Not Just Holding Up the Roof: How Egyptian Columns Told Divine Stories

Copyright : "lost soul "by Bliss Columns Were Made to Look Like Plants Egyptian columns weren't just plain stone-they were designed to look like plants from the Nile, especially papyrus, lotus, and palm trees. The idea? Temples were like re-creations of the primeval swamp from the beginning of time, where life first emerged. So walking into a temple = walking into creation itself. 2. Each Column Was a Mini Story Columns were covered in hieroglyphs, images of gods, and pharaohs' achievements. They weren't just decoration-they were propaganda machines. The pharaoh was like: "Let me build a 20-foot tall column just to brag about defeating the Nubians." 3. Some Columns Had Giant Cow Faces In temples dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of love, joy, and music, you'd find columns topped with her face. Imagine a stone column with a smiling cow-faced goddess staring at you from all sides. Kinda cute? kinda intimidating. 4. The Hypostyle Hall Was a Forest of Stone The Karnak Temple in Luxor has the largest hypostyle hall in the world, with 134 massive columns, some over 20 meters (66 feet) tall! Walking through it feels like being in a stone forest. Some Egyptologists think it was meant to mimic a sacred grove 5. No Two Columns Are Exactly Alike Despite looking symmetrical, many temple columns have unique carvings. Artists left personal marks or made adjustments based on the stone's flaws. Sometimes they even made mistakes, and just carved over them. 6. Some Columns Were Painted in Wild Colors Today we see dusty sandstone, but back then, columns were painted in bright reds, blues, greens, and gold. The temples were a riot of color, especially in sunlight. Some fragments of this paint still survive today.