Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Jacque Miller
Expedition Date: March 26, 2009
We rented a calesche (a horse drawn light, low wheeled carriage with removable folded hood) to travel through downtown Luxor to Karnak. Jacque looked beautiful in her new Egyptian scarf. The calesche driver offered me 30 camels for my daughter eventually upping his bid to 5 million camels. That was a tough deal to turn down.
The Just north of Luxor we visited a complex of temples, halls, chapels and sanctuaries from the Middle Kingdom until the Greek-Roman Period. The Karnak Temple is the largest temple in the world! It is so big that St. Peter’s, Milan and Notre Dame Cathedrals would fit within its walls. It was built by Ramesses III who reigned between 1186 to 1155 BC.
Jacque and I toured the huge Karnak complex, the Temple of Amon Ra, the giant 95 foot tall Obelisk of Hatshepsut (Photo#2) and the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes (Photo#3). We bought tickets for the sound and light show which lit up the temples but was meager compared to light/laser shows in the USA.
Later we stopped by an Egyptian restaurant and ordered the national dish called Koshary, a mix of rice, lentils, macaroni with spicy tomato sauce in a bowl (Photo#4). After dinner, walking the streets of Luxor we found a McDonalds where Jacque ordered an apple pie.
