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Egypt

Karnak


Karnak was the glorious open air "center of everything" that was constantly being built on, added to, and expanded beyond for more than a thousand years of Egypt's history. I won't go in to the historical facts and figures, except to say that it is a fantastic look at elements of nearly all of the artistic and architectural and religious fashions that swept Pharaonic Egypt. Whew.
Now with a gigantic (empty) parking lot in front of the pylons from which processions would head out to cross the Nile and reach the Valley of the kings, long corridors of Sphinxes greet visitors entering the complex.
Everything in the temple environs is on a grandiose scale, as rulers each tried to outdo the earlier kings. They would erect columns and statues to themselves, scrawl their names over older carvings, and do just about whatever they thought it would take to ensure eternal immortality. 


And as tourists, I guess we ate it up. We were like kids in a candy store, running all around the place, taking pictures and just checking out the surprises that waited behind every corner.

Carvings and cartouches were everywhere!
 


Color was a relative rarity, so the natural greens really stood out.

The shadows and play of light were incredible: they made it tough to take great photos, but they made the sights all the more dramatic to us as we wandered.
There were lots of people around, so it could be difficult to find a quiet corner. We did manage from time to time, but we were often followed by giggling Egyptian schoolkids and dogged vendors!
   
All in all, though, the beauty was overwhelming.

Breck was constantly taking on a Pharaonic pose!

The kids certainly knew enough about Egyptian history to have fun!
And their games of hide and seek were played in some of the best possible hiding places in the entire world!
We looked, and oohed, and ahhed, and learned, and felt really insignificant by the end of the day!

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