Karnak Temple & Luxor Temple

After our lunch on the cruise, we had two more famous temples to visit in Luxor. The first one is Karnak Temple. This place is the most important temple in the history of Egypt. It is astoundingly grand and huge, because many pharaohs added different parts to the temple to make their mark on this place. In this photo you can see the two rows of sphinx leading up to the entrance. This Sphinx Avenue is only recently found to be at least 2 km long, linking this place to Luxor Temple ( to be visited after this place). Excavation work is underway to uncover all of them, despite having to move many modern buildings in its way!

The attraction in Karnak Temple is undoubtedly the Hypostyle Hall, where stood 134 giant pillars representing the papyrus flower. How the ancient Egyptians managed to erect, cut and carve all this marvels the mind. Here, i only managed to capture about 10 of the pillars, so you can imagine the grandiose of 134 of them when you're there.

There are 2.5 obelisks standing within Karnak Temple. This is the other half that got broken and is displayed on lying position.

There is also huge stone scarab of Khepri, built by Amenhotep III. Scarab is a fictional beetle which feeds on human flesh ( for revision, please re-watch The Mummy movies or go to Universal Studios Singapore Egyptian World). It is believed that if you circle this stone scarab, you will be blessed.

Later in the afternoon, we stopped over at Luxor Temple. This obelisk stands at the entrance. It is a 25m-high pink granite obelisk and right beside it is a statue of Ramses II.

Inside, you can witness this double row papyrus-bud columns encircling the court, interspersed with huge standing colossi of Ramses II.

Luxor Temple, in the later part of history, was redesigned into a Roman Church by the Romans. The irony was that, after hundreds of years, the painted mural by the Romans are fading and we can see the old Egyptian carvings seeping through again. Can you spot the Roman painting on this wall fading away?

Just before we leave Luxor, we cannot resist taking one last photo with the most powerful pharaoh in Egyptian history : Ramses II.