The Kulas: Built to the Scale of the Gods

Karnak Temple in Luxor is the largest ancient religious site in the world. As we wandered through the massive temple, we marveled at the towering columns and felt that it must be true what they say: that Karnak was built not to the scale of men but to the scale of the gods.

Bud and Ashley, dwarfed among the massive pillars, explore the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun Re. This hall features 134 columns arranged in 16 rows. The columns are 10 meters tall, except for those in the center rows which reach a height of 21 meters and a diameter of 3 meters!

Karnak was first started by Pharaoh Ramses II around 1390 BC, and it was continually added to by some 30 pharaohs up until the Ptolemaic Dynasty, about 300 BC or even later. This long span explains why Karnak has such a diversity of structures and deities worshiped.

The guard gives an idea of how big these statues are.

Josh and the obelisk.

Karnak's famous Corridor of Ram-Headed Sphinxes actually leads to the other temple in Luxor, Luxor Temple, right in the middle of the city a few kilometers away. The corridor was eventually buried by the modern city of Luxor which was built on top. Now, the government is in the process of removing the buildings to reveal and restore the sphinxes underneath.

Josh behind the sphinxes.

Hieroglyphic boxers??

Ah, beautiful pillars.

Stunning statues.

Amazing architecture.

Josh and Bud in front.

Our first visit to Karnak was actually at night, when we attended the touristy "light and sound" show. Though on the cheesy side, it was actually really fun to see a temple in darkness. It felt much more mysterious, thus far closer to how one might expect the original ambiance of the temple to feel - infused with ritual and religion. Our tour group passed through various chambers of the temple while viewing images of the gods projected on the temple walls and listening to the history. We walked all the way through the temple and out to the sacred lake, accompanied by sound effects of hammering and chiseling, as if ancient workers were hard at work expanding the site.

Most temple precincts had sacred lakes, but as expected, Karnak has the largest that we know of. The rectangular lake, dug by Tuthmosis III, was probably used for ritual purifications and other temple needs. The lake is surrounded by stones with stairways descending into the water. Surrounding the lake are housing areas for the priests. The lake was also home to the sacred geese of Amun.

Karnak was beautiful at night. But, due to the difficulty of getting good photos, Josh, Bud, and Ashley returned in the heat of the day later on to "burn up some film."

It was great having Bud and Ashley with us as we saw such amazing sites; we only regretted that they couldn't have stayed longer. As it was, we felt so busy with traveling and seeing sites that we barely had enough time to just hang out. On top of that, Sebastian got hurt and required us to rearrange some of our travel plans. Way back in Cairo, Sebastian had fallen out of his stroller onto the hard museum floor, which resulted in the left side of his face swelling up the following night. We dedicated the better part of a day tracking down a doctor and a dentist that was open during Ramadan, and we were reassured that anti-inflammatory medicine and precautionary antibiotics would be all that Sebby needed. However, while in Luxor, Sebby's swelling had become concentrated in just two areas that were turning yellow, and as reluctant as we were to test the Egyptian health care system any further, we knew we had to take him back to the doctor. We didn't expect to be told that Sebby would need to have his abscesses surgically drained under general anesthesia. If you're hoping that it sounds worse that it was, unfortunately it was at least as bad as it sounds. Though the facilities could have been better, our surgeon was wonderful and the Luxor International Hospital was amazingly affordable. Sebby came back from his surgery already awake, and after a nap on my chest, he was as rambunctious as ever, chasing balloons and gurgling like his usual happy self. Thank goodness!

In the end, it worked out so nicely having Bud and Ashley around so that we could take turns seeing the sites. This saved the kids from being out too much in the heat and it gave Sebby lots of down time to stay in the hotel and recover. Because we did less in Luxor than we had planned on, Josh and I decided to stay a few more days there, and we said goodbye to Bud and Ashley before putting them on a flight back to Cairo to catch their plane to America.

Even with all the unplanned stress, we did still manage to have a bit of time to relax and have fun in Luxor:

We found this great restaurant called "King Dude's" with cute, colorful hieroglyphics carved on the walls. The truly amazing part about this restaurant was that it served both pork products and alcohol (to foreigners only). Since the south is far more touristy than Cairo, it was actually easier to find restaurants that were open in Luxor. We enjoyed King Dude's hospitality more than once, particularly their bacon, ham-and-pineapple pizza, and mixed drinks. Unlike in Saudi Arabia, pork and alcohol are perfectly legal in Egypt -- just rare.

Misha at King Dude's.

After a night and a day in the hospital, Sebby and I were welcomed back "home" to our hotel. Sebby was back to eating and drinking with gusto, chasing Misha all over the hotel, and ripping off his bandages left and right. Good grief!