Conclusion

As this is my final blog post on the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, I want to just discuss the temple as a whole and what I learned about it. While last semester I took a class about Ancient Egypt, we did not spend very much time talking about this temple, over this semester I have got the chance to take a long look at it and research every part of the temple. I learned a lot. In my Egypt class we really only discussed the importance of Amun-Re and never talked about the other precincts in the temple. I found the Amunhotep 4 and Mut areas to be very interesting. I never knew that Mut's importance level changed over time and she eventually joined the Enneud. It is also interesting to learn that they completely demolished Amunhotep 4 precinct and use the stones to build more in the main temple complex. It is also amazing to think that archeologists were able to find these pieces in the wall and recreate some of the walls from the Amunhotep temple. The amount of time spent excavating this temple is amazing, and they are still finding new things today, like how they recently discovered the two mile long row of sphinxes that form a road connecting the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple. The fact that just today they could find something as amazing as that is crazy and is the reason I am interested in archaeology. You never know what you mind find.

Amenhotep 4

In the midst of countless kings ruling while believing Amun-Re was the most powerful god, there was one king who believed differently. Amenhotep 4 believed that the god Aten was the most important God in Egypt and began building temples for him. Aten was shown in Egyptian art as the beams that came out from the sun. Amenhotep believed he was the living form of the god and built these temples for people to worship him in. He built one of these temples at Karnak. After his rule and his son's rule, order was restored and Amun-Re was the most powerful god again. When Amun came back to the top all temples and art and cities built in Aten's order were deliberately destroyed. This being the case, not much is known about the temple of Aten at the Karnak site.

What is known is that there were three separate parts to the temple. The first part had no roof and had offering tables, probably to offer things to the sun. The second room was devoted to a solar cult, and the third was believed to be used as either a royal residence or a large storage area. The building was demolished, but parts of the building were used in constructing other parts of the Temple of Amun. Some of these pieces have been put back together and are on display.