Karnak Temple Complex

Karnak is in Egypt, a country in Africa.

It is a big group of old stone temples and halls. Some of its stone columns are about 20 meters tall!

Karnak stands on the east bank of the Nile River in Luxor, a city in Egypt about 700 kilometers south of Cairo. Long ago the city was called Thebes, and it was the capital of Egypt for long periods.

Karnak is not one building but a whole complex of temples, gateways, courts and halls. Pharaoh after pharaoh added to it for more than 2,000 years. UNESCO says Karnak and Luxor Temple, also on the east bank, are two of the largest religious structures ever built.

Karnak lies on the east bank of the Nile at Luxor, about 700 km south of Cairo, on the site of ancient Thebes, capital of Egypt in the Middle and New Kingdoms. UNESCO describes Thebes between about 1500 and 1000 BCE as a city of perhaps 50,000 people, with Karnak and Luxor among the largest religious structures ever constructed.

The complex was enlarged, rebuilt and embellished by successive pharaohs for over two millennia, and pylon gateways along its main axis each served, in their time, as the front entrance. It forms part of the serial World Heritage property 'Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis', inscribed in 1979 under criteria (i), (iii) and (vi).

The walls and columns are covered with carved pictures and writing.

Long ago, they were painted in colors. Some colors can still be seen today.

Every surface of the great hall, the columns, the walls and even the stone beams, was carved and painted with pictures and hieroglyphs, the picture-writing of ancient Egypt. Seti I's carvings in the north half are raised from the stone, while Ramesses II's in the south half are cut into it.

Near the hall's southern gate, carvings show a peace treaty from about 1258 BCE. Lipscomb University's archaeologists call it the earliest known surviving agreement between nations.

The hall's columns, walls and architraves were carved and painted with inscriptions and reliefs: delicate raised relief from Seti I's reign in the northern half, bold sunk relief commissioned by Ramesses II in the southern half, with additions by later rulers. Lipscomb University's Karnak project calls the decoration a monumental archive of the late New Kingdom.

Beyond the southern gate, Ramesses II's reliefs include the text of the peace treaty of about 1258 BCE with the Hittite Empire, which the project describes as the earliest known surviving international accord. The University of Memphis notes that the hall covers nearly an acre and could hold almost all of Paris's Notre-Dame cathedral.

In the photo, giant stone columns and walls stand all around.

Far away, a tall, pointed stone called an obelisk points at the sky.

The photo was taken at Karnak on 19 May 2007. Giant stone columns and walls covered in carved figures and hieroglyphs tower on both sides. Between them, a tall, thin obelisk, a four-sided pointed stone pillar, rises in the distance. On the right stands a tall stone statue of a standing figure, and blocks of stone lie in front.

In January 2024, Egypt's antiquities authority reported that 95% of the hall's columns had been cleaned and restored, uncovering their original carvings and colors.

The photograph (19 May 2007; Commons describes it as the Great Hypostyle Hall, while its category is the Great Forecourt) shows massive columns and walls carved with figures and hieroglyphs, an obelisk framed between them, a standing stone statue on a base at right, and fallen blocks and low walls in the foreground.

In January 2024, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities reported that restorers, working with graduates of Luxor and South Valley universities and the Luxor Restoration Institute, had cleaned and restored 95% of the hall's columns, removing sand and dust to reveal original carvings and colors. Lipscomb notes that, after more than two centuries of study, much of Karnak is still only partly recorded.