Sound and Light at Karnak Temple

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After breakfast at the Venus hotel, we moved our stuff across the street from the Noble Hotel. We had booked the Venus hotel mostly because it had got good on line ratings, but from what we saw we were not impressed. Our two rooms were up on the third floor, with no elevator going up. The room themselves weren't much better than those at the Noble Hotel. They didn't look particularly clean and our room had weird bare wires hanging out of the wall. With the door to the balcony open, the street noise flooded the room - with the door closed, only a single florescent strip light lit the room and on the opposite side of the beds where you might want to read. The dusty TV that sat in one corner wouldn't turn on.

Evy and I went for a walk though town to find the tourist office to get some standard on which to judge tour prices. After some looking, we managed to find the office, though they didn't have much information to give us. Next we searched for a travel agent to renew our outdated international teacher id cards which had expired in December. Here in Egypt these cards get us into places at student prices (usually half the adult price) and so it it worth having them up to date.

We seemed to miss the travel agency that were were searching for to start with and instead ended up going to the Thomas Cook travel agency to get tour prices. There we were able to get directions to the street we needed for the id cards.

We have now have had experience with the “hotel cars” at Egypt hotels. They are usually the same as the taxi that you can get for yourself but cost twice as much so we opted to find our own taxi to the sound and light show at the Karnak temple.

Our guide books had warned us ahead of time that the light show was a bit “Kitchy” and overly dramatic, but I thought it might have a chance of impressing Benjamin and Joshua.

The show plays several times and evening in various languages. As we lined up to wait, the crowd looked distinctly older and English - quite a contrast to the usual diverse mix of backpackers that we typically find ourselves travelling amongst. Large groups of them seemed to know each other so I suspect we are in the mist of several package tour groups.

The rising full moon over the temple gave an timeless aura to the temple as we waited outside of the gates for the show to start. It was only shortly after 6, but we were now in complete darkness. Finally the show began with a booming voice welcome us as “Traveller to Upper Egypt”.

The light show is a great change to see the drama of the temple lit up at night. Karnak temple is in fact, many layers of temple, each one contained within another. The show took us in a series of stages further and further into the temple. In the final stage, we were in a huge seating area, with the acre of the temple out in front of us. The images from slide show covered huge parts of the temple buildings in changing series of images and patterns. Though not terribly informative, the show was an excellent way to appreciate the sheer scope of the temple and the lighting added a scene of drama and majesty to the complex, making it easier to imagine the great value that it held for the ancient Egyptians.

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