Ammon

An avenue of ram-headed sphinxes leads to the entrance to the temple precinct of Amun-Ra, Karnak, Egypt. Situated on the east bank of the Nile close to the modern town of Luxor, Karnak was part of ancient Thebes. The remains of this city, which reached its peak during the New Kingdom (1550–1070 BC), form one of the largest religious complexes known to archaeology.

In Egyptian mythology, king of the gods; the equivalent of the Greek Zeus (Roman Jupiter). The Egyptian pharaohs identified themselves with his supremacy, adopting his name as in Tutankhamen. In art he is represented as a ram or goose, as a man with a ram's head, or as a man crowned with two tall feathers. He had temples at Siwa oasis, Libya, and at Napata and Thebes, Egypt; his oracle at Siwa was patronized by the classical Greeks.

Ammon was originally an obscure deity of Thebes in Upper Egypt. He became the supreme deity when Ra, the older supreme sun god of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt, was merged with Ammon as Amun-Ra, following the victory of the 18th (Theban) dynasty over the Hyksos dynasty around 1570 BC.