CRUISING THE NILE

EGYPT - FEBRUARY 2010


"DEAPARTING LUXOR/THEBES - The ships start moving one after the other and the view of the Luxor Temple accompanies us for a while"


"LEFT BANK, RIGHT BANK, FELUCCA, SHIP & BRIDGE..."


"CONTRASTS - Resort sold in UK, suburbs of Luxor, factory and village"


"PALM TREES"


"GREEN NILE"


"THE DESERT IS SO CLOSE"


"MINARET"


"SHIPS & SHIPS - Overpassing while in the pool..."


"THE BEST - My choice of the best pictures on this section of the cruise"


"À L'ABORDAGE"


"ESNA LOCK SYSTEM"


"BRIDGE LIGHTS"

LUXOR

LUXOR TEMPLE - FEBRUARY 2010


"FROM KARNAK TO LUXOR - The Avenue of the Sphinxes, or Sacred Way, once connected the two miles from Karnak to Luxor Temple"


"FAÇADE - The temple, located on the east bank of the River Nile, was founded in 1400 B.C. Known as "the southern sanctuary", the temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut. The missing obelisk on the right hand side of the entrance can now be seen at Place de La Concorde, Paris"


"ENTRANCE COLONADE - With the giant statues of Ramesses II"


"THE FIRST PATIO - Ramesses II, Ramesses II and some few others... The Pharaoh wears the double crown of High and Low Egypt"


"HYPOSTYLE ROOM AND COLONNADE"


"AMENHOTEP III COURT"


"TEMPLE, CHAPEL, MOSQUE"


"RELIEFS - Including the ithyphallic Amun"


"FIRST PYLON AND OBELISK as seen from the ship"


"VIEWS OVER THE TEMPLE"


"TEMPLE AT NIGHT"


"AT NIGHT, FROM THE RIVER SIDE"

KARNAK

EGYPT - FEBRUARY 2010

BACK TO THE OLD SANDS


"FIRST PYLON OF KARNAK - After an early morning flight from Cairo, we arrived to the Karnak Temple Complex before 8:00 a.m., sunrise time... However, some Japanese tourists were already there; no wonder, with the time difference they were seven hours later... ;) The first pylon started to be built in the fourth century BC, but was never finished"


"ENTERING - Located near Luxor, about 500km south of Cairo, Karnak is the largest ancient religious site in the world. Before entering the site, a large scale model depicts the place as it has probably been and a corridor of ram-headed sphinxes directs the visitor to the first pylon entrance... The figure of Pinedjem I, the High Priest of Amun at Thebes in Ancient Egypt from 1070 BC to 1032 BC (seen at the bottom left), is 10.5 metres tall"


"AVENUE OF SPHINXES"


"TAHARQA COLUMN - Taharqa was a Nubian pharaoh of Egypt of the Twenty-fifth dynasty, reigning from 690 BC to 664 BC"


"TEMPLES - The site consists of four main parts (Precinct of Amun-Re, Precinct of Mut, Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV), of which only the largest, the Precinct of Amun-Re, is currently open to the public. Here we may see some of the smaller temples inside the Precinct of Amun-Re"


"GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL - The roof, now fallen, was supported by 134 columns in 16 rows; the 2 middle rows are higher than the others (10m in circumference and 24m high)"



"GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL - The decoration in raised relief and was mainly made during Seti I's reign; the sunken relief decoration of the southern side of the hall was completed by Ramesses II"


"COLUMNS"


PAINTINGS AND INSCRIPTIONS"


"OBELISKS - Of Thutmose I (21.2 m high and nearly 150 tons) and of Hatshepsut (29m high and 328 tons). Later kings, namely Thutmose III and his son Amenhotep II, made an attempt to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical records and blocked out the view of her obelisk, constructing walls around it"


"OBELISKS - Thutmose I and Hatshepsut. The attempt to eliminate Hatshepsut from records was carried out in the most literal way possible: her cartouches and images were chiselled off some stone walls, leaving very obvious Hatshepsut-shaped gaps in the artwork. Furthermore, Amenhotep II is suspected to having usurped many of Hatshepsut's accomplishments during his own reign"


"SCARAB AND SACRED LAKE - Three turns counter clockwise (CCW) and a wish... unless one is «not superstitious, because it brings bad luck...» ;)"


"TEMPLE OF RAMESSES II"


"GODS, PHARAOHS & OTHERS..."