Karnak | Religion-wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Karnak 3D - 4000 years of eternity align=right The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It probably is the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo. It consists of four main parts (precincts), of which only the largest, the Precinct of Amun-Re , currently is open to the general public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, because this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Mut , the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV , are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of goddess and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re, and the Luxor Temple. The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, but not yet restored.

The original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatsheput, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have been carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture. Although destroyed, it also contained an early temple built by Amenhotep IV, the pharaoh who later would celebrate a near monotheistic religion he established that prompted him to move his court and religious center away from Thebes. It also contains evidence of adaptations, using buildings of the Ancient Egyptians by later cultures for their own religious purposes.

One of most famous aspects of Karnak, is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m2) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of these columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers. This would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory about how they were moved is that there were large ramps made of sand mud brick or stone and the stones were towed up the ramps. If they used stone for the ramps they would have been able to build the ramps with much less material. The top of the ramps presumably would have either wooden tracks or cobblestones for towing the megaliths. There is an unfinished pillar in an out of the way location that indicated how it would have been finished.

Final carving was executed after the drums were put in place so that it was not damaged while being placed. [2] [3] Several experiments moving megaliths with ancient technology were made at other locations. In 2009 UCLA launched a website dedicated to virtual reality digital reconstructions of the Karnak complex and other resources. [4] History Main article: History of the Karnak Temple complex The history of the Karnak complex is largely the history of Thebes and its changing role in the culture. Religious centers varied by region and with the establishment of the current capital of the unified culture that changed several times. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the Eleventh Dynasty and previous temple building here would have been relatively small, with shrines being dedicated to the early deities of Thebes, the Earth goddess Mut and Montu. Early building was destroyed by invaders. The earliest known artifact found in the area of the temple is a small, eight-sided temple from the Eleventh Dynasty, which mentions Amun-Re. Amun (sometimes called Amen) was long the local tutelary deity of Thebes. He was identified with the Ram and the Goose.

The Egyptian meaning of Amen is, "hidden" or, the "hidden god". [5] Major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the Eighteenth dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified Ancient Egypt. Thutmose I erected an enclosure wall connecting the Fourth and Fifth pylons, which comprise the earliest part of the temple still standing in situ. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall also may have begun during the eighteenth dynasty, although most new building was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II . Almost every pharaoh of that dynasty added something to the temple site. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court , the start of the processional route to the Luxor Temple. Hatshepsut had monuments constructed and also restored the original Precinct of Mut, the ancient great goddess of Egypt , that had been ravaged by the foreign rulers during the Hyksos occupation. She had twin obelisks, at the time the tallest in the world, erected at the entrance to the temple. One still stands, as the tallest surviving ancient obelisk on Earth; the other has broken in two and toppled.

Another of her projects at the site, Karnak's Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, was intended as a barque shrine and originally, may have stood between her two obelisks. She later ordered the construction of two more obelisks to celebrate her sixteenth year as pharaoh; one of the obelisks broke during construction, and thus, a third was constructed to replace it. The broken obelisk was left at its quarrying site in Aswan, where it still remains. Known as The Unfinished Obelisk, it demonstrates how obelisks were quarried. [6] The last major change to Precinct of Amun-Re's layout was the addition of the first pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surround the whole Precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I. In 323 CE, Constantine the Great recognised the Christian religion , and in 356 ordered the closing of pagan temples throughout the empire. Karnak was by this time mostly abandoned, and Christian churches were founded amongst the ruins, the most famous example of this is the reuse of the Festival Hall of Thutmose III 's central hall, were painted decorations of saints and Coptic inscriptions can still be seen.

European knowledge of Karnak Thebes' exact placement was unknown in medieval Europe, though both Herodotus and Strabo give the exact location of Thebes and how long up the Nile one must travel to reach it. Maps of Egypt, based on the second century Claudius Ptolemaeus' mammoth work Geographia, have been circling in Europe since the late fourteenth century, all of them showing Thebes' (Diospolis) location. Despite this, several European authors of the fifteenth and sixteenth century who visited only Lower Egypt and published their travel accounts, such as Joos van Ghistele or André Thévet, put Thebes in or close to Memphis. The Karnak temple complex first is described by an unknown Venetian in 1589, although his account relates no name for the complex. This account, housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, is the first known European mention since ancient Greek and Roman writers wrote about a whole range of monuments in Upper Egypt and Nubia , including Karnak, Luxor temple, Colossi of Memnon, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Philae, and others.

