Making Wishes at Karnak

8/3/11

Time to drive to Karnak and Luxor. On our drive we passed the Winter Palace, but I couldn’t get a picture of it. We also passed Luxor and the Avenue of the Sphinxes. We got off the bus and walked past a row of shops. On the walk to the temple we asked Sherif about his personal life.

Once we got to the entrance to the Temple of Karnak. Sherif showed us the canal that used to bring the materials to build the temple. He also showed us some pottery that they are currently excavating. We approached Karnak using the Avenue of the Ram Headed Sphinxes. Then we entered the Great Court. The walls were huge and here were pieces of statues and other things arranged on the sides.

Then we went to the right into the Temple of Ramesses III. It was filled with statues of him. All if them had their arms crossed like Osiris. After that we discussed the statue at the entrance of the Great Hypostyle Hall. It’s of Ramesses II and his daughter is at his feet. Sherif was telling us that two people are represented on it. The other person is the high priest Pinedjem. He put his name on the belt of the statue.

Photo belongs to Paul

The Great Hypostyle Hall is filled with enormous columns. Many of them bear the name Ramesses or Seti. The cartouches were huge!! We examined some of the scenes on the wall. Sherif pointed out a woman on the wall who was tall and thin. He thought she looked like me.

Next we saw Hatshepsut’s Obelisk. This is the one Tuthmosis surrounded with a wall. We saw another obelisk and then passed a statue of King Tut. We then saw the Temple of the Middle Kingdom and the Granite Chapel. After that we went to the Temple of Amun. Hatshepsut built this section. Her image and cartouche were chiseled out by Tuthmosis. It was cool to see because I had heard about it for many years and now I got to see it. He went through such effort to erase her.

Next was the Great Festival Temple. It was dark, but you could make out the colors on the pillars, especially the color blue. The tops of the tent shaped pillars used to be blue and white. Sherif pointed out some if the Christian images painted on the pillars. At that point my cell went off. It was my mom telling me my bag should have arrived. I told her did, but I didn’t have to open it. I promised I would text her later when I opened it.

We walked to the area near the sacred lake where Khepri’s statue is there. You are supposed to walk around it 7 times and make a wish each time. I made the same wish 7 times. We then rested and drank water. The 116 degree heat and sun was getting to us. I was soaked and exhausted. We walked back to the entrance and passed a lot of random pieces of broken obelisks, walls, statues, etc.

We went to the bathroom where we had to pay to use it. Two guys stood right by the open door. It was strange. No privacy. We boarded the bus and downed our water. Then Nicole decided to use the bathroom, but she got freaked out by the Arab guys standing outside.

We were off to Luxor.