Map
See also Individual Sections of the Great Temple of Amun:
- 4th & 5th Pylon ( The Obelisk Court of Amenhotep III )
- 6th Pylon (The Colonnade of Tuthmosis I and the Vestibule and Antechamber of Tuthmosis III)
- The Peristyle Court of Tuthmosis III,The Naos of Philip Arrhidaeu and the Sanctuary of Hateshpsut Beyond the Sixth Pylon
- The "Central Courtyard" and the Festival Hall of Tuthmosis III
- The Eastern Temple of Ramesses II
- The Sacred Lake and the Monumental Scarab
- The Osirian Temple of Taharqa
- The Courtyard of the Cachette, Part I
- The Courtyard of the Cachette, Part II
- After the Eighth Pylon
Other Temples within the Precinct of Amun (within the enclosure walls):
The Temple of Amun in Egypt, unusually, is built along two axis running both east-west and north-south. It's construction took place over many centuries, and at the command of many different Egyptian kings.The original core of the temple was located near the center of the east-west axis on a mound which was itself almost certainly a very ancient sacred site. This original core was then expanded both towards the Nile in normal Egyptian fashion, but also in the direction of the outlying Mut temple to the south.Today, visitors normally approach the temple from the west by way of a quay built by Ramesses II which gave access to the temple from a canal which, during ancient times, was linked to the Nile. Just to the right stands a small barque chapel of Hakoris (393-380 BC) which was used as a resting station on the processional journeys of the gods to and from the Nile River. A short avenue of cryosphinxes leads from the quay to the temple's first pylon. These cryosphinxes have ram's heads symbolizing the great state god, Amun, and each holds a statue of the king protectively between their paws.

Centered within the courtyard are the remains of the kiosk of Taharqa, which was later usurped by Psammetichus II and later still, restored during Egypt's Greek Period. It originally consisted of ten huge papyrus columns linked by a low screening wall and open at its eastern and western ends. Now there is only one great column and a large, altar-like block of calcite (Egyptian alabaster). The function of this structure has been assumed to be a barque shrine but, because it is open to the sky, it has been suggested that the structure may have served another ritual purpose.
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Just next to the Ramesses III temple is the famous so-called "Bubastite Portal", which gives access to the famous scenes of Sheshonq I of biblical fame (Shishak, from 1 Kings 14: 25-26).

Just before the second pylon in this court were two striding colossi of Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great). However, only the feet of one remain. Before these, there is a third, standing statue of the king with the diminutive figure of the princess Bent'anta (Bentanath, and later queen) standing between his feet. This statue was usurped by Ramesses VI and later by the High Priest and southern ruler, Pinedjem I of the 21st Dynasty.
The second pylon was begun during the reign of Horemheb, the last ruler of the 18th Dynasty, and completed during the reign of Seti I. From its core, many sandstone talatal blocks of an earlier temple of Akhenaten, the heretic king, have been removed.

At one time, these columns supported a roof with small clerestory windows. While the roof is gone, some of the windows remain. They would have provided a muted illumination for the interior, which symbolizes the primeval papyrus swamp. In ancient times, the space between the columns would have been teaming with statues of gods and kings, and a few of these have in recent times been restored to the hall. Against the southern pylon wall is a low alabaster block decorated with the enemies of Egypt, termed the "nine bows", which served as a barque rest during processions. The hall was begun by Amenhotep III. However, the decorations were initiated by Seti I, and completed by Ramesses II. Ramesses the Great's decorations can be distinguished from the earlier work because they lack the artistic quality of the others in the northern half of the hall. Within the hall, the decorations show scenes from the daily ritual and also processional scenes, as well as mythical topics such as the kings interaction with various gods. On the exterior

