Temples of Karnak

Etymology 

The temple was named with this name, based on the word “ Khorneq “, meaning in ancient Arabic the fortified village.

As for the middle period, it was known as castle of Amun, meaning home of Amun.

This is a huge building complex about 1.5 kilometers long.

It is impossible to build such a large temple during the reign of a particular king ( one ).

This temple was built more than 4000 years ago .

Built from the inside out, it has passed through the Middle Kingdom period, the New Kingdom period, the Roman period, and the Greek period.

From 2055 BC it was built intermittently until it was completed in 332 BC.

Why should you have wasted so much manpower and material resources to build it.

We know that the ancient Egyptians worshiped many gods.

Among these gods one cannot help but mention two very important deities, one of them Ra and the other Amun, both of which are sun gods.

Ra represents the sun during the day, he is the main deity of the entire Heaven and Earth  race ; Amun means ( hidden ), he represents the hidden sun, and he is the main deity of Thebes in ancient times, which is now the shortest, that he is the god of the city.

So Amun is a small local image of Ra.

Later, the ancient Egyptians merged them into one, that is, the invisible sun and the daylight were merged into one god called Amun-Ra, who represented the king of the gods.

Because of the Egyptians’ worship, many temples were built for them across the country, and the Karnak Temple we visit today was built for the god Amun.

There is a mud brick wall outside the temple, measuring 55 meters in length, 20 meters in height and 15 meters in thickness, and the ancient Egyptians used it to demarcate the boundaries of the temple and use it to protect the temple from destruction by the wicked.

Writing in hieroglyphs on the stone of the walls of the Karnak Temple: 

Temples were established in all upper and lower Egypt and in the desert oases of Libya under Egyptian control, to Siwa, and in the Sinai Peninsula, and during the periods when Egypt controlled Nubia, the temples of rulers were built there.

Most of Egypt’s cities had a temple structure for the construction of temples ( 69 years old) but in some, such as funeral temples or Nubia temples.

These temples were established for religious reasons and were used to bury rulers or to worship a mythical deity.

Temples were built in places of religious importance, such as the neighboring temple and the sun god.

For example, twice a year, the sun’s rays are crossed to the deities in the great Abu Simbel temple.

The temple was built through a series of complex religious rituals for the founders.

Upon completion of its construction, religious rituals are performed, which should be performed by the pharaoh himself as part of their religious duties.

In fact, the construction of Egyptian temples was symbolically under the supervision of Egyptian sovereignty.

Wood and stone tools were used to build huge temple structures that took years or decades.

Explanation of the Karnak Temple model 

One end of the path leads to the first gate of the Karnak Temple, where the other end was originally a lake, and the canal could connect the lake to the Nile River.

Passing through the first tower gate, you see columns surrounding the open courtyard.

In front of it another tower gate, and it seems that there are many buildings inside the tower gate, and there is a narrow corridor between the buildings, and at the end of the narrow corridor, the obelisk appears faintly.

The Karnak Temple has two artistic axes : 

One is a long edifice and a long corridor, and the other is an obelisk.

The more inside the temple, the older it is, and the simpler its architectural form.

The temple was expanded from inside to outside.

This temple was built to worship the sun god Amun.

Because the sun god is the main deity of ancient Egypt, the ancient Egyptian pharaohs had to give him a gift, and this gift could be a gate ( edifice or tower ), a stone pillar, a street, an obelisk, etc. in the temple.

Therefore, the Karnak Temple is not a unified plan, as each king will add a part to it.

Therefore, this temple represents the building activities in different historical periods of ancient Egypt.

Temples were built from the inside, and the first place it was built was the Holy of Holies, then each king added a portion leading to the gate.

Every part he built will give his name.

Each temple has three gods called a “ Trinity “.

The three gods of this temple are the sun god ( Amun ) 

Goddess of nature ( Mut ) 

And their son is the moon god ( Khonsu ) 

Each temple also has a fixed festival celebration. The festival of this temple is called 

“ opet “.

Explanation of the Feast of Opet 

Since ancient times, the season of increase or the flood season of the Nile River ( roughly from July to November every year) has been a holiday time for the Egyptians.

During the festival, people worshiped the goddess Opet, who represented a crocodile, hippopotamus, and a lion.

In the era of the New Kingdom, this celebration was more lively and crowded, and it lasted for 27 days.

During the Opet Festival, this Ram Trail was very vibrant.

The priests of the Karnak Temple carried the sacred composite of Amun, the god of creation, followed by the wife of Amun, the goddess of nature, Mut, and his son, the moon god Khonsu, respectively, the people followed the three main Thebes gods, singing and dancing to the Luxor Temple.