Relief showing the sacred barque procession, in the sanctuary of Philip Arrhidaeus at the temple of Amon, Karnak, Egypt

"The granite barque shrine structure was built by Alexander the Great's successor, Philip Arrhidaeus, and appears to have replaced an earlier shrine of Tuthmosis (Thutmose) III. The inner walls are decorated with depictions of offering rites, with Amun appearing in both his usual anthropomorphic guise and also in his ithyphallic form. The outer walls show various festival scenes, some still retaining much of their original brightly coloured paint." [Wilkinson R., 2000: The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson]. "A village on East bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt; with Luxor, Karnak is on the site of ancient Thebes; location of temple of Amen (Amun), considered one of the finest examples of early New Kingdom religious architecture; also has many Middle Kingdom remains." [The J.P.Getty Fund: Thesaurus of Geographic Names]. The photograph depicts detail of relief showing the sacred barque procession. The barque of Amun-Re is borne by human figures and by the king, whose prerogative it was to escort the god to and from his temple. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was working on "The Nile" project and traveled to Africa in April 1962, visiting Egypt.