Karnak is an Egyptian village two and a half kilometers from the city of Luxor in the center of the country on the east bank of the Nile. Many centuries ago, according to the theory, there were ancient Egyptian Thebes and the religious center of the ancient Egyptian state. The village is a huge cluster of buildings, and although many of the temples of Karnak were almost completely destroyed, the surviving one is the most extensive complex of ancient structures in existence on Earth. All periods of Egyptian history of the XVI-XI centuries. BC. left traces here - each pharaoh tried to immortalize his name here.
Karnak is a unique open-air museum complex, the second most visited attraction in Egypt. Free access to tourists is open only to one of the four temples - the largest temple of Amun. This temple is the largest in area in the entire ancient world. It was connected to the Luxor Temple on the banks of the Nile by the three-kilometer Alley of the Sphinxes, along which solemn religious processions took place.
In front of the temple in Karnak, a part of the alley of forty stone sphinxes has been preserved - exactly the same, with the body of a lion and the head of a ram, the sacred animal of the god Amun. Three other, closed to visitors, temples are the temples of Montu, Mut and Amenhotep IV. There are also several other small buildings and even streets on the territory of Karnak. The hypostyle (from the Greek “hipostilos” - “supported by columns”) hall of the Karnak ensemble includes more than one hundred and thirty columns, and the currently non-existing blue ceilings were decorated with yellow stars and soaring sacred kites.
From the hypostyle hall it was possible to enter a small dark sanctuary, where only the pharaoh and priests were allowed to enter. Many beautiful reliefs and paintings, executed in the era of the New Kingdom, have survived to our time. On the walls of temples, in the tombs of the nobility and high officials, a wide variety of subjects are captured: from works in workshops to funeral ceremonies.
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In the 4th century A. D. Constantine the Great began to spread Christianity in the territory of ancient Egypt: pagan temples were closed or destroyed, and Christian churches began to appear in their place. The most interesting example is the Festive Hall of Thutmose III, on the walls of which you can even now see frescoes with images of saints painted over Egyptian hieroglyphs.