Karnak ("Carnac") as a village name and name of the complex, first is attested in 1668, when two capuchin missionary brothers Protais and Charles François d'Orléans travelled though the area. Protais' writing about their travel was published by Melchisédech Thévenot (Relations de divers voyages curieux, 1670s–1696 editions) and Johann Michael Vansleb (The Present State of Egypt, 1678). The first drawing of Karnak is found in Paul Lucas' travel account of 1704, (Voyage du Sieur paul Lucas au Levant). It is rather inaccurate, and can be quite confusing to modern eyes. Lucas travelled in Egypt during 1699–1703.

The drawing shows a mixture of the Precinct of Amun-Re and the Precinct of Montu, based on a complex confined by the three huge Ptolemaic gateways of Ptolemy III Euergetes / Ptolemy IV Philopator, and the massive 113 m long, 43 m high and 15 m thick, first Pylon of the Precinct of Amun-Re. Karnak was visited and described in succession by Claude Sicard and his travel companion Pierre Laurent Pincia (1718 and 1720–21), Granger (1731), Frederick Louis Norden (1737–38), Richard Pococke (1738), James Bruce (1769), Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1777), William George Browne (1792–93), and finally by a number of scientists of the Napoleon expedition, including Vivant Denon, during 1798–1799.

Claude-Étienne Savary describes the complex rather detailed in his work of 1785; especially in light that it is a fictional account of a pretended journey to Upper Egypt, composed out of information from other travellers. Savary did visit Lower Egypt in 1777–78, and published a work about that too. Main parts Main article: Precinct of Amun-Re This is the largest of the precincts of the temple complex, and is dedicated to Amun - Re , the chief deity of the Theban Triad. There are several colossal statues including the figure of Pinedjem I which is 10.5 meters tall. The sandstone for this temple, including all the columns, was transported from Gebel Silsila 100 miles south on the Nile river. [7] It also has one of the largest obelisks weighing 328 tonnes and standing 29 meters tall. [8] [9] Precinct of Mut Located to the south of the newer Amen-Re complex, this precinct was dedicated to the mother goddess , Mut , who became identified as the wife of Amun-Re in the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad.

It has several smaller temples associated with it and has its own sacred lake, constructed in a crescent shape. This temple has been ravaged, many portions having been used in other structures. It is not open to the public. Six hundred black granite statues were found in the courtyard to her temple. It may be the oldest portion of the site. In 2006, Betsy Bryan, an archaeologist with Johns Hopkins University excavating at the temple of Mut presented her findings about one festival that included illustrations of the priestesses being served to excess and its adverse effects being ministered to by temple attendants. [10] Participation in the festival was great, including the priestesses and the population. Historical records of tens of thousands attending the festival exist. These findings were made in the temple of Mut because when Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed the warrior goddesses, Sekhmet and Bast , as some of her aspects.

First, Mut became Mut- Wadjet -Bast, then Mut-Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated Menhit , another lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-Menhit, and finally becoming Mut- Nekhbet . Temple excavations at Luxor discovered a "porch of drunkenness" built onto the temple by the pharaoh Hatshepsut , during the height of her twenty year reign. In a later myth developed around the annual drunken Sekhmet festival, Ra, by then the sun god of Upper Egypt, created her from a fiery eye gained from his mother, to destroy mortals who conspired against him (Lower Egypt). In the myth, Sekhmet's blood-lust was not quelled at the end of battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity, so Ra had tricked her by turning the Nile as red as blood (the Nile turns red every year when filled with silt during inundation) so that Sekhmet would drink it.

