The religious complex of Karnak - called Karnak Temple or simply Karnak - comprises a vast complex of temple ruins, chapels, pylons, and other buildings located north of Thebes, now the city of Luxor, in Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile.
The Karnak complex, rebuilt and developed over more than 2,000 years by successive pharaohs from Sesostris I to the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemaic period, covers more than two square kilometers and consists of three enclosures. It is the largest religious complex in antiquity.
It was the most important temple of Dynasty 18 and was dedicated to the Theban Triad headed by the god Amen-Ra. The complex was linked to Luxor Temple by a sphinx alley nearly three kilometers long.
A tourist site, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Only the enclosure of Amun can be visited. The site has been the subject of excavations since the 19th century by French archaeologists, organized since 1967 within the Franco-Egyptian Centre for the Study of the Temples of Karnak (CFEETK). The discoveries continue to be numerous.
The construction of the Karnak complex was spread over more than two millennia with a succession of constructions, modifications, additions, destructions, remodeling, etc., which made it the most extensive religious center in ancient Egypt.