Temple of Karnak, Temple of Luxor and Papryus

Plane to Luxor
Arrival at Karnak
Entrance to Karnak
Me at Entrance to Karnak
Sphinx leading into Karnak -Note Ram's Head, Lion's body, Ramses II in front
Statue of Ramses II
Statue leading to side space
Ramses II with favorite wife Nefitari
Note color remaining on ceiling
Other side of ceiling
Note the two obelisks - one for Pharoh Hotchepsut - female ruler of Egypt for about 14 years
Outside wall in which color remains after several thousand years
Obelisk seen on leaving Temple (or was it tomb) of Pharoh Hotchepsut
Reconstruction in progress
Note Obelisk in background
Note obelisks in background
Temple "pepsi cola"
Figures of Pharohs
Crowds leaving on a relatively uncrowded day.
Me in Front of Ramses II at Temple of Luxor
Roman Fresco in Temple of Luxor

11 March 2008

Today has been such an exciting day that I’m confused about what I saw and did. We had to have luggage outside the room at the Mena House by 5:00 AM, which I did by putting in a wake-up call for 4:45 AM. After breakfast, we got on the bus which took us to the Cairo airport in relatively record time. I had some trouble at the airport. We had to go through two sets of detectors. There was no problem with the first, but at the second, the guard insisted on pulling out my batteries and duct tape. He told me that I couldn’t take it. I stood there a while and after he ignored me for a while, I just put the stuff back into my back pack and sat down with others from the tour.

It was about a two hour flight to Luxor. We got on the bus and were driven to the Temple of Karnak, which is a very large complex. As you enter the complex, you see the latest additions to the temple. It is amazing that some of the paintings still have color. Originally everything was painted in very bright colors. There originally was a road between the temple of Karnak and Luxor lined on each side by a sphinxes. The ones at Karnak had the head of a ram, the body of a lion and a small statue of Ramses II in front of the Lion. The front courtyard where we entered was not quite finished. There was still a mud brick ramp which was used in construction and two of the columns hadn’t been smoothed down. As we went back into the site, we were going back in time. The courtyard was followed by the hypostyle, which is a room filled with columns. Each column was engraved with various hieroglyphics. One place, where the ceiling remained, had painted images on the ceiling. The next thing that we saw was two obelisks. One was from Pharoh Hotchepsut, which had been hidden by a wall of stones, which effectively protected it. Some of the exterior walls still had the color from the paint put on them thousands of years ago. There was a room involving Pharoh Hotchepsut, who was a woman. She ruled for 21 years and was succeeded by her nephew (?) who tried to erase her name. There is still restoration going on at the site.

While at Karnak, I thought I was at the temple of Luxor since the Temple of Karnak is in Luxor; consequently some of pictures mention Temple of Luxor when it is the Temple of Karnak.

We also saw the sacred lake where the priests performed their ablutions before doing the sacrifices. There were steps that you could walk down to enter the lake.

We went to the ship. We had lunch first because the cabins weren’t quite ready. While the cabin is smaller than the room at Mena House, it is very nice. I found out that the ship offers free internet access; consequently I spent some time checking back e-mail and sent a fairly long e-mail to Marla. First of course I took a nap.

The Temple of Luxor was next on the agenda. We spent about an hour there. The front part was dedicated to Ramses II and the back to Amunhotep III. There were large statues of Ramses II. This temple had been used by the Greeks, then a church and most recently a Mosque. The door leading into the Mosque was about three stories above where we stood. The whole area had been filled in with sand. In one of the rooms, there was a Roman picture. In the last room, one wall had hieroglyphics about Alexander the Great dated about 300 BCE. On the wall facing it were hieroglyphics about Amonhotep III about 1250 BCE.

Our last stop for the day was at the Papyrus store. We were shown how papyrus is made and then there were pictures painted on the Papyrus for sale. I really hadn’t intended buying anything but I saw a picture that I thought would be perfect for a relative; consequently I bought it.

We returned to the ship where I showered and joined the cocktail reception, but first I discovered internet access and did some e-mail checking. After dinner I collapsed especially since we were scheduled to leave at 6:30 AM for Valley of the Kings.