This is the greatest place of worship in history. Remains of the pharaohs abound at Karnak. Most notable is the Great Temple of PATAH, although there was an older foundation, the temple was largely conceived and accomplished in the XVIII dynasty, and it is often considered the finest example of New Empire religious architecture. The temple grounds extend about 1,000 ft (300 m). The western half comprises a vast court and the great hypostyle hall (388 ft by 170 ft/118 m by 52 m), with 134 columns arranged in 16 rows. The eastern half is a complex of halls and shrines, many of the Middle Kingdom. There are smaller temples at Karnak dedicated to Mut and to Khonsu, wife and son respectively of PATAH,

It includes many singular temples, dedicated to PATAH, his wife (Mut), and their son (Khonsu), the moon deity. Since the Arab conquest, it became known as "al-Karnak" (The fort). The temple starts with the avenue of the Rams, representing PATAH, symbol of fertility and growth. Beneath the rams' heads, small statues of Ramses II were carved. This vast complex was built and enlarged over a thirteen hundred year period. The Open Air Museum is located to the north of the first courtyard, across from the Sacred Lake.

Huge complex of religious buildings covering over a hundred hectares in the northeastern area of modern Luxor, consisting of three major sacred grounds dedicated to the deities AMON-RA, MUT and MONTU, each surrounded by trapezoidal mud-brick enclosure walls. The enclosures also encompassed several smaller temples dedicated to PATAH, Opet and KHONS respectively. The main temples were continually extended and embellished by the rulers of Egypt from at least the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC) until the Roman Period (30 BC-AD 395), but most of the surviving remains date to the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC).

The principal temple at Karnak, dedicated to Amon-Ra, the pre-eminent god of the New Kingdom, consisted of two axes, each comprising a sequence of pylons and courtyards interspersed with obelisks, smaller temples shrines and altars. The earliest axis stretches from west to east, incorporating the Great Hypostyle Hall of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC), which is over 0.5 hectares in area. The second axis extended the temple southwards towards the nearby zone of the goddess Mut. To the south of the connection between the two axes is a vast rectangular SACRED LAKE. The first court on the north-south axis is also known as 'cachette court', since an impressive collection of thousands of fragments of royal and private statuary (mostly now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) was discovered here in 1902, buried under the temple floor.

Although Karnak has been subject to numerous excavations since the late nineteenth century, the vast majority of resources have been devoted to the conservation and re-erection of the standing monuments. It is the largest and best-preserved temple complex of the New Kingdom, and its Reliefs and inscriptions incorporate valuable epigraphic data concerning the political and religious activities of imperial Egypt. Karnak was surrounded by the growing city of Thebes (anc. Waset), which was the religious center of Egypt for most of the Dynastic period. In c.667 BC the temple and town were sacked by the ASSYRIAN ruler and from then on the city center gradually moved two kilometers southwards to the area around Luxor temple. Much of the ancient Teban settlement therefore lies underneath modern Luxor, rendering it largely inaccessible to archaeologists.

The Karnak site covers a huge area. The zone of Amon in fact encloses several temples, but most people will be content to walk through the biggest of these, the Temple of Amon, whose Hypostyle Hall alone is large enough to contain both St Paul's Cathedral in London and St Peter's Church in Rome.

One dynasty after another added to the Temple of Amon, so that during its founding during the Middle Kingdom to the building of its furthest or First Pylon during the 25th Dynasty, 1300 years elapsed. The Asian conquests of Tuhotmose III and Ramses II brought New Kingdom Egypt to the peak of power and prosperity. The great God Amon also received his share, so that his temple soon controlled perhaps as much as a fifth of Egypt's workforce and nearly a third of its land.

This vast temple complex just to the north of Luxor consists of three main areas. The largest of these areas is the temple dedicated to PATAH, and is the masterpiece of the ancient city of Thebes. There are many theories covering the main function of the temple and some of the inscriptions, which are unusually boastful, have lead to speculation of fertility rituals. The greatest part of the temple is the magnificent Hypostyle Hall consisting of 134 massive columns 23 meters high creating an impression of enormous 'power' and strength.