On our way to the Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, we passed and quickly viewed the Colossi of Memnon, a couple of damaged giant statues more than 3000 years old, that were once part of a temple.
From there it’s a short trip to the impressive / unusual Hatshepsut Temple which is somewhat carved into the hill surrounding it; the sun/wind protected interior has a lot of color still on the walls and ceilings!
The third temple of the day, and it’s sunset by the time we get there! The Luxor Temple complex is huge with once again columns everywhere; there is also an obelisk that used to have a twin (which is now in Paris!)
The row of Sphinx statues in the last photo was once a lined-either-side walkway that ran the approx 2 miles between the Karnak and Luxor Temples. Recently the government has taken back the land and made it a walkway, but of course it’s missing most of the Sphinxes because they were cleared to allow people to live there.
After traveling through the locks on our boat, we arrived in Luxor where we get to see two more temples! First is Karnak Temple which apparently was built / rebuilt over a long period of time so offers a lot of variety (and a LOT of big columns!). There’s also a photo showing mud bricks against a temple wall, which would have been used to climb and access the wall during building or maintenance; and a couple photos showing Mina describing a number square carving that would have been used for teaching. Also note where the ORIGINAL colors are still present (in protected places where the sun hasn’t bleached it away) …
M&I / GBMINI 