Amenhotep III initiated the third pylon, though its entrance porch is a part of the later Ramessid period. There were a huge number of reused blocks found as filler within this monument, from which most of the monuments in the Open Air Museum were reconstructed. Beyond this pylon is the Obelisk Court where four such structures were erected by Tuthmosis I and III before the entrance to the original, inner temple. However, only one of Tuthmosis I's obelisks remains. This is also where the area of the temple's second axis branches off to the south.
However, continuing to the east on the main axis, the fourth and fifth pylons were constructed by Tuthmosis I. Both of these pylons were constructed by Tuthmosis I, and together with the narrow, once-pillared area between them constitute the oldest part of the temple that still remains. This part of the temple later received additions, including two obelisks of Hatshepsut, one of which still remains while the other shattered one lies nearby to the south on a concrete block. In all, Hatshepsut placed four obelisks in the Temple of Amun, though these are the only ones left.
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This court leads to a granite barque shrine built by Alexander the Great's short lived successor, Philip Arrhidaeus, though it perhaps replaced an earlier shrine of Tuthmosis III. It is made up of two halves, consisting of an outer area where offerings were made to the god, and an inner area which still contains the pedestal upon which the god's barque rested. Here, the inner walls. are adorned with scenes of offering rites, with Amun appearing in both his usual anthropomorphic and his alternative ithyphallic forms. The outer walls still depict various festival scenes, some still retaining much of their original brightly colored paint.
The chambers that surround the granite shrine, which are made of sandstone, were built by Hatshepsut, but the walls closest to the structure were placed here by Tuthmosis III. He decorated them with the "annals" of his military campaigns and dedication to the temple, including a scene in which the king presents his two obelisks.
These walls precede the so-called "central court", which is an open court where the earliest temple on this site probably once stood, and which became the sanctuary of the later temple. Unfortunately, the building was plundered for its stone during antiquity, and there is now little left other than the large calcite slab on which a shrine once stood.


The rear gate is an imposing portal reaching some 20 meters (over 65 feet) in height. It was constructed by Nectanebo I, and it terminates the main east-west axis of the complex. However, to the north, just inside the ruined mud-brick wall, are the remains of a small 22nd Dynasty temple built by Osorkon IV and dedicated to Osiris Hekadjet, "Ruler of Eternity". There were also several other small shrines in this area.
From here, turning back to the south, one may walk back towards the sacred lake which is now filled with ground water. It supplied water for the priests' ablutions as well as for other temple requirements. There, seating for the temple's famous sound and light show lies atop the excavated remains of the housing for priests. The lake is lined with rough hewn stone and on its southern side is a stone tunnel through which the domesticated geese of Amun were released into the lake from their yards further south.
A chapel of Taharqa sits on the northwest corner of the lake. This is a strange little building with underground chambers that contain descriptions of the sun-god's nightly journey through the netherworld and his rebirth each day as a scarab beetle. Apparently, this is the reason that the large scarab sculpture was brought here from the west bank mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. Also on the northwest corner of the lake rests the pyramidion of Hatshepsut's second obelisk.

The remaining pylons on this axis consist of the eighth, built by Hatshepsut, and the ninth and tenth, raised by Horemheb, who made considerable use of stone quarried from the temples of Akhenaten.
Built into the southern wall of the court between the ninth and tenth pylons is a small Sed-festival temple of Amenhotep II, which was only recently reconstructed by American Egyptologist Charles Van Siclen III. Within, the temple's central hall contains some finely carved reliefs which have retained much of their original color, even though the images of the god Amun were destroyed during the reign of Akhenaten. They were later repaired by Seti I. Van Siclen believes that this structure once occupied an area in front of the eighth pylon, and that it was apparently removed, stone by stone, by Horemheb and rebuilt at its present location when the king extended the Great Temple of Amun's south wing.
The southern entrance to the precinct of Amun was a gate through the tenth pylon which led past two limestone colossi, probably of Horemheb, to the sphinx-lined processional way which connected the precinct of Mut.
Within the walls of the Amun precinct lie a number of smaller temples, including the Temple of Khonsu, the Opet Temple and the Temple of Ptah.