Next, I went to visit the Great Temple of Amon. It is the most remarkable monument of Rames II, the great builder. It is the temple dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Re and Re-Horakhte at Abuu Simbel. Although excavated from the living rock, the structure follows generally the plan of the usual Egyptian temple. Four colossal, seated statues emerge from the cliff face: two on either side of the entrance to the main temple. Carved around their feet are small figures representing Ramses's children, his queen, Nefertari, and his mother, Muttuy. Karnak is believed to have been an ancient observatory as well as a place of worship where the god Amun would interact directly with the people of earth. Made of one piece of red granite, it originally had a matching stone pillar that was removed by the Roman emperor Constantine and re-erected in Rome. The original core of the temple was located near the center of the east-west axis on a mound which was itself almost certainly a very ancient sacred site. This original core was then expanded both towards the Nile in normal Egyptian fashion, but also in the direction of the outlying Mut temple to the south. Today, visitors normally approach the temple from the west by way of a quay built by Ramesses II which gave access to the temple from a canal which, during ancient times, was linked to the Nile. Just to the right stands a small chapel of Hakoris (393-380 BC) which was used as a resting station on the journeys of the gods to and from the Nile River. A short avenue of sphinxes leads from the quay to the temple's first pylon. These sphinxes have ram's heads symbolizing the great state god, Amun, and each holds a statue of the king protectively between their paws.