Karnak Complex, Luxor, Egypt :
What is now known as the Akhenaten Temple Project was originally undertaken by the University Museum of Pennsylvania. Now it is subsidized in part by the Antiquities Department and in part by the Smithsonian Institution, and is the first scientific study of antiquities by computer. It entails the extraction of the blocks and the feeding of details of their design, inscriptions, etc. into a computer, which will match the pieces and prepare the way for reconstruction. Modem techniques may thus concentrate a lifetime's work into a decade. The question is whether the blocks will prove to be parts of one immense temple, a worthy companion to the temple of Amon,or a complex of many.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Akhenaten Temple Project is one of the most important pieces of work being done in Luxor today. To date there is a gap in the history of the area. Only in the tomb of Ramose is there an opportunity to compare the age-old tradition of artistic expression with the new . realism characteristic of Akhenaten's time. What a drama when, within the very precincts of Amon's sacred temple where he enjoyed unquestioned dominance for generations, there will rise a structure from a period meant to have been forever forgotten. Side by side with Amon's power and supremacy will be Akhenaten's new faith and symbol , the sun, with its radiating force ending in the gesture of giving.
The eastern avenue of sphinxes extends from the tenth pylon to the Gate of Philadelphus, which is excellently preserved. The temple of Mut is to the south. To the west is the temple of Khonsu and the temple of Osiris adjoins it.
