English Abstract
The Opet temple, which rests atop the ruins of some 2000 years of Pharaonic history, was erected in thesecond century BCE by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II. It was dedicated to the hippo goddess Opet, who was widelyregarded as a protector of mothers and children. In the sanctuary, she was incorporated into the myth of Osirisin order to facilitate the rebirth of the god Amun. The interior decorative program recounts several episodes of this myth, including the well-known representation of the resurrection of Osiris.This compact and discrete temple, located in the southwest corner of the enclosure at Karnak, lies far fromthe steady stream of tourists passing through the great temenos-wall of Amun-Re (see chapter I). In thiscontext, the monument’s position—almost touching the neighboring sanctuary of Khonsu—is surprising. The building itself rests atop the high bedrock with an architectural plan characterized by the placement of numerous crypts around a cruciform core. The Opet temple belongs to that rare category of sanctuaries thatcan be designated as “mythological temples”.A restoration program and study of the architectural, archaeological, and epigraphic material began in2005 under the direction of Emmanuel Laroze of the Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak (CFEETK), a scientific collaboration of French and Egyptian missions to that site (Mansour Boraik, IbrahimSuleiman, Hamdi Ahmed Abd al-Jalil for the Supreme Council of Antiquities ; Emmanuel Laroze thenChristophe Thiers for the French National Center for Scientific Research – authors thank them all for their continuous support). The restoration and excavation projects have been supported by the private patronage of Ms. B. Guichard; additional excavation support has been provided by the Michela Schiff-Giorgini Foundation.