Monday, August 18, 2008

Karnak, Krazy, Kool

The next day we returned to Luxor and went to the Temple of Karnak. We had a personal security guard who had a gun strapped to his waist following us around. A few people in our group didn't realize we had a security guard and thought there was someone following them.. haha.. She kept telling her kids to watch their cameras and stuff, which was funny. But then we realized that he was with us and so it was all good. Plus we got a machine gun on our boat in Luxor which was fun! Yay for having men with guns everywhere!

This is the temple of Karnak which was pretty fantastic! Lots of really cool stuff to see!

This is Ramses' kartousch (that's the name of the thing they put king's names in)


The line of Sphinxes that connected the Luxor temple to the Karnak Temple


This is the scarab beetle. Supposedly if you walk around it seven times, you'll get married. The people I was with went to the bathroom and I was waiting and bored because they were taking a while so I figured I had nothing better to do than walk around the beetle in the blazing heat. I ended up walking around it like 35 times. haha. Guess that's why I got a ton of marriage proposals the next day. I even had one guy tell me that if I came into his shop and took off my shirt he'd give me a free gift. hahaha. wow. no thanks. good times.

I figured out the secret of how they built all these temples!! Finally-mystery solved!

3 comments:

Chrys said...

I love the statue that looks like it has a tree sprouting out of its head! And the shirt story is so funny - different cultures are so interesting...in a slightly creepy way sometimes I guess!

Yvonne said...

I've heard that story about the scarab beetle before - maybe from my cousin Tamara. Walking around it 35 times and then a weird offer from some foreign guy. The words "be careful what you wish for" are circling around in my head:D
Sitting in a pool, on top of a boat, floating down the Nile - sounds great to me!
I always wonder how the Egyptians did all their sculptures - such fine work with "raw tools" as we call them today. What an amazing people they were.

Anonymous said...

Love all those ancient structures which have lasted sooooo long, with all their pillars and hieroglyphics and stuff. So amazing!