Karnak has always seemed the pinnacle of tourist experience in Egypt to me; more even than touring the Pyramids. There is a fine line, it turns out, between a thoroughly pedestrian experience in Egypt and an exquisite observation of Previous Man. I thank my sister Jennifer for this distinction, although the latter is exceedingly difficult to come by in this caustic nation of gimme here and gimme now. The present world is in such extreme need of attention and receipt, that the ancient world can get lost before you like a mirage at your very feet. Jennifer once pointed out to me what must by now seem a very ordinary observation to her now; the persistence of vision in early Egyptian statuary wherein the figures really do feel to be gazing into eternity. The pupils of the eyes are not sunken or carved in, they are convex and stare without blinking into the world beyond what we see. Although made by hand, they do so feel to be made by those who have seen the other side. If you are careful, if you are mindful, and if you can focus properly, you can mitigate the day before you and observe Egypt through these stone eyes and *feel* the expanse and breadth of their thousands of years. But it sure ain’t easy.
We had plans to visit the Luxor Museum as well, but the Karnak complex is large and the effort to simply walk was beyond my Mum today and we relented to a chair outside at a cafe with a cola, and then relented again when we realized that it was probably still too much for her and that we likely didn’t have the entry fee anyway. So it goes. It is a beautiful museum, really lovely and small. But I have seen it several times, Carrie’s been there and so has Mum anyway. We would be taking children who were a little less enthusiastic than us anyway.
So here are today’s images:
