Karnak Temple

Today is officially my first day of my second cruise on the Nile. Arriving at the boat, RA II around lunchtime. The boat is much different to Le Scribe, which is the boat I had hoped and indeed booked to go on, in comparison, the RA II is nice, but soul-less.

After unpacking and settling in to what will be home for the next 2 weeks, it was off to the Karnak Temple, where I was teamed up with my very own tour guide, and not just any tour guide, but the same guide that Pat and I had when we came in January, he has a passion for the history and culture of this country, and no one could explain it better. Today was no exception.

Karnak Temple is a vast temple complex in Luxor dedicated primarily to Amun and dating from as early as 2000 BC. It is an impressive sight, and second only to the Great Pyramids in popularity.
After a century of foreign occupation, the New Kingdom (1550-1150 BC) of Egypt emerged, with its capital at Thebes. The captial city was embellished with grandiose temples worthy of the majesty of the pharaohs, the greatest being Karnak.

The temple complex of Karnak, dedicated to the Pharoah Amun, was the centre of his worship and of his wife Mut and their son Khons. Each of them had a precinct  in the temple complex, the greatest and largest belonging to Amun. There was also a precinct for Montu, the falcon-headed local god. 

Construction on the Karnak temple complex began in the 16th century BC and continued into the Greco-Roman period - a period of up to 1300 years of construction. Around 30 successive pharoahs added their own touches to the complex: a new temple, shrine, or pylon and carved detailed hieroglyphic inscriptions.

When the pharoah Akhenaton abandoned the traditional worship of Amun and took up the worship of Aten, the sun god, he built a temple to Aten at Karnak. But after his death, the Theban priests destroyed all signs of sun worship at Karnak and elsewhere.
The Karnak temple complex is huge, covering a site almost a mile by two miles in area. There are over 25 temples and chapels in the complex, including separate shrines for the three boats that took the statues of the gods on their annual trip on the flooding Nile. Sanctuaries, obelisks, and groups of columns all feature accounts of the heroic deeds of the sponsoring pharoah. 

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. Approximately 30 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 sheer size and number of features makes it one of the most impressive temple complexes in Egypt.

The Karnak complex includes several of the finest examples of ancient Egyptian design and architecture. Among them are the Hypostyle Hall, considered one of the world’s great architectural achievements. It is filled with 134 enormous pillars, the highest 70 feet tall, and each about 45 feet around. The hall covers an area of 64,586 sq ft.

The most spectacular of the temples at Karnak is the Temple of Amun, the only section open to the public. 

This is entered via the Avenue of the Sphinxes, or Sacred Way, that once stretched the two miles from Karnak to Luxor Temple. 

The Obelisk of Thutmose I, a 22m (71ft) monument, is the only one of four original obelisks that is still standing.

I found the Karnak Temple to be truly magnificent, standing a mighty testament to the power of the Gods for whom it was built.  Giant statues of Gods and Kings adorn the entrances, and the deep carvings on the walls, thousands of years old, fill the imagination with memories of a people you never knew, but you can envision the love and effort that they put into the work that created this mighty fortress.

There avenues of columns seem like they are stretching towards the heavens, and one can only be amazed at hands that created these. Huge towers of stone, 30 plus meters high, erected at a time when machinery did not exist and only the primitive of hand tools available with which to lovingly create the splendour laid out before me.

Like many of the other Temples in Egypt, Karnak Temple bears evidence of destruction from a time gone by, destruction caused by jealously, or perhaps simply ignorance amongst the Pharaohs and Gods of ancient times. I wonder how they might have stopped to think of the legacy of their work stretching forth into the 21^st century, and if that might have made a difference to the way such wanton destruction was loosed on what could only have been more magnificent in its original glory.

 

Columns at the Karnak Temple

A New Experience

Today I have had dinner at an open air restaurant, adjacent to the banks of the Nile.  An interesting experience indeed.  The place is very crowded, despite it being past 9.30pm when we arrived.

It reminded me a little of a drive in theatre in the States, not that I have ever been to one, but have seen enough of them in movies and tv shows to know what they are.  This restaurant boasted a large plasma screen with sufficient volume that one could hear adequately without drowning out your conversation, perhaps restaurants and bars back home could take note!

