Editing Mut (section)

==In Karnak==
[[File:JebelBarkalMutTemple1.jpg|thumb|left|Jebel Barkal Temple of Mut: Amun accompanied by Mut pictured inside Jebel Barkal]]
[[Image:Mut Temple Map.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Precinct of Mut at the [[Karnak]] temple complex]]
There are temples dedicated to Mut still standing in modern-day Egypt and Sudan, reflecting her widespread worship. The center of her cult in Sudan became the [[Temple of Mut, Jebel Barkal|Mut Temple]] of [[Jebel Barkal]] and in Egypt the temple in [[Precinct of Mut|Karnak]]. That temple had the statue that was regarded as an embodiment of her real ''[[Egyptian soul|ka]]''. Her devotions included daily rituals by the [[pharaoh]] and her [[priest]]esses. Interior reliefs depict scenes of the priestesses, currently the only known remaining example of worship in ancient Egypt that was exclusively administered by women.

Usually the queen served as the chief priestess in the temple rituals. The pharaoh participated also and would become a deity after death. In the case when the pharaoh was female, records of one example indicate that she had her daughter serve as the high priestess in her place. Often priests served in the administration of temples and oracles where priestesses performed the traditional religious rites. These rituals included music and drinking.

The pharaoh [[Hatshepsut]] had the ancient [[Precinct of Mut|temple to Mut]] at Karnak rebuilt during her rule in the [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]]. Previous excavators had thought that [[Amenhotep III]] had the temple built because of the hundreds of statues found there of [[Sekhmet]] that bore his name. However, Hatshepsut, who completed an enormous number of temples and public buildings, had completed the work seventy-five years earlier. She began the custom of depicting Mut with the crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt. It is thought that Amenhotep III removed most signs of Hatshepsut, while taking credit for the projects she had built.

Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who brought Mut to the fore again in the [[Egyptian pantheon]], identifying strongly with the goddess. She stated that she was a descendant of Mut. She also associated herself with the image of [[Sekhmet]], as the more aggressive aspect of the goddess, having served as a very successful [[warrior]] during the early portion of her reign as pharaoh.

Later in the same dynasty, [[Akhenaten]] suppressed the worship of Mut as well as the other deities when he promoted the monotheistic worship of his sun god, [[Aten]]. Tutankhamun later re-established her worship and his successors continued to associate themselves with Mut afterward.

[[Ramesses II]] added more work on the Mut temple during the [[nineteenth dynasty of Egypt|nineteenth dynasty]], as well as rebuilding an earlier temple in the same area, rededicating it to Amun and himself. He placed it so that people would have to pass his temple on their way to that of Mut.

[[Kushite]] pharaohs expanded the Mut temple and modified the Ramesses temple for use as the shrine of the celebrated birth of Amun and Khonsu, trying to integrate themselves into divine succession. They also installed their own [[priest]]esses among the ranks of the priestesses who officiated at the temple of Mut.

The Greek [[Ptolemaic dynasty]] added its own decorations and priestesses at the temple as well and used the authority of Mut to emphasize their own interests.

Later, the Roman emperor [[Tiberius]] rebuilt the site after a severe flood and his successors supported the temple until it fell into disuse, sometime around the third century AD. Later Roman officials used the stones from the temple for their own building projects, often without altering the images carved upon them.