7. Luxor

Wake up call was at 5:30 am, so we went to sleep right after we ate & showered. I'm trying to stay up a little later tonight. I sat in between Ferrell Jr & Osman, our guide, on the flight.

Our Ship Has Arrived
Luxor, the capital of the New Kingdom (3rd period), is a picturesque city and Osman's hometown. Luxor means "On of the South" or "the city of the Sun." It was the pillar or foundation of knowledge. In ancient times it was called Thebes. Luxor is where the Pharoahs built their palaces.

Our boat is docked beside the Temple of Luxor. We were in our rooms by noon and ate lunch at 12:30. We left the ship at 2:00 pm for Karnak. We flashed our ship cards in order to be allowed to pass through the other anchored ships.

UNESCO has said they can't build a bridge across the Nile from Luxor. I guess its a preservation method in order to control the numbers of tourists heading to the Valley of the Kings. Tomorrow, we'll use motorboats to cross the Nile and meet our buses on the West bank.

The cruise ships anchor side by side. Our cruise ship was the Tu Ya.

Temple Architecture
We will see two temples today. Temples are built in five sections from the inside outward.
1. Sanctuary or Holy of Holies. The only furniture is a footstool, or pedestal, for the ark that was used to carry the statue. The statue of the god was kept inside of this room. It was dark.
2. Vestibule. This room was used to clean the statue.
3. Hypostyle. In Karnak, some light streams through clerestory windows. Half lit, half dark.
4. Open Court or Court of the Commoners. This area was fully lit.
5. Pylon. The front gate. Pylons represent the horizon with the sun rising between two mountains.

Hieroglyph for pylon, which represents two mountains with the sun rising between them.

Karnak

It took 2,000 years (!) to construct Karnak (an Arabic word for camel). Originally an avenue of sphinxes connected the temples of Karnak and Luxor. They are gradually unearthing the sphinxes which have been covered by sand and homes (as I'm typing this there is a tambourine & Egyptian music playing in the lounge). Karnak is built in the shape of a "T."

We are standing near an ancient dock along the Nile canal. The statue would be placed in the ark. Six priests carried the ark on their shoulders all the way to temple at Luxor, which was the temple of life.

Ramses II built the Avenue of Rams. His queen was Nefertari. There were 336 women in the palace. He was Egypt's Casanova. He died early at 54. At the Colossi of Memnon  he made 61 closed papyri capitals. Ramses III erased his father's name and had his named carved over it. He made his carvings so deep that no one else would do the same.

1. Avenue of Rams with horns pointed down. I'll have to make a count from my photos when I return. Each ram is holding an image of Ramses the Great as Osiris between his hooves. Ramses the Great was the one who ordered the construction.

2. 1st Pylon - The facade with 8 indentures for the multi-storied flags (red, white, black and blue) which was bisected by the entry avenue. If the flags were hanging, it was time for worship.There are 10 gates at Karnak. Six of these gates are aligned on a single axis.

Avenue of the Rams in front of the first Pylon where the worship flags were hung.

The ram protects Pharoah.

3. Open Court / Court of Commoners. Everyone was allowed to enter this area. There is a triad building (a door for Amen, another for Muot ["lady of heaven"], and one for their son Konsu) to the left. On the back side of the pylon is an example of a mud ramp.

Egyptian architects used several types of ramps in construction. This one is mud.

These mud bricks were made without straw.

The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ ~ Exodus 5:6-8

Also in this courtyard are colossal statues of Pharoah One wears the crown of lower Egypt (bowl shaped with protruding wire) while the other wears the Hedjet crown (resembles a bishop's mitre) of upper Egypt). The crown of Lower Egypt would have been painted red and the crown of upper Egypt would have been painted white. You can see sanctuary at the end of the "avenue."

Two colossi with the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt

We saw Queen Hatshepsut's obelisk, or needle, is taller than her father's. It took seven months to hew her monolith out of the quarry. Usually obelisks were erected in pairs with one being taller than the other.

Queen Hatshepsut's obelisk is the second tallest in the world. The tallest one is in Rome.

Osman reads the hieroglyphs.

The middle cartouche spells out the word Galilee.

4. Hypostyle. Pillared, covered area. Half light, half dark. The number of columns represent the number of priests who serve in that temple. Saw some paintings on the remaining roof and some remnants on some pillars. Some are closed lotus columns while the center columns are taller and have opened lotus patterns.

Paint still clings to the rafters.

5. Vestibule. for cleaning/washing the statue of the god

6. Sanctuary. This smallest of the rooms houses the statue of the god. We went into the sanctuary Alexander the Great built for himself. He's depicted himself as Pharoah making offerings to Amen.

In these temples the person moves from light (courtyard) to darkness (sanctuary), from the known to the mystery of the unknown, which is the antithesis of Christianity.

7. Scarab statue. Legend has it that if you walk around it counterclockwise three times and you'll be rich. If you walk around it five times and you will marry. If you walk around it 7 times and you'll become pregnant. Sara did a virtual geo-cache at this location.

The (in)famous scarab

Ramses, Noemie, me and Sarah.

When the sun began setting around 5:00pm, it was time for us to leave. However, Wally & I walked around the perimeter of the Court of Commoners to get one last view...

Osman was right. This should have been the 8th Wonder of the World.

Temple of Luxor (ancient Thebes)

Sure enough. The avenue of sphinxes terminated just in front of Luxor's obelisk. The avenue of sphinxes was a ceremonial procession route that stretched 1.5 miles between Karnak and Luxor. The entire avenue is undergoing excavation.

I successfully completed my first virtual geo-cache with Sarah at the entrance of this temple. It was intriguing exploring this site at dusk and into night. Venus was particularly bright.

The name Moses means "son (taken out) of water" (Bird = sa, or son of; Mu = Nile Water)

It is likely that this building is where Moses went to school as a prince of Egypt. The temples, always on the east side of the Nile, were both school houses and hospitals. The funerary buildings, always on the west side of the Nile, also served as storehouses for grains and food.

At dusk, lights beautifully illuminated the first pylon of the Temple of Luxor.

Ramses II

The bright spec in the inky sky is Venus.

Tomorrow the Valley of the Kings and then we will begin floating up (southward) the river. Around tea time we'll get to go through a lock (a first for me!).