Egypt Part The Third 2022 - Karnak and The Sphinx Way

I visited Karnak on my first trip to Egypt in 2017 but like most of the organised trips you do not get a lot of time there so it was nice to go back again for another look, and more importantly I can now get to walk the Sphinx Way from Karnak to Luxor Temple, a distance of about 3km.......

A few photos of Karnak which is not so much a temple in itself but a site containing 4 separate temples, you will recognise Karnak of course from the 1978 film Death On The Nile based on the Agatha Christie novel and starring Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot and many others!

David Suchet also made a TV adaptation which also used Karnak, and this year sees the release of yet another version by Kenneth Branagh which was filmed in Morocco for some strange reason. If it anything like Branagh's version of Murder On The Orient Express I won't be rushing to see it.....

Approaching Karnak by boat from the West Bank there is a bit of an oddity because here we see water being pumped into the Nile instead of out of it... This water is pumped out from the 'springs' inside Karnak, indeed there is a 'sacred lake' within the complex. This is a bit odd because as you can see the river banks are considerably higher than the Nile and so is Karnak itself. The high water table inside Karnak caused a problem when it was being excavated over a 100 years ago as some of the ruins were submerged.

The main entrance to Karnak is guarded by an avenue of Sphinxes, indeed these are of course a load of old Sphinxes. 

As you can see it's quite busy with tourists, mainly Russian....

And if you have run out of Sphinxes then you throw up a couple of obelisks which is exactly what Hapshetsut did when she was in charge about 4,000 years ago..

It is of course a well known fact that the Egyptians invented the clerestory window... And there are some fine examples at Karnak as shown below, the frame up in the air is a clerestory window, you will of course this architectural feature from your exhaustive visits to cathedrals in the UK....

 Stopping only for an obligatory selfie in front of a load of old hieroglyphics, I am heading for the side door as it were, in search of the exit to the Sphinx Way, which as you know is a ceremonial route to Luxor used during the festival of Opet and constructed during the time of Amenhotep III during the 18th Dynasty around 1390 to 1352 BC, that's over 3,000 years ago, the side exit is the Temple Of Khonsu, the God of the Moon. (But then you already knew that didn't you? Would you believe that a lot of Egyptians actually know all this stuff  about the New Kingdom, the Old Kingdom, and all the Dynasties?).

Along the Sphinx Way there are some huge sign boards very nicely giving a bits of history and also the progress of the excavation which was started in 2017 which is the first time I came to Luxor..

One day I will get the hang of putting photos on to a blog but for now you will have to excuse the large gaps here and there, I usually use these to waffle on a bit rather like you do when you are doing a slide show and waiting for the projector to go on to the next slide.....

And there's the Temple of Khonsu, and before me lies the the Sphinx Way...

It has taken a while to excavate it because there was a minor hiccup in that the Coptic (Christian) Church was partially obstructing the route.

There were various proposals for solving this problem, the most popular was to knock the church down. A solution that did not go down very well with the Christian congregation who probably retaliated with the suggestion that the mosque built on top of Luxor Temple should be knocked down...

On the way along there is a conveniently placed coffee shop and also some shady resting points, there are also a couple of features to note such as the Nileometer which the priests in the Temples used to calculate the taxes due from the peasant farmers, the Nile used to run alongside the Sphinx Way but is now much further to the west.

As you can see parts of the route require some maintenance and are a bit uneven but bear in mind this paving is over 3,000 years old whereas pavements in most modern cities are not that old so it seems the problem of maintenance has not improved in all that time.... 

The poor old Nileometer could do with  clean up as well, as could the Roman baths built much later.

Many of the Sphinxes are missing, presumably carried off to be used elsewhere or broken up to be used as something else....

And you might be wondering how they solved the problem of the Coptic Church,

oh yes you are, now admit it... Well you can see how in the photos below...

The one on the left was taken in 2019, the one below is now...

Yep... You got it, they cut off the back end of the church...

Karnak, The Temple of Amun, and Some Notes On The Nile Cruise

Returning from Aswan to Luxor is a leisurely affair. We have picked up passengers making the short trip back to Luxor, including some Australians from Melbourne, indeed it turns out that they live in Waverley, which is spitting distance from where my mother in law lives! This was the evening i decided to go for ''proper drinks'' rather than the unbranded stuff that you are allowed with the inclusive ''drinks package'', when I got the bill I decided I would probably not do that again. Our evening waiter left the cruise after the first five nights because he was going home on holidays, needless to say he left with a hefty tip from us on the English table.

And on the trip back we discovered that our guide has to ''sign off'' our food bill every evening, including the wine. Particularly the wine. I think he was a bit puzzled by the amount of it that we managed to consume, particularly as two of us were not one the ''drinks package''. Perhaps now he has had an insight into how sociable the British can be at the dinner table, and how chatty we get...

I have come to the conclusion that they should not try to do ''Western food'' on these ships, but having said that the breakfast and lunchtime buffets are amazing.

I tend to travel light these days and do a bit of laundry by hand until I found out how cheap the laundry service was on the ship, (I think that perhaps some of them might have laundry facilities?), wonderful service and everything came back ironed, even my socks! Well worth the money! 

There seems to be a competition going on to see which members of the crew can come up with the most amazing animals made out of towels and bed spreads.

On the way back to Luxor you get a chance to drive the ship! Apparently I was not very good at it....

Arriving back in Luxor the last two sites included in the cruise are Karnak and Luxor Temple....

I am giving Luxor Temple a miss because I want to visit the museum instead, and you can see enough temples on one lifetime.

Karnak is impressive, and of course, in ''Death On The Nile'' it is where the dislodged stone narrowly misses killing Lynette Doyle (nee Ridgeway), but seemingly it has other important features! Karnak is the largest temple complex is Egypt, and apparently the largest religious complex in the world. It has been destroyed, and rebuilt, refurbished and rebuilt, modified and rebuilt. Successive rulers have all added their own touches to it, and even when it fell into disuse for worshipping Egyptian gods, it was used by Christians... 



At Karnak you will find obelisks standing up, and obelisks lying down, columns of massive proportions, hieroglyphics in abundance,massive statues, and the first example ever of clerestory windows set high in the ''roof''...



Indeed everything you could want and far more than you can see in one visit, but them you are coming back aren't you??

My decision to go to the museum was a wise one i think, except that when I got there it was closed.



I missed the normal opening hours is the only reason, but never mind the market is close by.... Me and markets, it is worth the visit just to see how much, or how little you can get hassled!!

Our last night on board and under discussion is our onward travel the following morning. One of us was a last minute booking who flew direct from the UK to Luxor and is returning the same way. The two couples came via Cairo, as did I, but the are flying back from Luxor direct to the UK.



 And me? Ever the difficult one, I am taking the train back to Aswan. The guide asks me if I have got a ticket, to which the answer is no, I am going to book it on line tonight. It seems it is better to go to the station, which is no far away, and do it in person.

No sooner said than done he arranges for one of the crew to go to the station and get me a ticket. There are regular trains from Luxor and the go-for calls the guide and says what time do I want to go, late morning would be ideal as the trip takes 3 hours and gets me there for about the right time to check into my hotel....



 But there is a plus in sending somebody Egyptian to get the ticket, because as you have already found out (if you are an independent traveler), there is an Egyptian price and a tourist price for a lot of things including the train! So my train ticket comes out at the Egyptian price.... You just have to hope that nobody notices!!



 The following morning I am packed and ready to go, having made new friend on Facebook, and Whatsapp,
my bags are whisked away, and I am taken shoreside and put into the oldest Peugeot car I have ever seen in my life. I think they only thing that was holding it together was the paint, and that was beginning to go in places. The trip to the station takes all of five minutes, and on arrival I pay the driver, and already my bags and ticket have been whisked away by a man of indeterminate age assisted by a boy who cannot be much more than 10. Inside the station they have already checked my bag through the scanner and are waiting for me on the other side of the barrier, except I don't have my ticket but it doesn't matter because the man on the barrier knows I am with them.

Fully expecting to be left on the platform with my luggage, but no they wait until the train comes and bundle me and luggage on to the train and into a seat in completely the wrong carriage but it seems that doesn't matter either.

And we are off........