Temple of Karnak – December 2010

In the middle of Karnak lies the Temple of Amun dedicated to the king of the gods. Karnak consists of many temples, chapels and other buildings. It was built over 1500 years and almost every pharaoh added a modification. The site is an open-air temple.  Our guide told us it was the largest ancient religious site in the world. Not sure if that is true, our guide said a lot of things. (my last blog about the trip will be dedicated to the tour guides) 

The temple has avenues of goddesses and ram-headed sphinxes. While we were there we could see that the temple was still being excavated and renovated. 

The most impressive and unique aspect of the ancient site is the massive columns.  There 134 massive columns.  Every column was covered in art carved thousands of years ago. The temple is an engineering and design masterpiece.  It would be challenging to build the complex with modern technology so it is a very impressive feat that it was built with such perfection and detail.

The best sight of the day that made me smile was seeing the feral dog sleeping on the ram-headed sphinx statue.  There are several feral dogs that live at the temple.


This doggy just woke up



Since they are continuously excavating and restoring the Karnak complex it will be interesting to see how much it changes over my lifetime. I want to go back to Egypt someday, although I fear it will not be for another 30 years.

Restoration work being done at the Temple of Karnak

The guy in the middle is from our tour group.
He jumped into our picture.
I thought it was funny - I may have been the only one.