For a grand total of LE20, (approx £2) dinner was a huge plate of rice with chicken kebab, the upside, the food was delicious, the downside, American sized portions, so food was wasted, which is a heartbreaker for me, perhaps moreso in a country where many people struggle to find sufficient food to eat on a daily basis.

The atmosphere was intensified by an impromtu fireworks display, as I discovered later, to celebrate the engagement of a young couple, who led their party of friends and family into the arena of their engagement party, an altogether magical thing to watch, a world and a culture away from the way the British do things.

I have to admit I enjoyed the whole experience of eating al fresco, at a very late hour, in a temperature higher than anything we have seen in Britain all summer, oh yes, this is the life :)

The River Nile

It's true to say that one of Egypt's most alluring beauties is the River Nile, longest river in the world, and source of all life in Egypt.  Anyone that has been here will understand it's captivating power.

Today, as I sit lazingly at the side of this great waterway, I know that I am where I want to be, drinking from it's majesty and enjoying it's splendour.   To accompany the beauty of the water, is the warmth of the sun, today a delightful 38 degrees Celsius, and after the total washout of the 2011 summer in the UK, its warmth against my skin is so inviting.

In just a few days I will be embarking on my second Nile Cruise, sailing down the River and feeling the water caressing the bowels of the boat as it glides south to Aswan, affording me another opportunity to drink in the sights of Egypt as the landscape passes by, and it's a landscape to beat all others. The banks of the Nile have been described as the biggest open air museum on earth, well, that's a pretty good description of it, as everywhere you look there is something amazing to see, pure unadulterated beauty laid before you, in a world that perhaps time forgot, and one that I hope it never catches up with.

The land of my dreams

Well, some 8 months after first setting foot in the land of Egypt, I am back, to a land that feels more like home than home does.   After an overnight flight from London to Cairo and on to Luxor, here I am, in the city that somehow captured my imagination back in January.

Just days before the Revolution that has seen much change in Egypt, I walked the streets of Luxor, Aswan and Cairo, drinking in the history and culture each has to offer, and became totally intoxicated and charmed.  Some would say by the sun, there is an element of truth in that, some would say by the history, and there is an element of truth in that too, but for the most part, I was charmed by the people, a people who are happy despite the difficult circumstances in which many of them live.  Poverty takes on a whole new meaning in Egypt, and in many respects, matches that of places like Soweto in many neighbourhoods, particularly in Cairo and Luxor.     People who earn less in a week than many of us would spend in Starbucks or McDonalds in one visit, that gives life a whole new perspective, yet always people are smiling, and satisfied with their lives, or at least they don't constantly complain about what they don't have, this for me set them apart from the British people that I have lived among for a lifetime.

Within days of my returning home in January the Egyptian Revolution had began - teaching me that 'happy' is relative.  It was very apparent that all was not well when I was here, it didn't take much of a genius to see that basic foods were out of the reach of millions of ordinary people, and when that happens, something has to give.  Most people who know me will know of my utter admiration for the demonstrators during the revolution, to see a people literally take their future into their own hands and demand change, even to the point of death.  Being back amongst the Egyptians, you can sense their pride at their acheivement back on 11 February as well as their frustration at the slow progress since then, so it will be with great interest that I will watch the future unfold.

Back to my being in Egypt, today is day one, 'officially' I am here for 18 weeks - but, we shall see.  One thing I know, is that I plan to enjoy every minute.

My wildest adventure

In the early months of 2010, the year of my 50th birthday, I decided I would like to end the year doing something different, and dramatic! As a child I used to have a dream of seeing three things before I die, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Sydney Opera House and the Pyramids of Giza. Most people will know I have spent enough money travelling to the States to have paid for all of this several times over :) They were after all, childhood dreams.

I had already seen the Golden Gate Bridge, several times, Sydney is way too far for a brief holiday, so that left Egypt, and along with my darling friend Pat, booked a Nile Cruise for the beginning of December, which, with the mysteries of British Weather, turned into January 2011. A week on the Nile with a side trip to the Pyramids was heaven, we returned to the UK 8 days later, but some 8 months later, my heart was still in Egypt.

So now, having fulfilled that lifelong desire to see the ancient pyramids of Giza and visit some of the historic sites of Egypt, little could I have imagined that I would be sitting here in Egypt again, not merely for a holiday, but to taste some of the life here.

I am sure it is going to be entirely different to life in London, but that's ok, I want it to be.