Egypt - Karnak

Karnak was absolutely incredible.

So…. The description in our tour today said “You will fly from Cairo to Luxor.  Upon arrival, you will visit the massive temple complex of Karnak, where you can walk through the avenue of ram-headed spines and stand among the columns of the Great Hypostyle Hall.  In the afternoon you will trandsfer to your cruise ship, typically the MS Medea or MS Miriam) which will be your home for the next four nights.   After lunch you will head to the Luxor Museum to see ancient artifacts and two royal mummies.” and, I mean, that is a legitimate summary.   But the reality was So. Much. More.

Left Cairo early - at least less traffic!

So we did leave very early - we were picked up at 4am for our flight.  And, while I’m appreciating the white-glove service, it was extremely disconcerting for me to be at an airport going through security and checkin without even knowing which airline we were going to be on, much less which flight!   But we found out soon enough - once we were handed our boarding passes ;).  Once we were ready to go we said goodbye to Omar, who’s been our guide since yesterday, and caught a shuttle bus to take us to our plane.   The gender-segregated security checks at the airport were a new experience for sure.   Also the amount of security for a domestic flight was interesting as well.

Can you tell where they run out of water?

It was a fairly short flight and interesting as we were landing because you could quite clearly see how far the water from the Nile reached.   

This is Hosnee with a misc cat,
while he was waiting for us to come back from exploring

So we got off the plane, found our new guide - Hosnee (sp??  Google says there are a few options, but this is what was in my head and what popped up first, so I’m going to stick with it) and away we went.   Our luggage would be delivered to the ship while we went to our first temple: Karnak.

So dry heat is awesome and omg we're here.

Karnak was incredible.  The sheer size of everything was hard to really grasp, especially given how long ago it was built.   But more than the side, was the intricacy of the carvings.   Every space was covered with hieroglyphics and other markings.  I couldn’t draw that accurately on the first go w a pen and paper — yet people were doing it at scale with hand carving tools?!?!

Like seriously - can you imagine doing even one wall with this type of work today?

We explored this amazing place, with Hosnee (an egyptologist) telling us just enough to keep us fascinated without crossing the line to TMI for our little squirrel brains to hold.  He very quickly figured out where that line was for us and was extremely patient with our joint inclination to wander to snag the perfect photo, esp in cases where suddenly there was nobody around.

IMO anywhere that the entrance is lined with Sphinxes
pretty much has to be amazing. 

And I mean - talk about an amazing start.  The row of sphinxes was incredible.   Even one would’ve held my attention for ages; an entire row of them?!?!  An overwhelmingly incredible thing to see.  Or so you think.  And then you get to the columns.   

So many of them.  All carved, painted, or both.

Wow.

There are no words.

Just wow.

Both completely awestruck in the most literal sense

I really cannot explain how overwhelmingly impressive this was.  Size, number, carvings, colour still on some of the images - after thousands of years.  The scale is wild.  We wandered in and around the pictures for ages.   When we finally got our jaws off the ground, we started taking photos ;).   There were other people there but it wasn’t crowded by any means, and if you were patient you could generally get people-free shots.

If you look closely, you'll find Chris for scale

As we went through Hosnee would tell us about the story of the temple, what it was for, who the giant sculptures were of and a bit about their lives - just a fountain of information.  He also reads hieroglyphics which is helpful for my insatiable curiosity.  

Looking out from inside the temple,
where only the priests and pharaoh would've been permitted.

The other thing that got me was how it just kept going.   Like a house with multiple additions, you’d expect you were at the end (I honestly thought the columns was “it” - but while they and the sphinxes were, for me, the most captivating, the place itself is significantly larger than I thought and just keeps going….  

Random other part I'd never even heard of

For instance — There are multiple obelisks throughout - one of which Hosneee set Chris up with a photo shoot ;)

Hosnee taking the photo, the end result, and a random other obelisk photo I liked ;)

There was also a random pond?   Definitely hadn’t been expecting that!  Apparently taxes were based off how full it was.  More water = better harvest = higher taxes.

 

The tax pond ;).  It has a better name; I don't remember it.

And then a scarab beetle we had to walk around seven times for good luck.  Which we definitely did, and I have no idea if that was just something the guides did to get rid of their groups for a while, but it amused me to go along with it and I’m pretty sure Chris only did it to humour me.  Either way, we’ve ended up with a private tour, so I’m thinking we’ve already gotten our good luck and owe the beetle a few laps!

The good luck beetle

I didn’t get a good picture of the model in the vistor's centre cause it was before we went in and I was way more excited to see the real thing, but now I wish I had to show how large it really is.  If you're interested, it's worth a quick google - lots of good models out there.

Some random extra photos just cause I can:

I mean honestly, compiling this later I'm *still* smiling.

Guardian ram-sphinx (representing the God Amun) protecting the King (thanks Hosnee!)

Even the top ones are inscribed