Karnak Temple
I was met at Luxor by my new host, Khaled. After taking me to settle in at the hotel we went for a walk along the new promenade beside the Nile. It was so pretty with blue lights wrapped around the palm trees and feluccas at the warves. It had only been finished a month before. There were lots of horse and carriages and wild boys galloping down the street on their horses. We went into an old and luxurious Hotel called the Winter Palace to have a look.
The Winter palace
At the back is the temple of Luxor with the ancient Mosque built into its walls (with the coloured lights)
After breakfast, the next morning I rejoined my tour group, with the addition of two young people who were very much in love. They lived together in France, though she was from America.
Our first visit was to the very impressive Karnak Temple. It is a huge temple complex. When it was constructed it covered 200 acres. (Though Angkor Wat in Cambodia is twice that size.) Being there first thing in the morning before the other tourists arrived contributed to the calm feeling the ancient stones and columns radiated.
Luxor was the original capital of Egypt known as Thebes. Thebes was founded on the primordial ground which rose from the waters of chaos at the beginning of the world. The site of the temple is on the original mound where the creator-god Atum stood to begin the work of creation. Thebes is called as the first City.
Our first visit was to the very impressive Karnak Temple. It is a huge temple complex. When it was constructed it covered 200 acres. (Though Angkor Wat in Cambodia is twice that size.) Being there first thing in the morning before the other tourists arrived contributed to the calm feeling the ancient stones and columns radiated.
Luxor was the original capital of Egypt known as Thebes. Thebes was founded on the primordial ground which rose from the waters of chaos at the beginning of the world. The site of the temple is on the original mound where the creator-god Atum stood to begin the work of creation. Thebes is called as the first City.
Running the gauntlet of Criosphinx, the entrance into Karnak Temple
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The Ram-headed Crisophinx was a representation of The god of Creation, Amun.
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Construction of Karnak temple went on for 2000 years from around 2055 BC. The Egyptians were still building it when the Romans took over about 100AD. The temple was never fully completed so we can still see how the huge walls were constructed. Mud-bricks were used as scaffolding, workers climbed up the mud-brick ladder to place the heavy blocks of stone, building the mud-bricks up as the stone wall got higher and then taking the mud-bricks away when the wall was finished.
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I was amazed that every wall and column and surface in every temple we saw in Egypt was completely covered with hieroglyphics, carvings and paintings. Every aspect of their lives, history and beliefs is depicted in minute detail.
The people who later discovered the temple in the 1800's also carved their names when the temple was covered in sand, and they could reach the top of the megalithic pylons. 
There are 137 Columns, one for each of the Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
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Gigantic statue of Ramses the Great. All his statues are gigantic because he was a God and had to be viewed as a God by the people. His beloved wife Nerertari is standing between his legs
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I was pretty excited to be on another James Bond film location - I think I'm up to about 5 now - Switzerland, Spain, Two in Thailand and now Egypt. This is where he was trying to fight Jaws in the 1977 movie, The Spy Who Loved Me. It is easy to play hide and seek around the columns because I kept disappearing and reappearing, just like in the movie. But there was no sign of Jaws climbing on a collapsing lintel. It's actually really interesting to see how much restoration has taken place since the movie was made.
Saba, our lovely guide, took us into secret chambers where once only the high priests with Pharaoh and the Great Wife went to prepare for the Opet festival to celebrate the link between Pharaoh and the god Amun. The festival lasted 27 days (that's the number of breaths used in certain yogic pranayama practices.) And we went into the shrine room of the sacred gold statues of the God Amun and his wife Mut.
Out the back of the temple is a vast sacred lake where the golden statues were ritually bathed for the festival, then dressed in fine linen, and adorned in gold and silver jewelry. The statues were carried by the priests and joined by Osiris and Isis in their earthly form as Pharaoh and his Queen. They all moved together through the crowded streets. A troop of Nubian soldiers serving as guards beat drums, and musicians accompanied the priests in song as incense filled the air. They made their way to Luxor temple along the avenue of Sphinxes that joined the two temples.
During the festival the people were given over 11000 loaves of bread and more than 385 jars of beer, and could ask questions of the gods.
Saba, our lovely guide, took us into secret chambers where once only the high priests with Pharaoh and the Great Wife went to prepare for the Opet festival to celebrate the link between Pharaoh and the god Amun. The festival lasted 27 days (that's the number of breaths used in certain yogic pranayama practices.) And we went into the shrine room of the sacred gold statues of the God Amun and his wife Mut.
Out the back of the temple is a vast sacred lake where the golden statues were ritually bathed for the festival, then dressed in fine linen, and adorned in gold and silver jewelry. The statues were carried by the priests and joined by Osiris and Isis in their earthly form as Pharaoh and his Queen. They all moved together through the crowded streets. A troop of Nubian soldiers serving as guards beat drums, and musicians accompanied the priests in song as incense filled the air. They made their way to Luxor temple along the avenue of Sphinxes that joined the two temples.
During the festival the people were given over 11000 loaves of bread and more than 385 jars of beer, and could ask questions of the gods.
