KARNAC, or KARNAK, the name of a village near Thebes, in Upper Egypt, and built on a small part of the site of a temple, which must have been one of the most magnificent in the world. The ruins of this edifice seem to indicate, according to Denon, that it was the largest ever raised by human hands; and he thinks it probable that this temple, as well as the palace of Luxor, was built in the time of Sesostri, called by the Egyptians the
Great Rhamses, when Egypt was in the highest degree of prosperity. The plan of this temple is noble and grand; but Denon supposes that the embellishments were added long after the building of the temple, as they exhibit a more correct and chaste style. See article EGYPT.