KARNAK Temple Back to Egypt Page
Karnak Temple -- The largest temple ever built in the world -- 76 Pharoahs built their temples inside this Temple complex while it was capital of Upper Egypt
The kids had a great time trying to decode the Egyptian hieroglyphics with a decoder book we had with us.
The temple complex is still enormous, even though some Pharoahs tore down some parts of temples of previous Pharoahs they didn't like after they came to power.
This crack in the wall was dug on purpose -- they found an entire temple inside the wall that a later King tore down to try to remove a previous King's legacy.
The temple was totally torn down and re-used as building material inside the walls -- it will be reconstructed sometime soon on the Karnak site.
The size and scale of the monuments and pillars is phenomenal -- this monument weighs over 16 tons.
We paid this guy a few Egyptian pounds and he took us up a hidden staircase for a view of the entire temple complex -- pretty neat.
Everyone works on what the Arabs call "commission" (bribes) in Egypt :-)
The purification lake that most temples had where the priests would bathe prior to ceremonies to purify themselves
The kids had a great time climbing on the rocks and monuments.
Egyptian "felucca" sailing boats on the Nile with the Valley of the Kings & Queens in the background
LUXOR Temple
Luxor temple was built at the other end of the "avenue of the sphinxes" for one of the Pharoah's wives -- he would go there once a year to visit.
The "avenue of the sphinxes" at one time connected Karnak temple and Luxor temple --
The new provincial governor is tearing down buildings to restore the street so you can walk from one to the other again (5 km).
The other obelisk that sat on the right pedestal guarding this temple was given to Napoleon of France as a gift --
We saw it in Paris at the roundabout on one end of the Champps d' Elysses a few months ago.
Avenue of the Sphinxes -- being cleared out now.
Colossi of Memnon (Guardians of the Valley of the Kings)
Valley of the Kings (102 Pharoahs tombs discovered so far)
Couldn't take any pictures inside the tombs at the Valley of the Kings. Over 100 tombs have been discovered so far --
3 current digs being excavated as more tombs have been found.
Relief map of the Valley of the Kings.
Experts estimate only 30% of Ancient Egyptian monuments/tombs have been discovered -- 70% still lay uncovered well preserved under the sand.
The "natural pyramid" that marks the tombs -- Egyptians eventually started abandoning large pyramids as tombs as they were easy markers for tomb robbers.
King Tutankamen's tomb was most famous as it was the only one that has ever been found intact and untouched by tomb robbers in 1921. All is now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
A current Egyptian excavation -- sonar found a large cavity that they believe is the tomb of Ramses VIII.
HATCHEPSUT Temple
One of the most impressive temples carved into the rock in Ancient Egypt -- Temple of Queen Hatchepsut
Queen Hatchepsut, despite her power, could not be King, so finally had to disguise herself as a man to come to power as King and ruled for 13 yrs.
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Our Egyptian guide Leila provided fantastic history -- she took a liking to Ryan and kept calling him her husband :-)
Here she was spraying perfume on us before we could enter the temple.
Brady had to drag "flat Stanley" along to document his travels for a school project.
Medinah Temple (Temple of Habu)
Medinah Temple was the second biggest temple ever built next to the Temple of Karnak -- still preserved fairly well (besides the roof).
This Egyptian lady just wanted her family to take her picture with the little blonde kids :-)
Luxor Area & Hotel
Hot Air Balloons over the Nile at sunrise from the balcony of our hotel.
Our hotel was right on the Nile river in Luxor -- really a neat way to wakeup in the morning.
Erin fell in love with the Egyptian "El Arosa" tea and had to have it with every meal !!