The trick, however, was that the red liquid was not blood, but beer mixed with pomegranate juice so that it resembled blood, making her so drunk that she gave up slaughter and became an aspect of the gentle Hathor . The complex interweaving of deities occurred over the thousands of years of the culture. Precinct of Montu This portion of the site is dedicated to the son of Mut and Amun-Re, Montu, the war-god of the Theban Triad. It is located to the north of the Amun-Re complex and is much smaller in size. It is not open to the public. Temple of Amenhotep IV (deliberately dismantled) The temple that Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) constructed on the site was located to the east of the main complex, outside the walls of the Amun-Re precinct. It was destroyed immediately after the death of its builder, who attempted to overcome the powerful priesthood that had gained control over Egypt before his reign. It was so well demolished, that its full extent and lay-out currently is unknown. The priesthood of that temple regained its powerful position as soon as he died and was instrumental in destroying many records of his existence.

References ↑ Egypt: Engineering an empire engineering feats ↑ Lehner, Mark The Complete Pyramids, London: Thames and Hudson (1997) pp.202–225 ISBN 0-500-05084-8 . ↑ "Ancient Egypt Brought To Life With Virtual Model Of Historic Temple Complex", Science Daily, 30 April 2009, retrieved 12 June 2009 [1] ↑ Stewert, Desmond and editors of the Newsweek Book Division "The Pyramids and Sphinx" 1971 pp. 60–62 ↑ The Unfinished Obelisk by Peter Tyson March 16, 1999 NOVA online adventure ↑ Time Life Lost Civilizations series: Ramses II: Magnificence on the Nile (1993) pp.

53–54 ↑ Walker, Charles, 1980 "Wonders of the Ancient World" pp24–7 ↑ "The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World", edited by Chris Scarre (1999) Thames & Hudson, London ↑ "Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rites" , archaeologists find evidence for ancient version of ‘Girls Gone Wild’. From MSNBC, Oct 30, 2006 External links Karnak Temple - Luxor | The Karnak temple complex, universal… | Flickr Ben Sharif By: Ben Sharif Karnak Temple - Luxor The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. The complex retrieves its current name from the nearby and partly surrounding modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5km north of Luxor.

Done Karnak - 必应 ▪ karnak(comics) Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (/ˈkɑr.næk/), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons , and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, although most of the extant buildings date from the New Kingdom. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It ... (展开) is part of the monumental city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, modern village of El-Karnak, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) north of Luxor. Karnak Cavetto cornice Karnak and Luxor In ancient times, religious processions moved between the Karnak Temple complex and Luxor Temple along a 2.5ï¿½kilometer-long paved Avenue of Sphinxes.

The causeway was lined with a thousand larger-than-life-size ram-headed sphinxes backed by gardens and pools. Six bark shrines, similar to those now in Karnakï¿½s Open-Air Museum, were built at intervals along its length, structures in which priests carrying the statue of Amen from the one temple to the other could pause for rest and ceremonies. The northernmost of these shrines lay just outside the Bab al-Amara at Karnak; the southernmost lay in the First Court of Luxor Temple. Early in the New Kingdom, before the Avenue of Sphinxes was built, a water-filled canal apparently ran here and sacred barks sailed on it between Karnak and Luxor. By the later New Kingdom, however, as lunar-dated festivals progressed through the calendar and began to fall outside the season of the annual flood, there was too little water to float the barks and the canal was filled in and paved over. Henceforth, processions moved overland or on the Nile. - Wikipedia: Karnak Pylons Pylons are a monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple, consisting of a pair of tower structures with battered walls flanking the entrance portal.

Supposed to represent the akhet (horizon) hieroglyph. Pylons are the largest part of the temple and were mostly built last. Steeply battered pylons resisted earthquake shocks. Pylon Temples Distinct from the mortuary temples [e.g., the three Great Pyramids at Giza ] built during the New Kingdom were the edifices built to honor one or more of the gods and often added to by successive kings until they reached gigantic size. These temples all had similar plans. A typical pylon temple plan (the name derives from the simple and massive gateway, or pylon, with sloping walls), like that of the temple of Amen-Re at Karnak, is bilaterally symmetrical along a single axis that runs from an approaching avenue through a colonnaded court and hall into a dimly lighted sanctuary. The Egyptian temple plan evolved from ritualistic requirements. Only the pharaoh and the priest could enter the sanctuary; a chosen few were admitted to the great columnar hall; the majority of the people were allowed only as far as the open court, and a high mud-brick wall shut off the site from the outside world. The conservative Egyptians did not deviate from this basic plan for hundreds of years.

