Friday – Cruising north to Luxor - Pharaohs under the stars - - Sound and Light at Karnak
▲ ▲ ▲ A very relaxing night - another great breakfast and we set off again cruising North on our return to Luxor. After a hectic, but most exciting last few days we have enjoyed the past day or so just doing nothing more exhausting than cruising, eating, swimming and lying in the sun. A very busy time you must agree!
We arrive in Luxor late in the afternoon and we will moor here for 3 days until we fly to Cairo. Up on deck I get some great Kodak moments of the sunset over the Nile - - -
We enjoy an early dinner onboard and then head off to the Temple of Karnak for the Sound and Light show. It is a wonderful night – very balmy and the sky is pitch black with the stars glowing - - and there is a full moon - - - - the tourist heart in me is beating 1000 beats to the minute!
We all stand at the entrance to the temple – in the avenue of sphinxes (just like the ones at Luxor Temple). The crowd is full of nervous anticipation and then the start of the show is heralded by a fanfare of trumpets and the voices of the Pharaohs. It is hard to put into words what the feeling is at the moment – I am nearly in tears (again). We walk from place to place and the voices of the pharaohs tell us about their lives and how they added to the temple. The commentary is fabulous – and it is easy to believe that it is the ancient Pharaohs speaking to us. My imagination is in overdrive.
This is me standing in front of huge statues. 
You can tell how black the night is – and you can see how the lights on the statues give them an ethereal glow - - - there are female voices as well and they recite ancient poetry. Sometimes it is total blackness while the anticipation builds and then the lights come up on a certain section and you can hear everyone take a sharp intake of breath. After the main part of the tour we are led into some seating near the sacred lake. There we are told stories of Hatshepsut and her voyage to the Land of Punt. The lights shine on the parts of the Temple that relate to this story and we realise the size of this complex. After a very exciting evening we head back to the boat. It is hard to get to sleep because I keep thinking of the wonderful time at Karnak. I wish I could do it again and then realise that I really can when I get all the photos developed.
The shows are done in many different languages on different nights. Somehow I can’t imagine the Pharaohs’ speaking French or German - - but then again they didn’t speak English either.
Highlight of the day : Looking at the moon through the columns in the Hypostyle Hall.
12:20 | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Travel
No comments:
Post a Comment