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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.

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.
	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.

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.
Carvings and cartouches were everywhere!	Color was a relative rarity, so the natural greens really stood out.

All in all, though, the beauty was overwhelming.

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!