We visited seven large Egyptian sites: Karnak temple, Luxor temple, Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatshepsut's Palace, Edfu temple, Kom Ombo temple and Philae. Additionally, we visited the huge dam built by Nasser in the 1970s to control the flow of the water, prevent floodings and generate electricity (it also created the largest artificial lake in the world, Lake Nasser); and sailed on a felucca around the Nile.
Our first stop was Karnak temple, the largest temple ever built: two square kilometers, an area large enough to fit 10 cathedrals. Constructed in a "muddling through" fashion primarily during the reigns of Seti I and Rameses II between 1570 and 1090 BC, and dedicated to the god Amun, the temple had at one time 81,000 people working in or for the temple, owned 421,000 head of cattle, 65 cities, 83 ships and 69,100 acres of agricultural land. These figures show the power of the priests working at the temple.
In fact, during our visit I was also reading Naguib Mahfouz's "Akhenaten". Akhenaten was also known as the heretic pharaoh for challenging the Egyptian belief of multiple gods - he believed in only one god - and for attacking the priests of Amun, who inhabited the Luxor temples (Luxor, then known as Thebes, was the city of the god Amun, as well as the Egyptian capital). The book was interesting for many reasons, but one that especially piqued my curiosity involves the political economy of the time. The priests were the landed elite of the time, and when Akhenaten challenged their economic power - not only did he declare his love for one god (not Amun), but he also took all the priest's property - the conservative priests organized a rebellion (aided by Akhenaten's incompetent handling of the empire's affairs) and literally brought him down through a coup. To replace him, they chose the famous Tut.
But returning to the temple, it was my favorite site of the entire cruise trip. Massive, meticulously carved inscriptions, 30 meter high columns, imposing statues, and even colored decorations left me awe-struck. It was so impressive, that we even defied the 3 p.m. 90 degree weather to stay there for over two hours.
The temple is built on 2 axes, and has three large pylons. It also has a court with over 30 columns. It was once covered, but over thousands of years, the ceiling collapsed. The main entrance to the temple is also worth mentioning: the walkway is lined on each side by about a dozen ram-headed sphinxes, a symbol of fertility.
From Karnak, we immediately drove to Luxor temple (built primarilty in the 1200s and 1300s BC). It was another demonstration of the wealth and power of the Egyptians in general, and of the priests and pharaohs in particular. In addition to the usual dose of unbelievable artwork and engineering prowess, the temple was interesting because two othe religions built places of worship there. First, the Christians knowingly built a church in the main area of the temple (where you found depictions of Alexander the Great), covering up the Egyptian inscribed walls with paint-covered plaster. Much later, once the temple was covered with sand, the Muslims built a gorgeous mosque atop the ruins.
I could go on describing the two temples, but for the sake of time I'll move on to the next site we visited: the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is the gravesite of several of the Egyptian pharaohs from the 30 dynasties coming before Alexander the Great's arrival in Egypt in 332 BC. The ticket allowed us entry to only three of the tombs, so we had to choose carefully. We picked Rameses IV, Rameses IX and Tuthmosis III (grandfather of the heretic, Akhenaten). Tuthmosis' is the oldest and deepest. We climbed up several steps over a cliff and then down, into the mountain, to get to his tomb (Egyptians were well aware of tomb robbers, and tried to make it difficult to enter the pharaoh's tombs). Not fit for claustrophobics, the tomb did have some fantastic decorations - albeit, primitive-looking - on the walls, as well as star-covered ceilings. It was probably the least ostentatious of the three. Rameses IX's had some amazing colored carvings on the walls, depicting gods and cartouches with the pharaoh's name. It had a large antechamber followed by a corridor leading to the burial chamber. Everything was decorated in bright colors. Finally, Rameses II's tomb also started with a downard sloping tunnel toward a beautifully decorated antechamber. After the antechamber came the main burial chamber. The sarchophagus, but not the mummy, was still there. Unfortunately, we could take no pics.
From the Valley of the Kings we drove to Queen Hatshepsut's palace. I believe this was Kimmie's favorite site. The palace is special because it's built into the mountain. It's a three story building with porico-like facades. Massive columns and super-human sized, finely carved statues adorn the temple. It was built by Queen Hatshepsut, one of the few women to rule as pharaoh. To rule, she had to dress like a man - why would a god-like pharaoh be a woman?!
What's interesting is that the pharaoh who succeeded her - I can't remember his name - had everything she built covered or destroyed. Archaelogists only found out this temple was built by her because of one small reference to her which her successor's men missed.
I'll continue with the next two days of the cruise in my next blog entry...
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