Akhet - The Horizon

The Sacred Lake (8)
Walking back across the central courtyard, the sacred lake (8) is to be seen to the left. It was filled with ground water and served the priests when making their ablutions for temple service. By its eastern side there are seating for the sound and light show today but beneath it, priests´ living areas have been excavated. On the southern side of the lake, there is a stone tunnel emanating, through which the sacred geese of Amun was let out from fowl-yards situated further south. At the north-west corner of the lake is a chaple to Taharka (not numbered on plan) with underground rooms with depictins of the sun-god´s night journey under the earth and his rebirth as a beetle next morning.

The Sared Lake. Note the stairs going down to the water.
At the far end are the seats for the Sound & Light Shows. (Photo: K.M. Jonsson)

The Seventh to Tenth Pylons (11-14)
We now turn along the north-south axis which will lead to the Precinct of Mut. Directly outside the Third Pylons (3) is the first courtyard on this axis with the Seventh Pylon(11)constructed by Thutmose III with side walls from Merneptah. It was here that Gerard Legrain in 1903 found the so called Karnak Cachette, which yileded over 900 statues and statuettes, mainly from the 20th Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period, over the next three years. It was usual, when statues accumulated in temples, to simply hide them under ground on the premises so that they should remain within the sacred space. The Eight, Ninth and Tenth Pylons (12,13,14) are undergoing restoration by a French-Egyptian team. The eight pylon was bult by Hatshepsut and the nith and tenth were built by Horemheb. To this he used large amounts of stone from the temples of Akhenaten.

Heb Sed Temple
In the southern wall of the courtyard between the ninth and tenth pylon, is a small Heb-Sed (jubilee) temple to Amehotep II (23) built in. It is recently reconstructed, there is a central hall with fine reliefs which have kept much of their original color. The face of the god Amun was destroyed by Akhenaten but restored by Seti I. The tenth pylon (14) opens to an avenue of sphinxes(16), a processional route which lead to the Precinct of Mut.

The Precinct of Mut (21)
Mut was the consort of Amun and her precinct was surrounded by a mudbrick wall, like the one around the main temple of Amun. The area is being excavated by Brooklyn Museum and Detroit Insitite of Arts. The temple, which is mostly destroyed, is surrounded on three sides by a crescent-shaped lake, the Isheru. The temple was built by Amehotep III but later kings added to it. Taharka and Nectanebo I are a few of them. There were two pylons with a narrow court between them and though the inner rooms are much ruined, they still yield good knowledge of the original shape and form of the temple. Within the precinct, on the western edge of the lake, is a small temple to Ramesses III (25), with some depictions on its outside of his military campaigns. Another, bigger structure is the temple of Khonsu-pa-khered (Khonsu the Child) (24), the 'child' of the Karnak Triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu. The structure still has depictions of birth and circumcision scenes.

Here's a good page on the Precinct of Mut!

Amun-Kamutef
Just outside the wall are the remains of two structures; to the west the temple of Amun-Kamutef (Bull of his mother)(30), and to the east a small barque shrine from the time of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. (31) The ca 700 black granite statues of Sekhmet, wich were found here are thought to have been brought here by Amehotep III from his mortuary temple on the West Bank. Some of the statues are still within the precinct but many are now to be seen in museums all over the world. Now we walk back to th precinct of Amun and the remaining structures and temples there.