Grand Tour of Egypt: Karnak Temple, Luxor

Next morning the others were able to have their hot air balloon flight and had a fantastic experience and a very soft landing. We took things easy for once and at 10 am we were all setting of in horse-drawn carriages to the Karnak Temple. Our hotel was in a one-way street but our driver, the first in the line, steered his horse into a U-turn and set off at a fine pace, disregarding the rules. I was not aware of what was happening (a fairly regular situation) and we happily enjoyed trotting along in the sunshine. When we arrived at Karnak Temple the last horse and carriage took about ten minutes to appear. Ed said that it was because they had had a ‘flat horse’ but really it was because one policeman had turned a blind eye to all the carriages going the wrong way in a one-way street and another policeman had come along and torn strips off him. The result was a long hold up while they argued and finally a longer route for Ed’s carriage since the second policeman held sway.
Karnak temple is simply immense and was built over different eras by various people. On part of the walls the decoration shows events outlined in the bible in Kings 1. There were enormous ‘pylons’ (each consisting of two gently sloping parallel walls) which originally supported roofs, lots of examples of colour, and columns that could have 100 people standing around their capitals. The heights of the columns showed that there were originally two levels of the roof, providing natural air conditioning.

There were obelisks and plenty of evidence of defacing anything to do with Hatshepsut by Tuthmosis III. In one courtyard there is a large sculpture of a scarab beetle, which was a symbol of good fortune for the ancient Egyptians. People were walking around it and we were told that people make a wish and walk around the beetle seven times, chanting the wish in their heads to ensure that it will come true. Mamdoh said that this is the invention of tour guides. I did it but lost count so if my wish doesn’t come true it will all be my own fault.

The purification lake is about 40 metres by 150 metres and was teeming with fish. Stripy stone-coloured lizards played in the sunshine on the rocks. It was an incredibly interesting site but we were feeling a little lethargic and took our time strolling around slowly and really looking carefully at the bits we saw.
After a visit to a jeweller’s, where we saw the craftsmen at work and some members of our tour made purchases, we enjoyed lunch at a Koshary restaurant. Koshary is made with two kinds of pasta, lentils, fried onions and a tomato sauce and is delicious. Later Keith and Julie and I went to find a book shop and then strolled through a market, trying to buy a blank CD and some socks. Somehow my four pairs had reduced themselves to two and the pressure to wash and dry them every day was too much. We were hit by a carriage pushing its way through the crowded market and although I was knocked off balance, no real damage was done since I fell into a sock display. This close encounter with the socks enabled me to make a selection but when I haggled over the price to bring it down to about $5 Australian a pair – way above real Egyptian value – the owner said that I had broken his heart and carried on dramatically. Not so dramatically that he allowed us to walk off without a sale being made. We were offered many ‘black’ cds and eventually we successfully completed our shopping list. Keith was complimented on being a lucky man having two wives! Unfortunately as we were walking back to the hotel we realised that we had forgotten to go to the museum, but by then it was too late. It is amazing how long everything takes – we were still eating lunch at 3.30, finding the book shop took ages, deciding not to buy a book was another half hour and agreeing to a price for the socks took about five minutes, etc etc. After a meal in the hotel it was an early night (after some blog typing – a chore sometimes because there is no time to do it and even worse because I am always way behind.)