File:First pylon of the Amun-Re temple entrance - Karnak Temple (14187552886).jpg

The Temple of Amun, which actually houses a number of integrated temples and chapels, is both the central and principal construct at Karnak. It's primary modern entrance is on the west (northwest), and consists of a number of structures and statues leading up and through the first Pylon. In the approach to the Temple of Amun at Karnak in ancient Thebes (modern Luxor), a canal was originally dug out to the Nile terminating at a quay built by Ramses II located on the western extremity of an avenue bordered with two rows of ram-headed sphinxes. The avenue comes to a holt about twenty meters before the first pylon on the northeast of the main structure which faces the Nile River. The avenue is cut into by the royal highway which went from Coptos to Syrene (Aswan) by way of Thebes, passing between the seventh and eighth sphinxes.

The first pylon, which is the current entranceway to the great Temple of Amun, is composed of two massive blocks framing a large portal. On the west face of each block, for vertical grooves served to house the poles, made from Lebanon cedar and stitched with copper. These poles were adorned with banners (flags) at their tops. The pylon may have been built by Nectanebo I, who raised the temenos walls to which the pylon is attached, though this is by no means certain. Hence, it would have been a relatively late addition built during Egypt's 30th Dynasty. However, it is also possible that an earlier pylon may have stood on this same spot. While the pylon is undecorated, high up on its thickness is an inscription left by Napoleon's Expedition, which remains visible today.

The pylon remains unfinished. The north wing has only thirty-two courses and measures 21.70 meters high, while the southern wing has fort-five courses and measures 31.65 meters high. Its thickness at the base is bout 14.5 meters. Though the pylon's four faces remain unfinished, an examination of its construction reveals the extreme care taken in the precision with which the slope of the monument is drawn on each of the blocks. As an example, the ten lower courses and the upper courses marking the projection of the torus in the southwest corner bear a groove indicating its exact slant. the doorway of the pylon is rather odd. All of the blocks that constitute its jambs are very carefully jointed, not only on the west facade and the interior of the passageway, but also on their faces joined to the pylon, while the entire eastern facade has remained in a state of construction.

The doorway has an interior width of 7.4 meters and a height of 19.36 meters. On the inside of the doorway, to the upper right, the French scholars of the Bonaparte expedition carved the latitudes and longitudes of the principal monuments they surveyed.