I decided to go to the Karnak temples yet once again, but when it was much cooler out. Fortunately it opens at 6am, but 6am being a bit early I made it there more like 7. It was still a nice temperature for all of the walking around the complex requires and the sun wasn’t up past the clouds for most of my trip. The other good thing about getting to the temple so early is that there aren’t nearly as many other tourist there, and especially not many tour groups at this time in the morning. Apparently they all like to sleep in. Last time I went the parking lot was filled with tour buses, but this time around there wasn’t a single one in sight.
I first walked around the Amon temple and took a multitude of photos. Then I went looking for the Montu temple which was off to the left and behind a gate which is usually locked apparently. As I was going up the trail to the left side of the complex I kept passing people that were definitely magicians, or at least Wiccans/Neo-Druids. I asked a couple of them if they knew where the Montu temple was. They said they didn’t but they pointed me over to the Sekhmet temple. Well one of them said it was the Bast temple, but she was obviously the more clueless member of the group!
When I got to the Sekhmet temple it was obvious that the group had just finished up a ritual in the temple. Actually it was the Ptah temple, but the statue of Ptah and the Pharaoh was unfortunately quite damaged. To the right of it in another room was the statue of Sekhmet, so I guess properly it would be the shrine of Sekhmet, but the temple of Ptah. The statue of Sekhmet was all charged up, and she was present. It didn’t feel like they did anything with the Ptah statue next door though. There was someone from the ritual still doing a healing (I’m guessing) on another person. The main giveaway that they were a bunch of Pagans who had just done a ritual was the far too obvious clothing that the HP was wearing, a velvet cloak and all. There was also a whispered conversation wondering if the guards figured out what they were up to. Well unless the guards are complete idiots, I’m pretty sure they would have.
The statue of Sekhmet was quite beautiful, and extremely well carved. It was really nice to go into a temple that still had the original statue there. Most temples have had their statues long taken out and placed in various museums, usually the one in Cairo. So it’s not very often you get both a temple and a Deity statue all in one place. There are of course the Horus statues guarding the outside of Edfu, but not a statue in the main sacred hall. Apparently the statue of Sekhmet used to scare the locals so much that they claimed a figure with a lion’s head used to go around the village at night eating children and the like. They used to whack the statue with clubs. It’s in pretty good condition considering this, only with a large break at the back part. It looks to be made of black granite though, so that helps a lot.
I then figured out which gate must go to the Montu temple and asked the guard about it. He kept assuring me it was closed. I kept asking and he said that it would require baksheesh for both him and the person on the other side of the gate which would show me around. So they let me through the gate, and I got to see the little area where the guards hung out in the shade, where they restored statues and so on. There was one particularly nice statue that they were in the midst of restoring, and I of course took a photo. The only problem is that I’m not entirely sure which Deity or Pharaoh it is. The beard is long enough to be a Deity (the pharaohs had the shorter ones), but looks to be more human then Deity. I couldn’t tell what the guard’s mumbled words were.
We walked along a narrow dirt path around the temple which is pretty much all in ruins, to the gorgeous main gateway of the old temple, which is fortunately still intact. There really isn’t much left of the Montu temple but it was still nice to visit and walk around the area.
After this I explored the temples of Seti II and Tutmosis III. These temples were particularly fun to walk around as there were many stone stairs, rooms and alcoves one could walk into. This brought me out to where the sacred lake and the giant granite scarab were. This sacred lake is quite nice and fortunately clear of any garbage. I was tempted to collect some in my water bottle, but decided I didn’t want to go through the bother of paying a guard to get some for me. I have to admit that the sacred lake closely resembled a giant swimming pool which I wish was open to the public on the hot days. The scarab is about 2 feet long and sitting on top of a short granite pillar. Now how the ancient Egyptians managed to carve a stone as hard as granite without dremels, diamond bits, or any of the modern tools is beyond me! There were also hieroglyphics carved into the stand.
Next it was a walk over to the temple of Mut, who is Amon’s wife. This particular temple doesn’t seem to be visited much, even though there is some extremely nice wall art with some of the colour still there. There is also a statue in the main sacred hall, but I’m not sure what of since it is pretty damaged. I’m guessing it was a Mut statue as there is one talon that is still in good condition you can see. Then it was on through the open air museum, which is pretty much thousands of blocks from various temples of the area which haven’t been put together or added on yet. It looks like they could build a few temples with all of those spare blocks they have. Apparently they will number such blocks so they know how to put them back together, or together in the first place.
I was quite fortunate when I got to the temple of Khonsu. The main guard that was guarding the temple was on break, as were the three guards who were working inside of the temple. So I got to explore the temple for over half an hour without being bothered for baksheesh or being told it was closed. I actually wasn’t quite sure if the temple was open or not.... there wasn’t anything saying it was closed, and I was able to walk right into the side door... however the ground was in disrepair and there was scaffolding pieces strewn about everywhere. Egypt seems to be extra worried that tourists will harm themselves or something, so I’m wondering if they would have even let me in if they weren’t all on break.
I have to say though, the temple of Khonsu (which I didn’t make it to on my first visit) was the best part of the Karnak temples! The engravings on the walls were nice and deep and very well done. They were also in good condition and didn’t show all that much wear in many places. There were also areas in which the original paint was still very much intact. This temple even had a roof, unlike the main Amon one. I went into most of the rooms in the temple, the ones that weren’t closed off by a locked door. There were also a couple of statues in the main hypostyle hall, but I’m not sure which Deity they were of, since they didn’t look like they had a hawk head on them. If I were to guess, perhaps one of the baboon headed statues of Dhehuty, but that is only a guess.
The Khonsu temple is obviously undergoing major restoration though as one can tell by the photos (which will eventually be posted. Fortunately the driver of the blue truck out front was nice enough to move it so that it wouldn’t obscure my photos of the front of the temple. On my way back walking around the temple (I had come out the front door), I saw three guards enter into the temple, and saw someone sitting at a table and desk just outside the temple watching it. None of them were there on my way in. I’ll have to thank Khonsu for this.
Last up I went over to the small temple of Ramses III and enjoyed the many many huge and very tall pillars on my way back out of the building. After being asked if I had a wife by the taxi driver, I went over to my new favourite lunch place. They serve fu’ul and tamiya (sp?), as well as pretty damn good falafel. They also tend to stuff the pita like bread far more then the other places around town. Lunch cost about $1 and I think I ate too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment