What a day! We were up at 4:45 to get breakfast and our bags to the bus. Then we flew to Luxor, toured the Karnak Temple, got into our stateroom on the Viking Aton and then as the sun was setting we were back on the busses and off to tour the Temple of Luxor. What a treat it was to see this place at night. The lighting gave an added level of mystery to the exotic ancient temple. It was built in 1400 BCE making it 3500 years old. By the time we were on our tour I was confusing Luxor Temple with Karnak and visa versa. Half of the videos have it wrong, oops!
Statues of Ramses II
One of two obelisks that stood at the entrance
The lighting is special
So very large
Some were made for Ramses II
The other obelisk in in Paris
Some Ramses were recycled statues
Ramses II was notorious for chiseling out the old Pharaoh's name and putting his own on the statue
He ruled for almost 70 years so who was going to stop him?
The obelisk has a definite lean
The colonnade of columns is through this gate
It leads to another statue of Ramses II
Leip I and Leip II
Massive stone columns
The roof is not intact
Spooky cats
The inner sanctum
The flash does not help
I will smite, so stand back
The defeated enemies of Ramses II
A head without a body?
A big seated Ramses
Combining the lotus and papyrus flowers symbolic of joining the upper and lower Egypt
A side temple
No information was given so it must remain a mystery
Back out to the Avenue of the Sphinxes
Electric toy cars for the kiddies and back to the boat
