Karnak and Luxor

We met our guide this morning and popped off to the Karnak temples. They are amazing – there are tributes to every Egyptian God somewhere within, and almost all the pharoahs have made their marks there somehow. It’s an amazing place.
Our guide here has been a little difficult – he speaks very fast in a strong accent and insists of giving us long lectures in monotone when I really just want a couple of interesting facts, tidbits about what life was like. Then I want to wander in awe, trying to imagine what it was like to live in ancient Egypt, looking for secrets in the carvings and paintings, listening for whispers from long dead gods and pharoahs. Karnak is a magical place. I asked the guide to give us less information – just pick out some key points, but it didn’t help much. If I asked a question, the guide said every single time, « I already told you that over there, » and then he’d sound irritated and give me another lecture. Finally I told him that it was rude to say that and that it was impossible to follow what he was saying when he said everything so quickly. He laughed. It showed in his tip.
Luxor Temple was beautiful too, although, like so many of the temples we’ve seen, it’s been used by other religions who feel the need to remove or deface images and text. What I want to do now is find a video about life in the Karnak Temples back in the day – over 80000 priests worked there ! I so wish I could travel through time and see what life was like. I am really looking forward to the museum in Cairo on Thursday !