Awe-struck in Luxor

Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Pompeii, Chichen Itza, the Pyramids at Giza. These are historical monuments that have impressed me like no other. Now, we must add another name to this list, Karnak Temple, which most people, I would assume, may never have heard of.

So, what’s so special about this place? For one, it is immense. One can only imagine its original opulence and magnificence. I shall not bore you with details, but my Lonely Planet Egypt guide says: “…no writing and no art can convey more than a dwarfed and pallid impression. The scale is too vast; the effect too tremendous; the sense of one’s own dumbness, and littleness, and incapacity, too complete and crushing”.

When I looked at the many photos I took, the first thing I thought was that whoever will see them will never imagine the place as it really is; simply incredible. Immense decorated columns and gigantic statues are just a small part of the whole Karnak experience. This sequence of temples of worship has been built over a span of thousands of years, beginning some 3,000 years before the birth of Christ. You look at what they were able to create and try to imagine it as it was before wars, earthquakes, thefts, vandalism and weather, each took their part, and you can only be dumbfounded and awestruck.

One of the many courtyards of Karnak

A tomb

Avenue of the ram-headed sphinxes

There are hundreds of similar rooms of worship

Yet another group of sphinxes. In its splendor, these statues and hundreds more lined a three-mile pathway to the temple

Hypostyle Hall

The Amun Temple

Dwarfed by the statues

Luckily we hired a local guide, Moonah, to help us make sense of it all.

After a delicious lunch at a well-known local eatery, we strolled leisurely through the lively streets of town, its markets, and its riverfront.

Took this picture from the second floor of the lunch restaurant. Donkey-driven carts can be seen all over Egypt. They are quite commonplace and picturesque.

Butchery at the market

An alleyway

The Luxor Temple in the center of town

Luxor Temple Square

Naturally, we were approached by several persistent individuals trying to make a buck, peddling their wares, wanting to give you cab or horse-and-buggy rides or offering to show you around town, but we have serenely learned to deal with it by now. Most of them are actually super nice and kind, and the annoyance has become minor at best.

We returned to the Jolie Ville by sunset, and we enjoyed another delightful dinner of fresh Red Sea fish at the same restaurant on the riverfront where we had barbecue last night, sharing some of our meal with a friendly red kitty.

A view from the hotel grounds

Enjoying this photographic moment.

Where will we take you tomorrow? Somewhere other than Luxor, where our stay will end, and we can’t wait until the next post to share it with you. Buona Notte.