Articles tagged ‘ Luxor’

Articles Tagged ‘Luxor’

Egypt 10 – Hot-air balloon, Karnak and Luxor Temples

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Lots of balloons flying…

Not my balloon but one leaving as I waited

Early the next morning I was picked up from my hotel and taken to the launching area for my first hot-air balloon ride. There were quite a few balloons up in the air as you can see which was really an impressive sight. I was in a smaller 8 person balloon with 4 Americans, 2 English and 1 Canadian…maybe they organize us by language? Who knows… At any rate, we watched the crew setting up the balloon and I can assure you that more time is spent in set-up and take-down than in actual flying. It looked like a lot of work. I’ve included some scenes here of the set-up, the actual flight and the take-down. Flying in a hot-air balloon was not at all scary…very relaxing (though the burners for the hot-air felt like they were frying you) and we had a nice flight over the Temple of Hatshepshut and the Valley of the Kings from yesterday. And…an Egyptian landing (very smooth). Apparently our other landing options were: American (bumpy) and English (the basket hits the ground, tips over and we all fall out). I was grateful for the Egyptian.

My balloon in varying stages of inflation

This burner is HOT!!

View of some local houses once we were in flight

View of Hatshepsut’s temple from the air

Showing the stark contrast between the fertile Nile Valley and the desert

Shadow of our balloon

Pilot post-Egyptian landing

Crew taking down the balloon after we landed

It was hot as Hades in Luxor (113 degrees) and fortunately my hotel had a pool so I spent a few hours relaxing there before heading to the other main attractions in Luxor: Karnak and Luxor temples. Karnak is the largest pharaonic temple in Egypt after the Giza pyramids and covers a full half of a square kilometer. The temples within Karnak vary greatly as they were constructed over 1300 years and each pharaoh left his mark on it. The only common these is the worship of Amun, Mut and Khonsu who make up the Theban Triad of Gods. Karnak Temple is yet another entity who has suffered at the flooding of the Nile River and as such there has been some damage to the temple over time. Indeed its great monuments have suffered to some degree as well as some locals pilfered large stones to build sugar cane factories in years past. Some shots of Karnak are included here.

Scenes from Karnak Temple

To “cut” the block of rock for these monuments they’d bore holes in the slab around the perimeter of what they wanted, fill them with wood, wet the wood, the wood expanded and broke of the piece of rock they needed (for 3 sides) then they chiseled out the last side.

So perfect it looks like the carving was done yesterday.

There are 134 columns like this within Karnak temple

Avenue of the sphinxes in Karnak

Karnak Temple as you approach the complex

At this point I was on the edge of melting but we trudged on to Luxor Temple which is smaller and more compact than Karnak. The avenue of the sphinxes lines the approach to Luxor Temple and at one point stretched all the way to Karnak. The Egyptian government is excavating and demolishing anything in the path of the Avenue of the Sphinx as they try to uncover the originals beneath the modern city and this task is estimated to take until 2030 to reconnect the two temples. The project is exceedingly controversial as it has caused the displacement of many locals who were not fairly compensated for the loss of their homes. Nonetheless, the project moves on and will be a very impressive sight to see when they get it finished. Some pictures from Luxor Temple are of course included here…