from the quay and placed in bark shrines in the First Court. On the south end wall, the king greets Amen, Mut, and Amenet in Luxor Temple.

The Colonnade reliefs are difficult to see in diffuse light, and it is best to concentrate on the parts of the walls that are exposed to raking sunlight or, in the evening, on the parts that are floodlit. In such light, wonderful details emerge: one can admire the finely modeled faces
and detailed costumes of priests and officials, the minutiae of the nautical rigging and hardware, the agile movements of young acrobats, the gestures of musicians with elaborate drums, lutes, and sistra. Only the lowest registers on these walls have been preserved, but Egyptologists have identified hundreds of stone blocks from the upper parts of the walls that now lie about the perimeter of Luxor Temple. They are working to reconstruct, on paper at least, the subject-matter of those  upper scences

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a