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The sacred lake
Stars on the roof of the sacred shrine
Amazing the paint is still there after thousands of years
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I went with my friends, the American couple to the sound and light tour that night at the temple. It was pretty spectacular with surround sound describing the history of Egypt while images of the Pharaohs and hieroglyphics moved across the towering stone walls.
Luxor Temple
Napoleon's Egyptian campaign 1798-1801 CE was the first systematic study of the ancient Civilization. Napoleon brought a team of scholars and scientists along with his army who explored, examined, recorded, and studied the monuments of ancient Egyptian culture. The Rosetta Stone in 1799 CE was discovered while building a fort. The treasures found by Napoleon make up the foundation of the exhibition of Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre, Paris.
The Egyptians were so grateful to France for helping them modernize their country and in particular for deciphering the long lost secrets of Hieroglyphic writing using the Rosetta Stone by Jean-Francois Chamollion, Pasha Muhammed Ali gave Paris one of the obelisks from the temple. It took a feat of engineering and 7 years of patience for the gift to arrive in Paris.
https://www.oh-i-see.com/blog/2014/03/20/the-odyssey-of-an-obelisk-luxor-to-place-de-la-concorde/
The Egyptians were so grateful to France for helping them modernize their country and in particular for deciphering the long lost secrets of Hieroglyphic writing using the Rosetta Stone by Jean-Francois Chamollion, Pasha Muhammed Ali gave Paris one of the obelisks from the temple. It took a feat of engineering and 7 years of patience for the gift to arrive in Paris.
https://www.oh-i-see.com/blog/2014/03/20/the-odyssey-of-an-obelisk-luxor-to-place-de-la-concorde/
The avenue of Sphinxes that joins Karnak and Luxor Temples
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The statue of Ramses the Great was really great.
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The temple was full of school groups on excursion. Beautiful girls all smiling and wearing the traditional hijab in so many bright colours to cover their hair. On the way in we had shyly said hello to each other. When they received a warm smile and I waved back we became more bold. After our guided tour I went off to take selfies. We all had fun taking a wonderful photo of them surrounding me.
After that, many came up to ask for selfies with me. I love meeting people on tour. We used a lot of sign language, I am very good at miming. And there are few universal phrases such as 'How are you?' to which is replied 'I am fine. How are you?' and they reply, 'I am fine.' but you have to say it with a particular accent. Their teacher wanted to leave but no one wanted to go. In the end, he took a selfie too, haha.
The other universal phrase is 'What is your name?' Whenever I replied, 'Sarah' everyone fell in love with me at first sight. Saba told me that Sarah is an Egyptian name; Sa means Son and Ra is the sun God so Sarah as a girl's name means daughter of the Sun God Ra. I think that my glowing white skin and flaming red hair ignited a lot of adoration.
My fame continued to spread throughout the tour, it was very strange that every one knew my name and used to call out to me. It had actually started at the Pyramids when the hawkers heard my guide call Sarah and called out to me by name to buy their stuff.
I think I'm Australia's unofficial ambassador to the east. It's in my blood. My ancestors were the first ambassadors from Belgium to Australia.
After that, many came up to ask for selfies with me. I love meeting people on tour. We used a lot of sign language, I am very good at miming. And there are few universal phrases such as 'How are you?' to which is replied 'I am fine. How are you?' and they reply, 'I am fine.' but you have to say it with a particular accent. Their teacher wanted to leave but no one wanted to go. In the end, he took a selfie too, haha.
The other universal phrase is 'What is your name?' Whenever I replied, 'Sarah' everyone fell in love with me at first sight. Saba told me that Sarah is an Egyptian name; Sa means Son and Ra is the sun God so Sarah as a girl's name means daughter of the Sun God Ra. I think that my glowing white skin and flaming red hair ignited a lot of adoration.
My fame continued to spread throughout the tour, it was very strange that every one knew my name and used to call out to me. It had actually started at the Pyramids when the hawkers heard my guide call Sarah and called out to me by name to buy their stuff.
I think I'm Australia's unofficial ambassador to the east. It's in my blood. My ancestors were the first ambassadors from Belgium to Australia.
The girls at Luxor Temple
Our Luxury Cruise Liner, Ramses III
My lovely, light and airy cabin for the cruise
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I pushed the bed up against the wall so I had a day bed to lounge on and more space.
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From there we were taken to board our boat that we would be cruising down the Nile on. After lunch we were allowed to have a few hours break. Then Khaled came to get us for the Sound and Light show at Karnak temple. He was a bit late because his watch was broken and to tell the time he had to move the hands himself. Bahahaha, that's a good sort of watch! We had to drive fast - well sort of drive fast, though it is quite hard to go fast in Luxor as there are many speed bumps - or silent cops as they call them. We had to slow down, bump, speed up; slow down, bump, speed up; repeat. We got there at the right time, so that's OK. After the show Khaled took us to a shop to buy snacks. There is a different price for tourists and locals, and the shop boy held onto my change for a long time, I know he was trying not to give it to me.
Wow what a big day on hardly any sleep and I had to be ready to be picked up at 4 O'clock in the morning. Good night.
Wow what a big day on hardly any sleep and I had to be ready to be picked up at 4 O'clock in the morning. Good night.