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Published: November 6th 2007
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You should read the next entry then come back to this one. One of my favorites of the whole trip, the Temple of Karnak is definitely one of the most impressive sites in Egypt, I think more impressive even than Abu Simbel. Karnak sits on 247 acres so you can imagine its size and it was built over a period of 1500 years. You enter through an avenue of ram’s head sphinxes, then into the central courtyard. The temples all follow a basic plan where as you approach the center of the temple it is more enclosed, more complex, and fewer people allowed in. Ultimately, only the priests were allowed in the core of the temple. The 134 columns here are massive and jaw-dropping. Today the inner temple is open to the sky, but sporadically you see parts of the roof that once covered all of the columns. There is one spot where you can still see slats formed a “window,” but even the windows were strategically designed so light entered at a particular time of day and illuminated particular parts of the temple (like the pharaoh’s statue). This complex is just so impressive in size and magnificance.
Karnak has
five “gates” which are huge stone entryways - 5 are on the north-south path into the temple, and 5 more on the east west path. There used to be a canal coming right up to the temple from the nearby Nile and a large pool in front of the ram’s head sphinx entry. A recent find has been that a true road lined with sphinxes goes all the way from the Temple of Karnak to the Temple of Luxor, a distance of 2 miles and a lot of it is probably still intact. The government has acquired all of the land between the temples and will relocate the buildings there (including a mosque). Like the rest of the ancient sites in Egypt, this road has simply been built over by Egyptians in the passing centuries. We were told the plan is to open the sphinx-lined road between the temples in 2010. Having seen first hand the manner in which Egyptians do their business, I will be surprised if this timetable remains intact.
After the massive Karnak, our last stop for the day was at Luxor Temple. It was dusk when we arrived and the lights were on. I captured
the lit head of Ramses II quite by accident, not knowing if anything would even show up. This Temple was the most crowded and thus the most difficult to see. George abandoned us completely here and we often found ourselves pausing to listen to an English speaking guide when we passed one. It is unfortunate we did not have better information for this Temple. The only portion of the sphinx road uncovered is here at Luxor Temple and we had a chance to see it just before we left. It was very dark by then so no photo. Much of the statues and other antiquities found in the two Temples are in the Luxor Museum which we did not get to visit.
We walked across the street to the docks (some 480 or so boats cruise the Nile though only about 250 going this week) and as we approached where our boat was moored it was gone. George was sincerely surprised and made a comment about hoping he didn’t misunderstand the time the boat was sailing. We waited about 30 minutes and it turned out the boats were changing places since our boat was to sail at 5 am
and the outside boat was not leaving that early. The boats line up 4-6 deep. While waiting we found a place to buy cheap water - 50 cents per 2 litres - but George did not want us all carrying 6 bottles on board as he said they would take them away. We only brought one bottle each.
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