The corridor axis, which dominates the plan, makes the temple not so much a building as, in Oswald Spengler's phrase, "a path enclosed by mighty masonry." Like the Nile, the corridor may have symbolized the Egyptian concept of life. Spengler suggests that the Egyptians saw themselves moving down a narrow, predestined life path that ended before the judges of the dead. - Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Tenth Edition, by Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner. Harcourt Brace College Pub. 1996, pp. 85-87 Pylon Karnak is one of the main sources of information for understanding the construction of monumental stone pylons typical of the more elaborate Egyptian temples. Around the temple's unfinished first pylon, vestiges of large mud brick ramps are still visible today, despite partial removal of the brickwork in the nineteenth century. These ramps stood against both the internal and external faces of each tower, providing access to the upper courses of stone as the next layer would be put in place. As the walls grew in height, workers raised the neighboring ramps, about one meter at a time.

To prevent the crushing weight of the pylon from damaging the first pylon's central door, the stone gateway was left unbonded to the towers themselves. While the heavy towers sank into the soil over time, the gate's lintels and doorjambs were not affected. Such methods were not used in every case, however, and the eighth pylon and its gateway were bonded. The pylon gateways, providing open sight lines through the temple today, in ancient times would have been equipped with large wooden doors. These doors, made of woods imported from countries to the north east of Egypt, were usually hinged to open inwards against the gate's interior thickness. While adding to the splendor of the temple with decoration in bronze, silver, gold, or electrum, they also functioned to restrict access to the sacred space both physically and visually. The façades of a number of pylons at Karnak were ornamented with huge wooden flagstaffs (reaching 98 feet in height) capped with colorful cloth flags. Like obelisks, temple flagstaffs were often tipped with precious metals that reflected the rays of the sun.

The flagpoles were carved from individual beams shipped to Egypt from the forests of the modern-day Lebanon or northern Syria. The staffs were erected on a stone base, like the thick granite blocks that supported the heavy weight of these poles before the second pylon. Recesses in the façade of a pylon allowed the poles to stand flush with the base of the structure, and large holes in the upper portion of the pylons show that the masts were stabilized along their lengths with giant wooden clamps. - Pp. 14-15 - Digital Karnak: Construction Methods and Building Materials Egyptian Columns ... the columns all have smooth shafts, but there are two different types of capitals: bud shaped and bell shaped, or campaniform. Although the columns are structural members ... their function as carriers of vertical stress is almost hidden by horizontal bands of relief sculpture and painting, suggesting that the intention of the architects was not to emphasize the functional role of the columns so much as to utilize them as surfaces for decoration. This contrasts sharply with most Egyptian practice as well as with later Greek architecture, in which the architects emphasized the vertical lines of the column and its structural function by freeing the surfaces of the shaft from all ornament....

The post-and-lintel structure of Egyptian temples appears to have had its origin in an early building technique that used firmly bound sheaves of reeds and swamp plants as roof supports in adobe structures... Evidence of their swamp-plant origin is still seen in these columns at Karnak and Luxor, which are carved to resemble lotus or papyrus, with bud-cluster or bell-shaped capitals. Painted decorations, traces of which still can be seen on the surfaces of the shafts and capitals,emphasized these natural details. In fact, the flora of the Nile valley supplied the basic decorative motifs in all Egyptian art. The formalization of plant forms into the rigid profiles of architecture closely parallels the formalization of human bodies and action that the Egyptians achieved so skillfully in tomb painting and sculpture. - Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Tenth Edition, by Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner. Harcourt Brace College Pub. 1996, p. 87 Columns Column shafts and capitals were typically formed out of stacked stone drums or half drums. These could be centered atop each course by the use of plumb lines, either aligning the drums using markings at their centers or via vertical grooves along their sides. ...

