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Published: August 8th 2007
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Early morning balloons by Hatshepsuts temple
What a beautiful sight to see while eating breakfast, or at any other time, from the roof terrace of our hostel. Karnak is a place that is hard to describe. Huge. Grand. Visually astounding. Its a massive complex (over 100 acres all up, but you only look at a part of it) which you enter down a short avenue of sphinxes with rams heads and 'holding' statues of Ramses II - remember that avenue of sphinxes from Luxor temple? This is the other end. The further you go in the "main" part, the bigger things get, more and more grand. The columns in the hypostyle hall are awesome, huge round decorated pillars, all the walls have a different story to tell, of battles fought and always won. Even our photos, and we took a lot! wont do the
place justice.
The main part of the complex is the Precinct of Amun (almost 62 acres!) The most impressive part for us was the Great hypostyle Hall, 6000m2 of huge granite columns covered with inscriptions and carvings. There is a central 'avenue' of 12-14 huge (23m high, 15m round) columns and about 122 smaller columns on either side. The hieroglyphics and pictures represent battles, processions and offerings to Amun.
The Temple of Khonsu, son of Amun and Mut, was another impressive part
Ram headed sphinxes with statues of Ramses II
Part of the processional way from Luxor temple to Karnak, these are at the Karnak end. of Karnak. It was tucked away in a coner and was empty apart from a Tourism and Antiquities policeman pointing at a wall saying good photo then asking for baksheesh. Inside the temple was quite dark but well preserved.
We spent much of the day wandering around the different temples, chapels, halls, courtyards, obelisks, pylons and a scared lake, before giving in to the hecklers and taking a caleche - horse drawn buggy - back into Luxor.
The next day we took ourselves back across the river to the Valley of the Kings so see a few more tombs. We took the public ferry then hired a taxi and driver.
We went into the impressive (and pricey!) tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amun first, then on to Tuthmosis III which was up at the back of the valley, down a cleft in the rock and very quiet. Then we visited the tomb of Tawsert / Sethnakht. It was originally Queens Tawserts tomb, she was the wife of Seti II, but when Pharaoh Sethnakhts tomb building ran into trouble, he took over this one. The last tomb was of Ramses IX. This was crowded as its one of the more popular
ones, and its near the entrance so people dont have to walk so far!
Our driver took us to the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramses II. It was quiet, small, impressive, but in ruins. The "thing" to see here is the fallen colossus of Ramses II, once 18m tall and weighing about 1000 tons, but now shattered across the site.
The last place we stopped at was Medinet Habu, the huge mortuary temple of Ramses III. Smaller than Karnak, but similar in style, this is apparently modelled on the Ramesseum. Impressive, but not many statues or colossi left, and the murals are worn.
Overall view of the Theban Necropolis...The tombs are excellent, you go into this random hole in the ground, and are confronted by walls covered with pictures and hieroglyphs. Some still
have the sarcophagus in, Tutankhamuns still has his mummy and last gold "shroud". We went in six tombs in the Valley of the Kings and they were all different, not just because they were different pharaohs, but in the style of decoration. The tombs in the Valley of the Queens werent quite as splendid, but certainly not shabby.
As mentioned before, our
hostel here in Luxor is great, cheap and cheerful rooms, but the roof terrace has an almost unbeatable view over Luxor Temple to the Nile. Sitting up there having a drink (soft as alcohol is not allowed in the hotel, but you dont really need it as the atmosphere is fine as it is) watching the sun go down behind the hills over the Nile...
Tomorrow we are off to Hurghada for a swim in the Red Sea. We havent decided yet where to go diving, I'm sure we'll find somewhere.
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