Temple of Amun at Karnak - Imagining Egypt Photo Collection

Karnak Temple

Karnak temple is a massive city of temples built over 2000 years and dedicated to the Theben triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu. It covers about 200 acres Almost one mile by half a mile (1.5km by 0.8km) and is still the world’s largest religious building.

The temple was sacked by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in 663BC. The Romans dismantled parts of Karnak and carried off its highest obelisk (it now stands in front of the basilica of St John Lateran). The Christians transformed Tuthmosis III’s "Akh-menu" into a church and destroyed much of the decoration in the process. In the Middle Ages the temple was used as a quarry with much of its limestone being burned to make lime and at the end of the 19th century, part of the massive Third Pylon of Amenhotep III was damaged during an earthquake.

But in 1924, the director general of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Pierre Lacau, ordered the structure to be repaired. Today there is an extensive conservation and reconstruction program and the millions of scattered stone blocks are being catalogued and brought together as part of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.

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Karnak Temple

Relief Carved Wall

Rameses II making Offering

Seti I Driving His Chariot

Tuthmosis III Smiting his Enemies

Temple of Rameses III

Temple of Khons

Temple of Khons

The Hypostyle Hall

The Hypostyle Hall

The base of the Hatshepsut's Obelisk

Hatshepsut's Obelisk

Sacred Lake

Defeated Cities

Pharaoh being anointed by Horus and Thoth