Egypt Day 1: Karnak, Luxor Museum, Luxor

When the plane touched down in Cairo on Sunday afternoon, I felt a bit like I had just landed on the Star Wars planet Tatooine. From the plane windows, just beyond the runway, in every direction stretched sand. At Cairo, we caught another plane to Luxor so we could meet up with our cruise boat on the Nile. When we got to the boat, we had to walk through several other boats which were parked alongside the shore before we reached ours. We were so relieved when we got to ours because all the previous boats were in varying degrees of disrepair, not to mention the strange men reclining on futon mattresses watching Gladiator in Arabic. Our boat was absolutely beautiful--like a swank hotel on the water.

Taken from the top deck after breakfast

After breakfast on Monday, Willah (my roommate for the trip) and I discovered the first of the supremely entertaining towel creatures left by the guys who cleaned the rooms.

At first, I think everybody thought they were swans, but Ahmed, who cleaned the rooms on our hallway, told us they were cobras.

Our first site of the trip was the temple complex at Karnak. I was immediately astounded at how tall the walls were and how much of the buildings remain.

The entryway lined with rams' head sphinxes

I was also amazed at how practically every surface is covered in relief scuplture and hieroglyphs. I wish I'd attend more Egypt Club meetings before leaving so I could have read more of the hieroglyphs!

Some Egypt Club members reading a hieroglyphic inscription

Massive column

One of my favorite hieroglyphs

In one of the buildings of the temple complex, there was a very dark room into which poured a shaft of light because a block was missing from the ceiling. It was very Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

A woman who works on temple conservation happened to be at work as we passed by and happily gave us a talk about her work at Karnak, preserving painted parts of the temple.

We walked through the Hypostyle Hall and I almost couldn't believe how big the columns were which were also covered in sculpture and hieroglyphs.

We found a place to sit down where Joe could give his report on divine presence in cult statues and other images. 

Then we moved to a place where we could see the obelisk of Hatshepsut and listen to Rosalia's report on obelisks.

In front of the giant scarab beetle sculpture, I gave my report on the scarab beetle as symbol.

Afterward we wandered through the site back toward the bus so we could have lunch on the boat.

Some goofball

After lunch we went to the fabulous Luxor museum where, unfortunately, pictures are strictly forbidden. Some of the highlights included painted sarcophogi, two mummies, and a beautiful alabaster statue with the crocodile headed god Sobek standing next to a human figure. After some bargaining adventures in the gift shop, we headed on to the site of Luxor.

Egyptian exclamation point!

Inside the temple complex is a functioning mosque from which little boys waved at us and yelled "hello!!"

Inside the temple of Amun is an area which early Christians used. They put plaster over the walls and painted them, preventing the hieroglyphs beneath from being damaged. In his report on the post-classical uses of the temple of Amun, Glenn talked about the paintings.

The entryway at Luxor was also lined with sphinxes, but here they are human headed.

By the time we headed out of the temple complex, it was starting to get dark and we could hear the Muslim call to prayer being broadcast on a PA system. The call to prayer and the lights enhanced the mystic ambiance of the place.

Finally, we sat outside the temple to hear Samantha's report on the spatial siting of temples in Thebes before we headed back to the boat for dinner.