Decorative elements on shafts and capitals could be cut directly from the stacked blocks once in place. That the two elements were not usually designed and cut from separate blocks before construction is demonstrated on those columns where the springing of the capital does not align with the joint of two blocks. Once a column was carved and topped with an abacus (the element which made direct contact with the ceiling architraves) it could then be dressed and smoothed. The remains of colorful paint on columns at Karnak, such as the tent-pole shaped columns in the Akhmenu festival hall, show that the final decoration of some columns included extensive painting. Temple of Karnak - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki More info on Temple of Karnak Wikis Temple of Karnak: Wikis Advertisements Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics (Redirected to Karnak article) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Karnak temple complex in Egypt. For other uses, see Karnak (disambiguation) .

Pillars of the Great Hypostyle Hall from the Precinct of Amun-Re Karnak +3 ( UTC ) The Karnak Temple Complex — usually called simply Karnak — comprises a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings, notably the Great Temple of Amen and a massive structure begun by Pharaoh Amenhotep III (ca. 1391-1351 BC). It is located near Luxor , some 500 km south of Cairo , in Egypt . The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes . The Karnak complex takes its name from the nearby (and partly surrounded) modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5 km north of Luxor. Contents 8 External links Overview The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo.

It consists of four main parts (precincts), of which only the largest, the Precinct of Amun-Re , is open to the general public. The term Karnak is often understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, as this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Montu , the Precinct of Mut and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV , are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re, and Luxor Temple . The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming.

One of most famous aspects of Karnak, is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m2) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of these columns weigh an estimated 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers . This would be an extremely time-consuming process and would also require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory is that there were large ramps made of sand mud brick or stone and the stones were towed up the ramps. If they used stone for the ramps they would have been able to build the ramps with much less material. The top of the ramps would presumably have either wooden tracks or cobblestones to tow the megaliths on. There is an unfinished pillar in an out of the way location that indicated how they finished it. The finish carving was done after the drums were put in place.

[1] [2] Several experiments moving megaliths with ancient technology were done at other locations - some of them are listed here . In 2009 UCLA launched a web site dedicated to virtual reality digital reconstructions of the Karnak complex and other resources. [3] History Main article: History of the Karnak Temple complex The history of the Karnak complex is largely the history of Thebes . The city does not appear to have been of any significance before the Eleventh Dynasty , and any temple building here would have been relatively small and unimportant, with any shrines being dedicated to the early god of Thebes, Montu . The earliest artifact found in the area of the temple is a small, eight-side from the Eleventh Dynasty, which mentions Amun-Re. Amun (sometimes called Amen) was long the local god of Thebes. He was identified with the Ram and the Goose. The Egyptian meaning of Amen is "hidden" or the "hidden god". [4] Major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the Eighteenth dynasty. Thutmose I erected an enclosure wall connecting the Fourth and Fifth pylons, which comprise the earliest part of the temple still standing in situ.

Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have also began during the eighteenth dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II . Almost every Pharaoh added something to the temple. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court , the start of the processional route to the Luxor Temple . The last major change to Precinct of Amun-Re's layout was the addition of the first pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surround the whole Precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I . In 323 AD, Constantine the Great recognised the Christian religion, and in 356 ordered the closing of pagan temples throughout the empire. Karnak was by this time mostly abandoned, and Christian churches were founded amongst the ruins, the most famous example of this is the reuse of the Festival Hall of Thutmose III 's central hall, were painted decorations of saints and Coptic inscriptions can still be seen. Advertisements European rediscovery Thebes’ exact placement was unknown in medieval Europe, though both Herodotus and Strabo give the exact location of Thebes and how long up the Nile one must travel to reach it.

Maps of Egypt, based on the 2nd century Claudius Ptolemaeus ' mammoth work Geographia , have been circling in Europe since the late 14th century, all of them showing Thebes’ (Diospolis) location. Despite this, several European authors of the 15th and 16th century who visited only Lower Egypt and published their travel accounts, like Joos van Ghistele or André Thévet , put Thebes in or close to Memphis . Photograph of the temple complex taken in 1914 The Karnak temple complex is first described by an unknown Venetian in 1589, though his account relates no name for the complex. This account, housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze , is the first known European mention since ancient Greek and Roman writers of a whole range of monuments in Upper Egypt and Nubia , including Karnak, Luxor temple, Colossi of Memnon , Esna , Edfu , Kom Ombo , Philae and others.

