June 23, 2009

• Road to Jordan: Karnak

  Returning from the Valley of the Kings, Indiana Josh had but one more stop to make in Luxor before leaving the temples for a much deserved break.
  
  Mighty Karnak, largest ancient religious site in the world.
  
  The row of sphinxes leading to the temple. The reason Karnak is so large is because something like 30 different pharaohs added on to the temple during their reigns.
  You see, Ancient Pharaohs tried to build elaborate pyramids, but they got robbed. Then they built elaborate hidden tombs to show their greatness, but they were robbed again. So the only way of keeping up with the joneses (or thoths as the case may be) was to make previous temples even greater during their reign. Ramses II usually won these contests, because he built temples to HIMSELF. That guy was awesome
  
  The sacred lake at karnak. Real holy water! Still no swimming!
  
  The scarab of Amenhotep III. Legend has it if you walk around the scarab 7 times clockwise, you will meet new love, if you are in a relationship and walk 14 times you will soon be engaged/married and if you walk 7 times counterclockwise you will lose the love you had. As soon as I remembered which way clockwise was (curse you digital age!) I increased my chances of finding a lady friend this year…hey, whatever works, right?
  
  A fallen obelisk. Perhaps pointing the way to the Scorpion King? (The Mummy Returns was partially filmed here, pop culture dropouts ;-P)

  
  Because these hieroglyphics were hidden from the light of the sun, they still retain most of their original colors…pretty neat, eh?
  
  Intrepid and only slightly narcissistic adventurer Indiana Josh taking more photos of himself.
  
  Another Stargate entrance!!!
  
  Hypostle Hall with over 122 columns all standing over 10 meters tall…these created enough shade for the common people who gathered in this open air temple to worship Amenra
  
  In the ancient days, the tops of these obelisks would be coated with gold so as the rising or setting sun hit them, they would reflect a glorious light, calling everyone who saw it for prayer. Pretty darn effective

  But alas, all good things must come to an end. Ancient Egypt was to be left behind, along with roughly half of our original tour group, whose journey had come full circle. The remainder of us (roughly 16) would be continuing on to a slightly more modern egypt, sans the best tour guide EVAR, Sam
  
  Whom, although he will never read this, I would like to thank for helping to make learning fun!

  So for those of you who were all templed out, let’s hit the beach and then do some mountain climbing!

  • 12:06 am
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