Luxor
and the temple of Karnak
We
took the evening train from Aswan to Luxor, occupying a sleeper!
We arrived at Luxor at 9pm and booked into the Novotel Hotel at
the south end of the corniche. We have a Nile view room but the
hotel is not so smart as the New Cataract in Aswan.
Next
morning we walked through Luxor and on to Karnak to see the temple
of Amun-Ra about 1.5 km to the north. This temple dates from about
1900 BC and is enormous, covering 1.5km x 0.8 km. You enter up
an alley with ram headed sphinxes on either side, then through
the first pair of pylons - big stone structures, one on either
side of the entrance and very high. A ramp made of mud bricks
is behind one of them - possibly used for raising the big slabs
of stone.
The
highlight is the hypostyle hall - an area with 134 gigantic stone
columns with papyrus capitals. We noted some 19th century graffiti
about 20 feet up and conclude the bottom 15 feet or so was buried
in those days - the lower parts of the columns are in less good
condition than the rest. The temple walls are covered in relief
carvings of Amun (with horns), Isis (with sun on her head), Horus
and various pharoahs - mainly Ramses 2. Some show battles with
chariots, weapons and boats. The obelisks of Hatshepsut are big,
granite, well preserved. Also some gigantic stone sculptures -
although the relief carvings have all people in profile, the faces
on the sculptures are good.
Took
a caleche back to hotel and swam in very cold pool. Meal in Marhaba
restaurant (above Egyptian Tourist Authority). They do a buffet
for LE20 wth salads, dips, rice, pasta, moussaka, vegetables,
chicken, etc. and lots of sweets. They also do a la carte which
includes shakshoek and tagine. Watched eclipse of the moon from
the hotel garden.
Click
on an image for an enlarged view
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| Avenue
of ram-headed sphinxes |
Three
of the sphinxes |
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| Front
view of ram-headed sphinxes |
Avenue
of ram-headed sphinxes |
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| More
sphinxes inside temple |
The
great hypostyle hall |
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| The
great hypostyle hall |
The
great hypostyle hall |
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| The
great hypostyle hall |
The
great hypostyle hall |
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| The
great hypostyle hall |
Hatshepsut's
obelisk |
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| Hatshepsut's
obelisk |
Statue
of Ramses 2 |
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| Columns
in central court |
Amun-Ra
statue (who?) |
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| Row
of statues |
More
statues |
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| Walls
with hieroglyphs |
Nileometer
at Amun-Ra temple |
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| Outside
wall with hieroglyphs |
Amun-Ra
temple from the south |