Karnak ("Carnac") as a village name, and name of the complex, is first attested in 1668, when two capuchin missionary brothers Protais and Charles François d'Orléans travelled though the area. Protais’ writing about their travel was published by Melchisédech Thévenot (Relations de divers voyages curieux, 1670s-1696 editions) and Johann Michael Vansleb (The Present State of Egypt, 1678). The first drawing of Karnak is found in Paul Lucas ' travel account of 1704, (Voyage du Sieur paul Lucas au Levant). It is rather inaccurate, and can be quite confusing to modern eyes. Lucas travelled in Egypt during 1699-1703.

The drawing shows a mixture of the Precinct of Amun-Re and the Precinct of Montu, based on a complex confined by the three huge Ptolemaic gateways of Ptolemy III Euergetes / Ptolemy IV Philopator , and the massive 113m long, 43m high and 15m thick, first Pylon of the Precinct of Amun-Re. Karnak was visited and described in succession by Claude Sicard and his travel companion Pierre Laurent Pincia (1718 and 1720-21), Granger (1731), Frederick Louis Norden (1737-38), Richard Pococke (1738), James Bruce (1769), Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1777), William George Browne (1792-93), and finally by a number of scientists of the Napoleon expedition, including Vivant Denon , during 1798-1799.

Claude-Étienne Savary describes the complex rather detailed in his work of 1785; especially in light that it is a fictional account of a pretended journey to Upper Egypt, composed out of information from other travellers. Savary did visit Lower Egypt in 1777-78, and published a work about that too. Main parts Main article: Precinct of Amun-Re This is the largest of the precincts of the temple complex, and is dedicated to Amun-Re , the chief god of the Theban Triad . There are several colossal statues including the figure of Pinedjem I which is 10.5 meters tall. The sandstone for this temple, including all the columns, was transported from Gebel Silsila 100 miles south on the Nile river. [5] It also has one of the largest obelisks weighing 328 tonnes and standing 29 meters tall. [6] [7] A panoramic view of the great hypostyle hall in the Precinct of Amun Re Precinct of Montu Dedicated to the son of Amun-Re and Mut , Montu , the war-god of the Theban Triad.

It is located to the north of the Amun-Re complex, and is much smaller in size. It is not open to the public. Precinct of Mut Main article: Precinct of Mut Located to the south of the Amen-Re complex, this precinct was dedicated to the mother goddess , of the Theban Triad, Mut . It has several smaller temples associated with it, and has its own sacred lake. It has been ravaged, many portions having been used in other structures. It is not open to the public. 600 black granite statues were found in the courtyard. Temple of Amenhotep IV (dismantled) Main article: Temple of Amenhotep IV The temple that Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) constructed on site was located to the east of the main complex, outside the walls of the Amun-Re precinct. It was destroyed after the death of its builder, and its full extent and lay-out is currently unknown. In popular culture The Egyptian-themed superhero Ozymandias from the graphic novel Watchmen has a fortress in Antarctica called Karnak. Final Fantasy V features a kingdom called Karnak, where the Fire Crystal is housed.

Lara Croft visited Karnak for two levels in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and it was featured in the level editor package. In the movie The Mummy Returns , Karnak is one of the places Rick O'Connell and the others must go to, in order to ultimately reach the Scorpion King. The British symphonic metal band Bal-Sagoth have a song called 'Unfettering the Hoary Sentinels of Karnak'. The first person shooter Powerslave is set in Karnak. Karnak is the name of the spaceship in which Beelzebub travels the universe in G.I. Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson The first part of the modernist long poem, Trilogy, by H.D. is dedicated, "For Karnak 1923" Karnak is featured as a location for exploration in the PC game The Sims 3: World Adventures.

Gallery Temple of Karnak | ClipArt ETC Temple of Karnak 2400×946 | (783.7 KB) Description The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. Keywords Karnak | DC Database | Fandom powered by Wikia ( February, 2003 ) History The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt . This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes . The complex retrieves its current name from the nearby and partly surrounding modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5km north of Luxor.

