Monday, April 30, 2007

Day 9 Part I: Last Day at Luxor (Karnak and Luxor Temple)


Waking up early yet again to avoid the super hot weather at Luxor, we find ourselves at the Temple of Karnak at 7:30am. This temple is by far the largest in terms of area, and has lots of stuff to see. There're obelisks, shrines, statues, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The avenue of the Sphinxes was pretty cool as well. Supposedly there're 3 avenues, the major one being the 2km long path connecting Karnak temple to Luxor temple.

After Karnak temple, we proceeded to Luxor temple which was built for Ramses II. The thing that stood out about this temple was:
1) There used to be 2 obelisks in front of the temple, but now there's only one because hundreds of years ago, some Egyptian president gave France one of them as a gift!...wtf??? You hack a piece of rock (full of history and is a part of a temple), and ship it away... What was that guy thinking?

2) The Romans, when they took over Egypt, used Luxor temple as its own! How? Well, they just painted right over it! Talk about laziness!

I also learned a bit about how the historians restore these monuments and for 1 EGP, I was part of the action! Now I can say that I helped restore the Luxor temple to its previous glory! wuhahah!


After Karnak and Luxor temple, we headed back to the hotel after realizing that half the stores close on Sunday afternoon. That ends the morning of Day 9.

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