Showing posts with label temple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temple. Show all posts

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Solstice Sunrise 2013

We chose to go to Karnak Temple for the winter solstice sunrise today rather than yesterday, and we are very glad we waited. Yesterday there were 1,500 people. Today there were perhaps 15! And the sunrise was surely equally spectacular.









The perfect akhet (hieroglyph meaning "horizon") and a bird I only discovered when I was reviewing my shots!


A shot I would normally have trashed, but it has a certain je ne sais quoi...


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Karnak and Memnon News

Lots going on these days in Luxor! The two most recent events are the completion of Hatshepsut's Netery-Menu chapel at Karnak in the Open Air Museum and the lifting of two colossal seated statues of Amenhotep III in his mortuary temple behind the Colossi of Memnon.

Netery-Menu of Hatshepsut at Karnak
Colossal statue of Amenhotep III at Memnon
You can check out the Al-Ahram article here. Never a dull moment here in Thebes!

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Tuesday Morning in the West

Hard as it may be to believe, until this Tuesday I had not been into the Medinet Habu temple precinct this season. Some of us had the opportunity to join one of Bill Petty's Museum Tours to visit the tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens, and got to hang out at MH until they picked us up. I only walked around the small Amun temple, inside and out.
View of the main temple from the small temple
This visit gave me another chance to test how the new camera performs in low light. I continue to be impressed!



Detail of kilt in previous photo
If you would like to see really professional photos of the interior rooms of the small Amun temple, you should check out the free downloadable file at http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/oip/oip136.html 

After we visited the exquisite Nefertari, always an emotional experience, especially since one has to make the most of the ten to fifteen minutes groups are allowed in the tomb (no photos permitted), we returned to MH to wait for our ride. So I will end with a couple more photos from that great temple complex.
Beautifully carved flagpole recess on the exterior of the main temple
Ptolemaic Pylon with giant winged disk