Ramses II, a photo from Luxor, Inland | TrekEarth Only registered TrekEarth members may write critiques. Photographer's Note This immense statue of Ramses II "guards" the entrance to the impressive Hypostyle Hall of the Karnak Temple in Luxor. The temple complex is an amazing place to see and wander around - with so many things to see and photograph. About The Karnak Temple from Wikipedia: The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. The complex retrieves its current name from the nearby and partly surrounding modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5km north of Luxor. The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo.

It consists of four main parts (precincts), of which only the largest, the Precinct of Amun-Re, is open to the general public. The term Karnak is often understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, as this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Montu, the Precinct of Mut and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re, and Luxor Temple. The temple of Karnak is famous for its 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows in the Hypostyle Hall. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of these columns weigh an estimated 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers.

This would be an extremely time-consuming process and would also require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory is that there were large ramps made of sand mud brick or stone and the stones were towed up the ramps. If they used stone for the ramps they would have been able to build the ramps with much less material. The top of the ramps would presumably have either wooden tracks or cobblestones to tow the megaliths on. There is a unfinished pillar in an out of the way location that indicated how they finished it. The finish carving was done after the drums were put in place. [1] [2] Several experiments moving megaliths with ancient technology were done at other locations some of them are listed here. There is a double row of sphinxes leading to the temple of Luxor. There are several colossal statues including the figure of Panejem which is 10.5 meters tall. The sandstone for this temple, including all the columns, was transported from Gebel Silsila 100 miles south on the Nile river. [3] It also has one of the largest obelisks weighing 328 tonnes and standing 29 meters tall.

[4] [5] The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction work began in the 16th century BC. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. serp2000 , bukitgolfb301 has marked this note useful Karnak temple | photo World Topics About Karnak temple The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings. It is located near Luxor in Egypt. This was ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places"), the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with Amun as its head, in the monumental city of Thebes. The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world.

It is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo. It consists of four main parts (precincts) of which only one is accessible for tourists and the general public. This is the Precinct of Amun-Re, and this it is also the main part of the complex and by far the largest part. The term Karnak is often understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, as this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Montu, the Precinct of Mut and the Temple of Amenhotep IV (dismantled), are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amon-Re, and Luxor Temple. The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction work began in the 16th century BC.

Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. Drawing & Painting: David Roberts - View Of The Temples Of Karnak From The S Tags: david roberts (45 pics) The Karnak Temple Complex � usually called simply Karnak � comprises a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings, notably the Great Temple of Amen and a massive structure begun by Pharaoh Amenhotep III (ca. 1391-1351 BC). It is located near Luxor, some 500 km south of Cairo, in Egypt. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. The Karnak complex takes its name from the nearby (and partly surrounded) modern village of el-Karnak, some 2.5 km north of Luxor.

The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo. It consists of four main parts (precincts), of which only the largest, the Precinct of Amun-Re, is open to the general public. The term Karnak is often understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, as this is the only part most visitors normally see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Montu, the Precinct of Mut and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries located outside the enclosing walls of the four main parts, as well as several avenues of human and ram-headed sphinxes connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re, and Luxor Temple. The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times.

Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming. One of most famous aspects of Karnak, is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m2) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of these columns weigh an estimated 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers. This would be an extremely time-consuming process and would also require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory is that there were large ramps made of sand mud brick or stone and the stones were towed up the ramps. If they used stone for the ramps they would have been able to build the ramps with much less material.

The top of the ramps would presumably have either wooden tracks or cobblestones to tow the megaliths on. There is an unfinished pillar in an out of the way location that indicated how they finished it. The finish carving was done after the drums were put in place. Several experiments moving megaliths with ancient technology were done at other locations - some of them are listed here. In 2009 (8 years ago) UCLA launched a website dedicated to virtual reality digital reconstructions of the Karnak complex and other resources. Navigation

Question: The Karnak Temple Complex, a conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings, is near where?
Answer: Luxor, Egypt