Karnak Temple

Location:

Karnak Temple
Amazing top view of Karnak temple

Karnak Temple is a place that everyone who goes to Egypt must spend some time seeing. It can be found near Luxor in Upper Egypt. It is a must on every excursion because many people think it is more realistic and better than Luxor temple. But the history of the two temples is not exactly the same. This temple is located on the east bank next to the corniche and across from Karnak village.

From where they are, you can walk to both Luxor City and Luxor Temple. When traveling by car in Egypt, it takes about three hours to reach the city of Aswan. Hurghada, on the Red Sea, is a popular place to go on vacation. It can be reached by car in three hours. If you take a plane from Cairo to Aswan, the journey will only take an hour.

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History:

Karnak Temple
Sacred lake in Karnak temple

In addition to the many other things it does, Karnak Temple is known as a center of intellectual and cultural activity. This huge complex spans over 900 acres (1,400 hectares) and contains more than 400 temples, chapels, towers, obelisks, and sanctuaries. It is so large that ten churches can be accommodated inside it.

Every great pharaoh who loved the god Amon built, demolished, or rebuilt part of the temple to show how much he cared about it. Because of this, Karnak became one of the oldest temple complexes that were also the largest and most impressive. The area of ​​Amun is the most popular part of Karnak because it is the easiest to reach and contains what appears to be an endless line of massive temple doors, called towers, massive carvings, and massive walls (called column walls).

“The procession road of the Sphinx with the head of a ram” leads from Luxor Temple to the Temple of Amun. This is how people reached the area around the Temple of Amun. This road passes between the two places (Amon was often represented as a ram-horned figure).

If you continue in this direction, you will eventually reach the first unfinished pylon, the largest and most extensive building in Egypt. It is 43 m (141 ft) high and 130 m (430 ft) (426 ft) wide. In the courtyard, you can see the temple built by Seti II to accommodate the sacred boats of the Trinity. At the southern end of the complex, you can find the beautiful Temple of Ramses III (20th Dynasty).

What are the most important parts of Karnak Temple?

Karnak Temple
Tombs of the Temple of Karnak

Behind the second pylon, you can find the Great Hall of Columns. Both Seti I and his son Ramses II were responsible for its construction in the 13th century BC. It covers an area of ​​5,500 square meters and over 140 papyrus columns of various heights (59,200 square feet). By the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the part of the temple dedicated to the god Amun was much more elaborate and larger than the Hypostyle Hall (1550-1295 BC).

Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmose II were one of the first and most powerful pharaohs of Egypt. To honor them, obelisks were placed in the courtyards adjacent to Towers III and IV (1473-58 BC). As you walk to the sacred lake, you may see the trunk of its obelisk, which is now lying on the ground.

Philip Arrhidis, a half-brother of Alexander the Great, built the sanctuary of Amun out of granite. Place it directly under the sixth pylon. Lotus and papyrus flowers are represented on the granite pillars of Pylon VI, Upper Egypt, and Lower Egypt, respectively. Paintings on the walls show that this is where people make offerings to Amun every day.

Just outside the palace gates are the huge central court and the Jubilee Temple of Thutmose. At the time of the jubilee, the king’s life and power were given a new beginning symbolically in the Jubilee Temple of Thutmose. Only important priests were allowed to enter this huge temple with many levels.

They had no choice but to rely on the protection of the intermediate deities, whose shrines were built all the way around the temple to get around the rule that ordinary Egyptians could not enter inside. The auditory ear chapels, a group of chapels located behind the Jubilee Temple, are a fine example of this style of architecture.

The temple is located in the area between the third and fourth towers. Heading south along the southern edge of the Sacred Lake. In 1903, Cachette Court was founded next to a lake. Inside, there were about 17,000 metal sculptures and 800 stone sculptures. There is an opportunity to display the best of them now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

People say that one of the best parts of the Karnak sound and light show, which shows the history of the temple at a high level of accuracy, is the view over the illuminated sacred lake. Anyone who wants can come to the event, which is not required.

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