Karnak or the Karnak temple complex, which is better known as the Karnak Temple, is a group of temples, buildings and columns, where expansion and construction continued since the Pharaonic era, specifically the kings of the Middle Kingdom until the Roman era in Luxor in Egypt on the eastern coast. The temple was built for the divine trinity Amun (Amun-Re in modern times), his wife the goddess Mut and their son the god Khonsu; Each of them has a temple belonging to the Karnak temple complex. Sometimes tourists and non-specialists mean only Karnak Temple, the temple belonging to Amun i Amun Ra.
The temple was named after the city of Karnak, which is a modern name distorted from the Arabic word Khornaq, which means the fortified village, which was given to many temples in the area during this period. While the temple was initially known as “Bar Amun”, meaning the Temple of Amun or the House of Amun, and during the Middle Kingdom era, it was called Ibt Sut, which means the most chosen of places (sometimes translated as the chosen spot). This name was found on the walls of the palace of Senusret I in Al-Balon the third. The temple was also known by many names, including Nisut-Twa, which means the throne of the two states, and Ebit Iset, which means the most magnificent residence. The name of the temple with those names had a relationship with the ancient Egyptian belief that Thebes was the first city founded on the primitive hill that rose from the waters of chaos at the beginning of the formation of the earth. At that time the god Atum (sometimes the god Ptah) stood on the mound to begin making creation. It was also believed that the site of the temple is this land and the temple was raised in this spot for this reason. It was also believed that Karnak was an ancient observatory, as well as a place of worship where the god Amun interacts directly with the people of the earth. There was a custom of filling edifices or temples with the remains of stones, such as Horemheb, who filled the three edifices he built with the remains of the stones of the Temple of Aten, which was built by Akhenaten after it was demolished by Horemheb, as well as Amenhotep III, who filled his third edifice with many stones, including the stones of Senusret I of the state center and many other things.
With the arrival of the kings of the Eleventh Dynasty to rule all of Egypt, Karnak was already considered a sacred land, it seems that a form of worship of the god Amun had taken from Karnak a place before the unification of the country, which had a direct impact on increasing the power and wealth of Amun and gradually merging it with The sun god Ra. The White Chapel of Senusret I and the court of the Middle Kingdom are the oldest remains of buildings within the temple precinct. Sonsert I began construction from 1971 BC until 1926 BC, and limestone was used in construction. The era of the modern state was the golden age of Karnak, because the kings of the eighteenth dynasty, the first family in the old state, were interested in the worship of Amun after it was merged with Ra and became Amun-Ra, and they worshiped him as the god of war, and since the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties were famous for their military expansions, it was necessary to pay attention In his temple to take the blessing from him in their wars, and Amenhotep I was the first to think of building a temple to Amun-Ra in that spot, which was the same spot on which the ancient temple was built in the Middle Kingdom, then Tuthmosis I followed him and built the fourth and fifth edifices and two red granite obelisks, one of which is still one Existing so far, as well as the pillared hall, then followed by Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled for 23 years and built the eighth edifice and the two famous obelisks. His remains are present, and there are still signs of the obelisk based on his presence, as well as the fourth and fifth edifices and the two halls of the Annals, followed by Amenhotep III, who built the third edifice, and also the class of the Giant pillars in the ceremonial hall, followed by Akhenaten, the first unified pharaoh, who called for the worship of Aten and symbolized it with the sun disk and built a temple for him at Karnak, but it did not last, as Horemheb quickly demolished it under the influence of the priests. and x. The new development by the Antiquities Authority was the restoration of all the scattered parts of all the temples inside Karnak and the development of the front area of it from a vast area to give an aesthetic appearance in front of the temples facade and to take pictures of the entire temples facade and several rest stops for visitors. How much sound and light are the most beautiful things that make the trail speak and reveal what is not accurately seen with the naked eye at night.