E
very year ancient Egyptians eagerly
anticipated the coming of Akhet, the
flooding season. Meaning “inunda-
tion,” Akhet was the all-important
time when the Nile’s floodwaters re-
plenished the land and restored Egypt’s fertil-
ity. This time of joyous renewal was also when
ancient Egypt held one of its most spectacu-
lar and most mysterious festivals: the Feast
of Opet.
Opet was celebrated in the city of Thebes,
and the centerpiece of the festival was a grand
procession from Karnak to Luxor. In these
processions, statues of the city’s most
sacred gods—Amun-Re, supreme god,
his wife, Mut, and his son, Khons—were
placed in special barks and were then
borne from one temple to the other.
Opet’s formal name is heb nefer en Ipet,
which translates to “beautiful feast of
Opet.” The word opet or ipet is believed to
have referred to the inner sanctuary of theTemple of Luxor. So important was this fes-
tive event that the second month of Akhet,
when the feast typically occurred, was named
after it: pa-en-ipet, the [month] of Opet. Dur-
ing the reign of Thutmose III (1458-1426 B.C.),
the festival lasted for 11 days. By the start of
the rule of Ramses III in 1187 B.C., it had ex-
panded to 24 days; by his death in 1156 B.C., it
had stretched to 27.A New Kingdom Rises
The beautiful feast became a major celebration
in the early New Kingdom (ca 1539-1075 B.C.)
when the 18th dynasty came to power, after
driving out the Hyksos invaders who had oc-
cupied the northern part of the Nile Valley for
200 years. Egypt’s new rulers wasted no time
in making its capital city Thebes a vast cer-
emonial stage to celebrate the consolidation of
power, and the Opet festival took center stage.
Egypt displayed its greatness with impres-
sive feats of engineering in the expansion of
its two great temple complexes at Karnak and
Luxor on the eastern bank of the Nile. One of
the early pharaohs of the 18th dynasty, Thut-
mose I expanded the temple of Amun-Re atTemple
complex of
Amun-Re at
KarnakAvenue of SphinxesTemple of LuxorA HIGH PRIEST OF THEBES HOLDS FIGURES
OF AMUN, MUT, AND KHONS. 12TH CENTURY B.C.
MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES, CAIRO
ARALDO DE LUCAPARADE
ROUTE
In the city of Thebes
(above), the temples
of Karnak to the
north and Luxor to
the south were the
setting for the annual
Feast of Opet.
3D: 4D NEWS
Nile River