After a late night, Jari woke up before the kids and went on a fun excursion with some of the members of our group to watch the sunrise over the Nile in a hot air balloon.
Because she was with the second group of people to go she missed the sunrise but still had some great views
I sent her with my camera but they asked for more money if she wanted to use it because they had their own photographer who wanted to charge you a bunch of money for the photos. Big shocker there LOL.
So unfortunately we will need to simply imagine what it looks like or online images.
For the rest of us, our day began at the Temple of Karnak
Arguably the largest of the temple complexes it is hard to describe the scale of the temple.
This site is connected to Luxor via a kilometer-long road (recently discovered) which was once lined with hundreds of dromos sphinx with Ram's heads, as the high god Amun-Re.
The kids spent a lot of time in the dirt at the end of our trip as they were not really interested in stories anymore.
Here you can still see some of the clay bricks used to build ramps which allowed them to pull stones higher and higher. These walls are pylons.
The columns here also represent the river papyrus reeds and were very large
Here is our group learning about how the area we were standing overlays a large group of statues that were discovered buried in an underground portion of the temple. Why they were buried - no one knows.
This huge obelisk came all the way from Aswan where we started our river tour. It is made of granite and is amazingly beautiful. It was built by our famous Egyptian queen and when her jealous stepson finally came to power 20 years later he tore down and damaged many of the things she built in the temple other than this. He reportedly looked at it and decided it was too majestic to damage. But, because her name was written at the top of the obelisk (suggesting she was ruler overall), he decided to encase it with limestone so that no one could see it.
This god, known as Khepri Khepri is in the form of a beetle. He is considered lucky and it is said that if you walk around him 7 times your wish will come true. the 3 oldest kids and I took our 7 laps.
This small lake was one of the most important sites in ancient Egypt. There is no known source of water to this lake. Scientists have tried to trace where the water comes from but they cannot seem to find it. The water is considered sacred and was required for the cleansing rituals required when one was made Pharaoh. So it was vital that if you wanted to be Pharaoh you controlled this land.
Charlotte was a bit sick so she hung back in the shade in this sub-temple.
Over the years, the Christians also used these temples as you can see on the columns
Here you can see a zoomed-in depiction of a saint that was painted over the top of the Egyptian decor
The ram's head sphinx was a merger of 2 versions of the most powerful and originator of the God of the Nothern Kingdom and that of South. When the kingdoms came together, to show that the King was protected and chosen by God, they fashioned this newer image to show that this was the most powerful God
Next stop, Luxor
Here I am hanging with a member of our trip, a 90-year-old Navy Vet who was slow but funny.
Favorite pictures of Camille
Charlotte was not doing so well so she napped on my lap while the other kids played and Jari went through the temple. These capitals of the columns are papyrus buds.
The back of the Luxor temple was converted to a Christian chapel a long time ago and depictions of Christ and saints are found in the back
Here is a piece of the road that leads from Luxor to Karnak. The road is not yet completely excavated
The entrance is flanked by pylon - the large splayed walls on each side,. and enormous seated statues of Rameses II on each side, each one flanked by an obelisk. However, one was given to Napoleon by the Ottoman King in return for a great mechanical clock installed at the Cairo Citadel. The missing obelisk is known as the Luxor Obelisk and is a famous monument at the Place de Concord in Paris, France.
This nice gal works at this temple ensuring restoration and preservation. She was smitten with our kids and I could tell she wanted to get a picture which eventually happened. She was very nice.
After 5 days of site seeing the kids were all over the movement and I don't blame them. This photo is a reminder of how unimpressed a child can be with these ancient treasures and how little they can mean in the grand scheme of things. Travel is not needed for happiness, just some dirt, and downtime :)
But I am not a child so I really enjoyed seeing these wondrous archaeological treasures. While the whole trip was rapid-paced and very commercialized, it was very fun.
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