After a rather epic first day of touring Luxor, we woke up bright and early for an abbreviated day of East Bank exploring. Our day two agenda included Karnak Temple, the Luxor Museum, and the Luxor Temple. The great necropolis sights (mortuary temples, tombs) are all on the West Bank of Luxor– the direction the sun sets, important symbology in the ancient religion– while the temples are on the East Bank. The previous day we’d had to drive more than 45 minutes to our first sight– primarily because we had to drive quite a ways to get to a bridge to cross the Nile– but the Luxor Temple was a five minute walk from our hotel.
Our first stop of the day was Karnak Temple. This was a strategically important decision, because the crowds didn’t TRULY start arriving until we were getting ready to head out. I am also a heat weenie…even in mid-November…and the complex is so big, with so much to explore, that it’s much better to do that in the early morning.
Karnak Temple is more than three millennia old, and was the center of Egyptian religious activity for almost a thousand years. It was dedicated to the main Egyptian god, Amun. After passing through the requisite metal detectors, there was huge stone plaza between the visitors’ center and the entrance of the temple. We knew we were in for a treat when we passed through one more security checkpoint a few dozen sphinxes lined both sides of the walkway. There were many uniformed and plain clothes police around.
Some scenes once we walked through the first two pylons:
The temple was added onto over a period of 1,000 years as successive pharaohs wanted to consolidate their power by burnishing their religious credentials. Here you can see the remains of an unfinished temple wall with the remains of mud brick platform behind it. According to our guide, the mudbricks were used as a sort of scaffolding to build and carve the larger wall, then cleared away once work was complete.
There is a picture of us with this statue somewhere…I just can’t find it. It was huge, and amazingly fine detail– just look at his belly button, his loincloth, and his kneecaps. Once again, his wife is only knee-high. Not sure if that’s more emblematic of the place of women in society or if the pharaohs were just THAT big.
I will save the most impressive feature of Karnak for a separate post, and instead share some of the more exquisite details found around the complex. Here is an exceptional granite pillar. The carving is so fine it looks like it was done with laser precision– no chisel marks anywhere to be seen. On the left side of the pillar you can even see how they got the lotus petals to curve perfectly.
The relief below is supposed to be a windpipe and a set of lungs. It is used as a symbol for the unity of upper and lower Egypt. Maintaining a single king’s rule over both the delta in the north (Lower Egypt) and the rest of the Nile River Valley further south is a long running theme in the 2500 year history of ancient Egypt.
This granite was a dark green color. The king is on the left and Amun Ra on the right. Look at how Amun’s hand is behind the king’s head– it looks to me like Amun Ra is drawing him closer to tell him a secret…or maybe kiss him.
A lion, who appears dressed for battle:
The Copts took refuge in Karnak for a while, and left traces of their presence here as well. Here is a statue refashioned to look a lot like a crucifix. Below, the faces of
This oddity is a red granite pedestal with a giant scarab on it. You will notice the parade of tourists walking around it seven times for good luck. Severin and I joined in and had a good laugh!
Smiting, per usual:
A man-made lake within the complex:
I don’t remember if this was a calendar or the Egyptian equivalent of a spreadsheet, or maybe a little of both–
Restoration underway at another part of the complex…we only visited one small portion of the whole site. Interesting to see such modern construction equipment when the Egyptians didn’t have anything close to such things.
