It is amazing that in the year 2011 people in all the small villages are living like their ancestors did 3000 years ago. Many have no electricity and the roofs of their houses are of reed collected on the banks of the rivers.
They plant their crops in whatever land they own, cut their crops by hand with scythes, load them onto
carts and take them to market.
We arrived at the Sonesta Hotel in Luxor to unload our bags before going to Karnak. The hotel was beautiful but more importantly it was where it was located. On the beautiful beautiful banks of the Nile.
The pastoral scene was remarkable and the river which flows from Ethiopia westward was clean and clear and sparkling in the sun. Their small boats, called falucca's sail up and down the Nile has they have for centuries, and I guess because I have read numerous books about ancient Egypt, these images have been in my mind's eye for years. It was a dream come true to see this ancient river and these ancient style boats.
We re-boarded the bus for our first stop, Karnak. Apparently when Napoleons troops came upon it's grandeur they broke into spontaneous applause. I see why. There are few words to describe it all.
The area is immense.
The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture.
In this photo Len took of one of the columns Ramses 3 inscribed his story so deeply into he columns that they could not be engraved by any future Pharoahs
These arches weigh over 70 tons! And the paintings are clearly visible.
Avenue of the Sphynx's runs from Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple, a distance of about 3 kilometers. The city of Luxor is built on top of so many ruins that they are still excavating and their hopes are to move the city out of the way to reconnect these 2 major temples through this avenue.
After this visit we went back to the hotel for lunch (their breads are exceptionally good) and to rest a little before going back to Karnak for a light and sound show that evening.
My leg was sore from so much walking that Len and I sat on a bench halfway into Karnak by ourselves.
It was surreal to sit in the dark, quietly, watching the different color lights shine on the walls and columns of the temple. The gently warm breezes and the starry night sky made for some spectacular photos that Len took. Unfortunately this lo resolution image does not do justice to his photography skills.
After the light and sound show, we went to the Temple of Luxor. Smaller than Karnak it was no less impressive. You can clearly read (if we could read hyrogliphics) what it says on this oblesk.
The next day we re-boarded the bus for a trip to the Valley of the Kings.
They do not allow photos of this area at all and no cameras were allowed off the bus. It was amazing.
We went down into Tutankhamun's tomb. Although everything was removed from the tomb, his mummy is encased in glass and the bottom of his sarcophagus is there. All items have either been stolen or removed to the Cairo Museum. We also went into the tombs of Ramses 2 and it was spectacular. There were no items remaining in there, but the walls everywhere were chiseled and painted .
It was awesome. The walls were covered in hyrogliphs and the paint on the walls was spectacular.
There were many small rooms that told stories of the kind of food he "took" with him, musical instruments he "took", small rooms for tools, the small creches in the walls that contained the jars of his
heart etc.
Although we enjoyed seeing this ancient place, we found that there was something sacreligious about entering places where people are buried.
No comments:
Post a Comment