Luxor and Karnak Temples

We flew this morning to Luxor, which is about 13 hours south of Cairo by car. The Valley of the Kings is there, along with several beautifully preserved temples. We saw the temple of Queen Hatchepsut (the only woman to rule as a king), and the Medina Habou as well but forgot to take Ipod pictures.









Below are pictures of Karnak Temple. The temple is huge, (can't remember, maybe 60 acres?) and the grounds contain the world's first swimming pool. Ramses the Great, Queen Hatchepsut, King Tutahnkamen, and Tutmoses III all built here, along with many other Kings. There originally were 6 obelisks, but now only two remain. Most are in other countries, such as the one standing in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. There is a statue of a giant scarab here, which symbolizes eternity. Rumor has it that if you want good luck, you should walk around it three times, and if a woman wants to get a husband she should walk 5 times, and to get pregnant she should walk 7 times.



Aren't the columns amazing? They are 20 m tall. The entire hall was once filled with 132 of them, but one guy who used to be site manager a few decades ago thought it would be a good idea to allow the flood waters in to "clean" the temple. Unfortunately, he didn't think far enough ahead to determine how he would pump the flood out again, and the temple stayed flooded for 4 months. When the waters finally receded, several of the columns toppled and the ceiling caved in. Imagine having to explain that to your boss....



Karnak Temple is exactly 3 km straight across from Luxor Temple, and the street between them was lined with 164 sphinxes. The city of Luxor is working to restore the road so that you can again walk the distance between the two temples, restored exactly as it would have been in ancient times. I am definitely coming back to see that.

- Anna