I VISITED KARNAK TEMPLE IN LUXOR when it was without the crowds

I WAS ABLE TO VISIT KARNAK TEMPLE WHEN IT WAS EMPTY, 🇪🇬 apart from the staff – check my video of this visit at the end of this blog .  I’ve visited the magnificent site at Karnak perhaps a dozen times, but my most memorable visit wasn’t this one but my first, when I explored Egypt in mid-summer 1985.

One of the things I did then was to attend the evening Sound and Light Show in English. Even in those days, it was an old-fashioned presentation – which did exactly what it promised – the sonorous sound of the narrator, and some on-and-off lighting of the temples. Of course, afterwards the show had finished, it was dark – and I wandered through the Great Hypostyle Hall, with its forest of columns.

On that midsummer night, a sweet, dreamy, floral fragrance with hints of eastern spice wove its way through the darkness of the almost invisible columns and found me. As the French language show began in the twilight, I remained in my private forest, spellbound. Years later, I discovered the source of that magical scent: Henna.

Karnak stands as one of humanity’s most extraordinary achievements – a sacred stone city that took longer to build than the entire span of British history since Roman times.

More than just a temple, it’s a massive stone chronicle celebrating the lives of Pharaohs and their devotion to the Gods who people believed brought protection and  glory to ancient Egypt.

While most tourists only look at the Great Hypostyle Hall and perhaps glimpse the Sacred Lake, Karnak holds many more treasures worth exploring.

I like to wander away from the stunning main halls and into quieter areas. The White Chapel of Senusret I (1971-1926 BC), likely the site’s oldest structure thats now standing, lies just north of the Great Hypostyle Hall.  Both this and the neighbouring Red Chapel of Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BC) were once dismantled and used as building material elsewhere in Karnak. Excavations later uncovered these masterpieces, which now stand proudly in the Open-Air Museum, their walls adorned with intricate construction scenes and royal ceremonies.

I use the massive obelisks as orientation markers. They stand east of the Great Hypostyle Hall- one built by Hatshepsut, the other by Thutmose I (1506-1493 BC).

East of the obelisks is the heart of Karnak, the Inner Sanctum, built to house a golden statue of the God Amun; unsurprisingly, the statue wandered off aeons ago.

Near to my obelisk signposts is the Sacred Lake, constructed during Thutmose III’s reign (1479-1425 BC). Several times the size of an Olympic swimming pool, it once served priests for ritual cleansing. The Nile’s annual flood refreshed the water, but today the Aswan Dam has stopped this natural flood cycle, and the lake has become stagnant (though it may well have been impure 3,000 years ago with algae blooms.

One of Karnak’s most beautiful structures, I think, is the Temple of Khonsu, begun by Ramesses III (1186-1155 BC) and completed by his successors. It’s a walk south from the Sacred Lake, and if you are lucky, as I was, you might be alone – apart from the inevitable staff of Karnak.

Behind it lies the small but fascinating Opet Temple, dedicated to the hippopotamus goddess by Nectanebo I (380-362 BC) who built it and Ptolemy VIII (who ruled after 170 BC) who remodelled it.

Tony at Avenue of SphinxesSouth of everything at Karnak is a 2.5km Avenue of Sphinxes that connects Karnak to Luxor Temple. Unfortunately, many of these ancient sentinels have been lost to time, making the sun-baked walk less rewarding than one might hope.