Temple of Luxor and Karnak

Luxor Temple also known as the Temple of the Birth of Amun. Began to construction of the temple of Amenhotep III, his successor continued the work of expanding the temple. The final shape received at the time of Ramses II.

Amon temples in Luxor and Karnak are connected processional avenue length of approx. 3.0 km, at which stand sphinxes. Avenue ran along the Nile to the pylons set by Ramses II. Before pylons stood two tall obelisks 25.0 m and six statues of Ramses, Queen Nefertari, and their daughter Maritamon. Survived only two of them. The pylons are decorated with reliefs of battle, celebrated the victory of Ramses in the Battle of Kadesh.

For the pylons is a courtyard of Ramses II, surrounded by a double colonnade. Directly behind the pylons on the right is the chapel of Hatshepsut, on the left, on the ruins of the temple, built mosque of Abu al-Haggag. The courtyard of Ramses and the courtyard of Amenhotep III combines a long three-aisled hall of Amenhotep. At the entrance to the colonnade of Amenhotep erected two huge size statues of Ramses III (Ramses ordered set 10 of his likenesses in this temple). Columns have heads shaped developed papyrus flowers.

Courtyard of Amenhotep precedes Hypostyle hall, behind which is the oldest part of the temple, a sanctuary dedicated to the Theban triad of deities: Amon, Mut and Khonsu.

Karnak, located on the east bank of the Nile River, 2.5 km north of Luxor. In ancient times, the city was part of Thebes. It is now the part of Luxor.

In the Karnak is a complex of temples built in different times, dedicated to the Theban gods. In the center is the largest temple in the world with a columned hall, the so-called. "Great Hypostyle" - the temple of Amun-Re. In the north there is located the temple Montu - the god of war, and to the south lies the shrine of the goddess Mut, wife of Amun. These temples are connected to each other avenues of processions.

To the temple of Amun from the Nile to the first pylon led processional avenue of 40 sphinxes with heads of sheep. Before each sphinx, between his paws, set a statue of Pharaoh.

Hypostyle Hall at Karnak has dimensions of 102x53 meters and is supported by 134 columns, the highest is 23 meters are covered with capitals in the shape of an open flower of papyrus. Lower column, arranged in 14 rows with heads are closed of papyrus flowers. Between the columns are assembled windows illuminating the interior of the hall. Walls and shafts of columns decorated with rich reliefs. This part of the temple was built in the time of the nineteenth dynasty.

The temple of Amun-Re is a complex of buildings erected during the New Kingdom and later times. The complex include: Ptah temple of the XVIII dynasty and the great temple of Amun-Re of the XVIII and XIX dynasty. From the period of the twentieth dynasty they come: temple of Ramses III and the temple Khonsu in the XXV dynasty.

To the temple complex also belongs sacred pool. At the time of Amenhotep there was erected a monument to the great scarab.

The existence of the temples of Karnak Europeans learned in the seventeenth century. Karnak was one of the last places in ancient Thebes, which were subjected to systematic research.

During excavations conducted in 1989., In the courtyard of the temple of Luxor was found 20 statues of the king's hidden under the floor in antiquity. The oldest dates from the time of Amenhotep.

In Roman times in the temple of Luxor it housed a military camp. Christians used the temple as a church. Karnak was destroyed from late antiquity by Copts in the Middle Ages by the Arabs, regarded as the source of the stone used for lime burning or to build any Arab construction.

A major problem now is the level of groundwater, which is lifted from the time of ancient Egypt up to 3m. What makes the temples almost every year are flooded by the Nile.

From 1979 Karnak is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.