Craig's Photos - Karnak and Luxor Temples and McDonalds

The Karnak tour began with a nice welcome center, with a bit of air conditioning (nice to have on a 115 degree day), various photos on the walls showing the condition of the temple during early stages of restoration in the late 1800s, and this large model. Since the temple is the biggest in the world, stretching over 3 kilometers, the model itself had to be huge. I believe the model here is oriented with the north (the main entrance) to the top. We liked our guide Mohammed. We finally got him to admit it was hot. He said the government would not admit the temperature to be 50 degrees C because that was considered dangerous and workers must be allowed to go home. So therefore the government would only allow a forecast and report of 49 degrees C.

We were entertained by the outfits of other tourists. We unfortunately didn't capture the best, but some were a bit provocative. We saw a few pot bellied men without shirts...they were not Americans. We really didn't see that many Americans in Luxor or elsewhere during our trip.

Here we are in the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. This goes to show you that it takes a great number of really thick columns to hold up a stone roof.

Mohammed checks out a shady spot with two obelisks in the background. The one on the right really was leaning a bit. We assume it's been that way for a few thousand years.

Jacob admires the huge columns. Note the plain cement sections where the missing pieces have not been found. Can you imagine the jigsaw puzzle challenge of trying to sort out which piece goes where for the entire temple?

Nancy and Jacob pose under a huge slab of stone.

Here's a Christmas card picture, standing under a statue of Ramesses II in Luxor Temple.

Towards the back of Luxor Temple there's a wall with these Christian paintings, done on plaster covering the original Egyptian carvings. Our guide said that in the early ADs that the Egyptian religions were fading and Christianity was coming into vogue, so the temple priests allowed a sort of sharing arrangement withthe Christians. The temple also features a mosque which was built much later.

This is the area where the nave and the altar were located in the Christian church.

Now we are in the "Holy of Holies" in the back of Luxor Temple. This area was built by Alexander the Great (or his brother?) and we were told that the carvings, to the god of fertility (rather embarassing images) indicated that Alexander was infertile.

Here Craig works on his Egyptian sun tan in the middle of Luxor Temple.

Before our van headed out of town to Hurghada (it was about 5 pm and we had had no lunch) we needed to grab some food for the road. When we suggested a quick sandwich, our guide and the driver immediately pounced on the idea of McDonalds. I guess that's what they think all Americans want. Jacob decided this was appropriate so off we went. Note the delivery motor scooters out front.

We were loving the air conditioning, which was cranked down almost to a chilly level. Inside we ran into other Americans.

Except for the McArabia combo meal, you really could have been in a McDs in America. The variety of offerings was a bit less, and the lettuce was pretty wilty, but otherwise it was the same as America.