Temples of Karnak

Listening to: The sound of horses hooves against cement

Karnak temple dedicated to the Theban gods and pharaohs covers 9 hectares of land, large enough to contain 10 cathedrals.

The temple of Amun is massive in its dimensions and is the largest temple with columns in the world. So large it can fit the Notre-Dame in its entirety and so vast it could cover half of Manhatten in New York or so I've read and I certainly believe it...

The entrance to this fantastic temple is met by an avenue of ram headed sphinxes, sacred to Amun which meets the largest pylon 113 metres wide and 15 metres thick (this gives you an idea of its enormity) and dates back to the Ptolemy dynasty.

The courtyard is dominated by a gi-normous column 21m high and then there's the Great Hypostyle Hall which contains 134 columns 23m high (enough space to contain Rome's St Peter's and London's St Paul's cathedral). This is my favourite spot, there is something very magickal about being amongst these columns, the way the light dances around and on them creating shadows and a mood so atmospheric full of mystery and wonder. The awesomeness of this amazing temple is almost too awe defying that words can never explain the magick and wonder of this place. It truly has to be seen to be believed. No photograph or video does it real justice.

Amelia Edwards, 19th century writer and artist who journeyed the Nile had this to say:

It's a place that has been written about and often painted, but of which no writing and no art can convey more than a dwarfed and pallid impression. The scale is too vast, the effect too tremendous, the sense of one's own dumbness and littleness, an incapacity, too complete and crushing...

This is purely a snippet of the wonder of Karnak. I could be here all night raving about its awesomeness and still never be able to define the massiveness and how glorious this temple truly is or even how it makes me feel. If any of you wonderful readers out there visit Egypt, and if you do nothing else - you must visit Karnak and then you too will be blown away and be as awestruck and lost for words as I am...

Midnight rambler saying ma' salaama....