March 16 - last day in Luxor. This city is fascinating and if I ever came to Egypt again I would come to Luxor and spend a lot of time.
Karnak temple is the largest temple in Egypt at 65 acres. It was built by the pharaophs to honor the sun god, Amon Ra. The temples are erected from the back to the front so the back of Karnak temple is 4000 years old and the front is 2000 years old. Ramses II erected most of the temple. He was Ramses the Great and he had 40 wives and 170 children.
The entrance to Karnak is lined with Sphinx.
The Hypostyle hall has 134 beautifully engraved pillars.
There were 8 Obelisks but only 2 are still standing. This one from Queen Hatshepsut is 366 tons and 30 meters high made of one solid stone.
The temple flooded each year from the Nile until the Aswan dam was built. I am pointing to the water line.
The walls were very high and in order to put the blocks on the top they built dirt ramps leading up the wall (in the right side of the below picture).
Surviving column of the pavilion of Taharka in back of Karnak -
Next stop was the Luxor museum.
This was not a very big museum but the pieces were very nice.
God Sebek,
My favorite, Aken Aton -
Ellen with Hathor.
The last temple we saw was Luxor temple which is dedicated to Amon Ra's wife, Mut. It was built by two rulers - Ramses II (1290 - 1224 BC) and Amenhotep III ( 1391 - 1353 BC).
There was a mosque and a Christian church built on the premises at one time.
Pictures of Christians -
The temple has three parts - a temple for Ramses II, a hall connecting the two, and a temple for Amenhotep III.
Statute of Ramses II -
Between Karnak and Luxor is the avenue of the sphinx.
We were surrounded by kids at each of the sites we went to. They all wanted a picture of themselves with us. They get very few female tourists. It got to be annoying. Here is Lynn having a hard time getting away from some young boys.
We had to say goodbye to our wonderful guides and fly back to Cairo. Ayman, Akman, and driver.
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