Karnak and Luxor Day
We were up at 0400 to catch a one hour flight to Luxor. Had a nice breakfast box at the hotel and a snack on the plane so we were not undernourished. Luggage was gathered upon our arrival and we soon were on our way to Karnak.
An interesting thing Egyptian Air does is the saying of a Muslim Prayer played on the aircraft video system before we took off and even before the safety video.
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed Temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic Period, although most of the extant buildings date from the New Kingdom. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, modern village of El-Karnak, 1.6 miles north of Luxor.
Here we find the Temple of Amun, with courts and halls and a large sacred lake. The enormity of the structure is amazing. The columns are a wonder to behold, with their writings telling of praise to the kings of Egypt.
During the heyday there was a road from Karnak to Luxor, lined with a Sphinxes called the Avenue of the Sphinxes.
From here we make our way to Luxor. The modern town of Luxor is the site of the famous city of Thebes (Waset, in ancient Egyptian), the City of a Hundred Gates. It was the capital of Egypt from the twelfth dynasty on (1991 BC) and reached its zenith during the New Kingdom.
It was from here that Thutmose III planned his campaigns, Akhenaten first contemplated the nature of god, and Rameses II set out his ambitious building program. Only Memphis could compare in size and splendor but today there is nothing left of Memphis, it was pillaged for its masonry to build new cities and little remains.
Although the mud-brick houses and palaces of Thebes have disappeared, its stone temples have survived. The most beautiful of these is the temple of Luxor. It is close to the Nile and laid out parallel to the riverbank.
The temple was built by Amenhotep III (1390-52 BC) but completed by Tutankhamun (1336-27 BC) and Horemheb (1323-1295 BC) and then added to by Rameses II (1279-13 BC). Toward the rear is a granite shrine dedicated to Alexander the Great (332-305 BC).
The temple has been in almost continuous use as a place of worship right up to the present day. During the Christian era, the temple’s hypostyle hall was converted into a Christian church, and the remains of another Coptic church can be seen to the west. Then for thousands of years, the temple was buried beneath the streets and houses of Luxor. Eventually the mosque of Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj was built over it. This mosque was carefully preserved when the temple was uncovered and forms an integral part of the site today.
One is in total awe at these structure from the history to the detail in construction.
We next made our way to the MS Mayfair, where we checked, had lunch, unpacked and milled about the ship.
The food thus far and on the MS Mayfair had been more than excellent.
This evening there was a belly dancer in the lounge and this was a nice touch.
As we had a 0445 wake up we were off to bed.
Tomorrow is early wake up, ballooning over the Valley of the Kings area.
Ramses II Cartouche
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