Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple was part of the ancient city of Thebes, which was the capital of the unified ancient Egypt beginning around 1300 BC (18th Dynasty). It’s the largest ancient religious site in the world – many sections are closed to the public. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings over many centuries, and include the worship of many different deities in the timeline of Egypt’s ancient history, up to the Christian era.

This avenue of hundreds of sphinxes connected the temples of Karnak and Luxor, and was only discovered recently during excavation for building construction in the present city.  Much of the mile-long avenue is still buried.

One end of the sphinx avenue ends at the entrance to Karnak Temple.

One of the friendly-looking animals protecting a Pharaoh or God.

A wider view of the main entrance.

A few columns inside this enormous site.

One of the courtyards.

A large temple at the far end of the complex.

Hatshepsut had this obelisk constructed, now the tallest surviving ancient obelisk. It can be seen on the right in the photo above this one.

The Hypostyle Hall is famous -134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows, covered with carvings.

These hieroglyphs painted on the underside of the stones over the columns are still colorful after thousands of years.

Alexandria to Cairo to Luxor

The elegant Victorian Alexandria train station.

Inside the station. The cars are old and worn, and the ride was rough and bumpy - impossible to knit or read.

Women arriving from the country to sell produce and items at the market.

Houses along the way - with the inevitable laundry.

The train took us through the irrigated terrain, with lots of small produce plots, and housing in the background.

The end of this trip - the Cairo train station.

And the start of the next trip - Cairo airport. Next stop: Luxor.

From the aircraft window - the Nile, with irrigated land on either side, and an abrupt shift to desert.

The elegant Luxor airport.

And our modern Luxor hotel - this is one of the lobbies.

The walkway to the dining room where we had a huge buffet breakfast.

The view from our hotel room window.

More Alexandria

A small part of Alexandria's harbor on the Mediterranean





The harbor's medieval fort, built on the site of the original lighthouse, which was one of the seven Ancient Wonders of the World.

On the other side of the entrance to the harbor is the "new' lighthouse.



The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, quickly snapped as we were driven by

A large and lovely mosque. The minaret of this building can be seen in the first photo above.



Tourist Sites in Alexandria



The Roman Amphitheatre in Alexandria dates to the 2nd Century AD. The reddish area toward the back are later Greek buildings constructed over the theatre. 



Some of our tour members are practicing speeches in the center of the theatre.

These are just a few of the statues that have been found in the waters of the harbor. They were either discarded by subsequent rulers or thrown in to block enemy ships. Excavation is continuing.

This is the entrance to the catacombs of Kom es-Shouqafa, which were tunneled into the bedrock, also in the 2nd Century AD by a single wealthy family, later expanded to hold about 300 tombs. There are three levels, reached by a winding staircase - the bottom level is under water. There is even an area known as a banqueting hall, where family and friends gathered to remember the dead.



We were not allowed to take photos in the catacombs, so I "borrowed" this from the Internet. It shows one of the large tombs, surrounded by columns, statues and inscriptions on the walls. Legend has it that the discovery of these underground tombs was made possible around 1900 by a donkey who fell into it through an opening above.



When we came above ground again, we found our bus had died. Our driver and security guard are puzzling the problem.



Someone located this mechanic, who got us up and running again in about 20 minutes.



This is the royal palace, which was used by the rulers of Egypt up to the end of the reign of King Farouk in 1952, when he was overthrown by revolution. He was the last of the rulers of the Mohammed Ali dynasty.



The grounds in front of the Palace are now a 115-acre park- the Montazah Gardens, on the shore of the Mediterranean.

Alexandria Buildings, Library and People

Typical apartment buildings in Alexandria (also Cairo).  If you look closely, you can see the laundry drying on many of the balconies.

Intersection with traffic and gas station.

A small apartment building on the outskirts, with typical laundry and satellite antennas.

This photo is from the Internet - it's the Bibliotheca Alexandrina - the Alexandria Library, complete in 2002, near the site of the ancient Alexandria library, which was famous throughout the known world from 300 BC to about 400 AD. The architecture is symbolic of the sun disk illuminating the world.

This is a photo I took, through the streaky coach window.

The courtyard of the Library, filled with artworks.

One of the reading/computer rooms.  The latest possible technology is available to the public. The US contributed
200 million dollars to the construction, and many other nations also constributed funds and technology.

We always felt welcomed in Egypt - these schoolboys followed our coach for four blocks, waving and smiling.  

These schoolgirls liked us too.

When the coach stopped at an intersection, this couple waved and gestured for us to take their picture, which I did, showing Egypt's mix of the modern and traditional.

Even these soldiers in riot gear were happy to see us.

Still a middle-eastern tradition - men like to sit at sidewalk cafes and drink coffee.



Another mix of modern and traditional - the ever-present cell phone.