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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..."