Editing Karnak (section)

==Main parts==
[[File:Karnak temple complex 2012.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Precinct of Amun-Re]] as seen from the Sacred Lake]]
===Precinct of Amun-Re===
{{Main|Precinct of Amun-Re}}

This is the largest of the precincts of the temple complex, and is dedicated to [[Amun-Re]], the chief deity of the [[Theban Triad]]. There are several colossal statues, including the figure of [[Pinedjem I]] which is {{convert|10.5|m|0|abbr=out}} tall. The sandstone for this temple, including all of the columns, was transported from [[Gebel el-Silsila|Gebel Silsila]] {{convert|100|mi|0|abbr=out}} south on the Nile river.<ref>Time Life Lost Civilizations series: Ramses II: Magnificence on the Nile (1993) pp. 53–54</ref> It also has one of the largest obelisks, weighing 328 tons and standing {{convert|29|m|0|abbr=out}} tall.<ref>Walker, Charles, 1980 "Wonders of the Ancient World" pp24–7</ref><ref>"The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World", edited by Chris Scarre (1999) Thames & Hudson, London</ref>

===Precinct of Mut===
{{Main|Precinct of Mut}}
[[File:Karnak Temple Complex-en.svg|left|thumb|Map of the [[Precinct of Mut]] and Amun-Re]]
Located to the south of the newer Amun-Re complex, this precinct was dedicated to the [[mother goddess]], [[Mut]], who became identified as the wife of Amun-Re in the Eighteenth Dynasty Theban Triad. It has several smaller temples associated with it and has its own [[sacred lake]], constructed in a crescent shape. This temple has been ravaged, many portions having been used in other structures. Following excavation and restoration works by the Johns Hopkins University team, led by Betsy Bryan (see below) the Precinct of Mut has been opened to the public. Six hundred black granite statues were found in the courtyard to her temple. It may be the oldest portion of the site.

In 2006, Bryan presented her findings of a festival that included apparent intentional overindulgence in alcohol.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131010040804/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15475319/#.V3MUP0_UnYg "Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rites"] nbcnews.com, 30 October 2006,</ref> Participation in the festival included the priestesses and the population. Historical records of tens of thousands attending the festival exist. These findings were made in the temple of Mut because when [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed the warrior goddesses, [[Sekhmet]] and [[Bastet|Bast]], as some of her aspects. First, Mut became Mut-[[Wadjet]]-Bast, then Mut-Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated [[Menhit]], another lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-Menhit, and finally becoming Mut-[[Nekhbet]].

Temple excavations at Luxor discovered a "porch of drunkenness" built onto the temple by the pharaoh [[Hatshepsut]], during the height of her twenty-year reign. In a later myth developed around the annual drunken Sekhmet festival, Ra, by then the [[solar deity|sun god]] of Upper Egypt, created her from a fiery eye gained from his mother, to destroy mortals who conspired against him (Lower Egypt). In the myth, Sekhmet's blood-lust was not quelled at the end of the battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity, so Ra had tricked her by turning the Nile as red as blood (the Nile turns red every year when filled with silt during inundation) so that Sekhmet would drink it. The trick, however, was that the red liquid was not blood, but beer mixed with pomegranate juice so that it resembled blood, making her so drunk that she gave up slaughter and became an aspect of the gentle [[Hathor]]. The complex interweaving of deities occurred over the thousands of years of the culture.
[[File:Karnak temple Montou 03.JPG|thumb|Ruins in the Precinct of Montu]]

===Precinct of Montu===
{{Main|Precinct of Montu}}
This portion of the site is dedicated to the son of Mut and Amun-Re, [[Montu]], a war-god. It is located to the north of the Amun-Re complex and is much smaller in size. It is not open to the public.

===Temple of Amenhotep IV (deliberately dismantled)===
{{Main|Temple of Amenhotep IV}}
The temple that [[Akhenaten]] (Amenhotep&nbsp;IV) constructed on the site was located east of the main complex, outside the walls of the Amun-Re precinct. It was destroyed immediately after the death of its builder, who had attempted to overcome the powerful priesthood who had gained control over Egypt before his reign. It was so thoroughly demolished that its full extent and layout is unknown. The priesthood of that temple regained their powerful position as soon as Akhenaten died, and were instrumental in destroying many records of his existence.