Also known as the Karnak king list, it include several kings of the First and Second Intermediate Periods, omitted by the king lists of Abydos and Saqqara. Originally located in the southwest corner of the Akh-Menu Hall of the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak.
Created during the reign of Thutmose III, it listed sixty-one kings, only the names of thirty-nine kings are still legible, and one is not written in a cartouche. Interestingly, the names include a large number of Second Intermediate Period kings not found in the other monumental king lists.
"The king list was first described by James Burton in 1825, while exploring and excavating the ruins around Thebes in the early 1820s. Most likely the walls were uncovered while he was excavating the ruins, as the Napoleonic expedition did not mention or copy the scene.
In 1843, as the Lepsius expedition was traveling up the Nile, looking to purchase or scavenge interesting Egyptian artefacts. To rescue the king list from certain German acquisition, French archaeologist Émile Prisse d’Avennes had the king list dismantled at night in order to secure it for France. It was hard work that took 18 nights, but at last it was boxed and sent to Paris in 27 boxes. The transport caused some lesser damage to a few of the stone blocks, but the painted bas-reliefs were in a good state when inspected upon arrival. Incredibly, the boxes were then left where they stood, some barely closed, in the courtyard outside the library, where they remained throughout the fall and winter. After several months of rain, wind, snow and sun, the painted reliefs were now completely denuded of paint. Quelle surprise!
Severely damaged, the blocks with the king list can be seen in the Louvre museum in Paris (Chapelle des ancêtres, Cat. no. E 13481 bis). The original site is in the Akh-menu (Heret-ib) festival hall, room SF-5 at Karnak.
The purpose of the list was to showered or celebrated "ancestors," and was not meant to be a chronological list. The seemingly arbitrary positions the pharaohs are placed in does not reflect the order of succession, and is written in the tradition of Upper Egypt, concentrating on kings of the South.
![Karnak Canon king list](/images/canon-kc.webp)
Content of the Karnak king list
Due to the poor state of the list, many of the names has been lost since its discovery. The early travellers who copied the inscriptions did so with varying accuracy.
Cartouches 38 and 57 (33, 59) record
The numbering system used in publications hail from the editio princeps of Auswahl, numbering the kings from the center to the edges, top to bottom. However, as the kings are facing the left and right edges, the correct way to read the scenes should be from the edges toward the center, which Lepsius corrected in 1853. However the numbering from Auswahl prevail, and is included in a parenthesis.
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The powerful one of Ra, who has made the Two Lands firm
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The one whom the ka of Ra has sustained
Traces of an unreadable name
The powerful one of Ra, who has made the Two Lands perfect
The powerful one of Ra is the protection of the Two Lands
He who causes the heart of Ra to live
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The powerful one of Ra, who has strengthened the Two Lands
Only traces of Ra-sign remain
The one whom Ra’s heart has made perfect
The [powerful] one of Ra is enduring of appearances
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The powerful one of Ra is flourishing of appearances
Only traces of Ra-sign remain
Whom the ... of Ra has made perfect
The one who ... Ra flourish
The powerful one of Ra ...
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Gallery
Bibliography
- Map with original location of the king list
- Burton, James., 1825. Excerpta Hieroglyphica. Cairo: plate 1.
- Young, Thomas., 1828. Hieroglyphics. London: Plate 96 (copy from Burton)
- Wilkinson, J. G., 1830. Extracts from several Hieroglyphical Subjects found at Thebes, and other parts of Egypt. Malta: Pl. IV
- Lepsius, Karl Richard., 1842. Auswahl der wichtigsten urkunden des Aegyptische Alterthums. Leipzig: pl. I
- d’Avennes, Prisse., 1845. Notice sur la salle des ancêtres de Thouthmès III au Temple de Karnak. Revue archéologique, 2: pl. 23, pp. 5-15
- l’Illustration, Journal Universel., 1846. Vol. VII. Paris: 244-245
(English tr.)
- de Rouge, Emmanuel., June 1846. Examen de l'ouvrage de M. Le Chevalier de Bunsen. Annales de philosophie chrétienne, 78: 432-458. Plate 46
- d’Avennes, Prisse., 1847. Monuments Égyptiens, bas-reliefs, peintures, inscriptions, etc.. Paris: Plate I
- Lepsius, Karl Richard., 1853. Über die zwölfte Aegyptische Königsdynastie, APAW, 1852. Berlin: 425-455, pl. 1
- Sethe, Kurt., 1906. Urkunden der 18. dynastie Abteilung IV, Band II, Heft 5-8. Leipzig: 607-610.
- Porter, Bertha, & Moss, Rosalind., 1972. The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, II2. Oxford: 112 [342].
- Grimal, Nicolas., 2010. Les ancêtres de Karnak. CRAIBL 154.1, pp. 343-370
(original)
(English tr.)
- SITH (in French) Detailed description (by Egyptologists) of SF-5 with hieroglyphs, bibliography etc.